The Tongue

 There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to the tongue. There are layers we must peel back in order to understand how dangerous a thing the tongue could be, how readily it could be used to tear down as to build up, and how we, as servants of God, are responsible for living the things we demand of others unless we risk becoming the hypocrites the Bible condemns and looks down upon.

It’s easy to get ahead of ourselves and say things we ought not to say. It’s easy to demand that others live up to our standards while we ourselves fail to. We see it in the contemporary church often enough, and each time, it leaves a bad taste in its wake. That guy on stage insisting on not doing something that he, himself, was caught doing only weeks later does not lend credibility to anything else he might have said, does it? The devil knows this, so not only does he facilitate the temptation, hoping you fall into it, but he will be the first to broadcast your failure, shortcomings, or sin to the world until everyone knows.

It’s largely the reason those who teach receive a stricter judgment because their failures and sins affect more than just their lives and their spiritual walk. It’s a horrid practice, but men raise other men on pedestals they don’t belong on, looking to them as more than mere servants, and the nefarious among us love to have it so. They fuel the mindset by calling themselves the apple of God’s eye or the mouthpiece of the almighty Himself because they understand the title alone will lend weight to their assertions. Then, whenever they fall short, they use the title they gave themselves to excuse their behavior by insisting they are somehow above reproach or that sin does not affect them the same way it affects everyone else.

There are no carve-outs or exemptions when it comes to resisting evil and keeping oneself pure and undefiled. It’s not as though once you achieve a particular title or get a specific diploma, you can throw out all that stuff about self-control and righteousness. Anyone who says they can sin because they’re a bishop, or a pastor, or a self-described prophet is only attempting to justify their sin rather than repent of it.

The church as a whole would save itself untold amounts of heartache, pain, and hurt if we’d just stop idolizing men. They are men. Even the most gifted and used of God among us are just men, bondservants of Christ like any other. Yes, there is a difference between idolizing someone and honoring them. To honor someone is to acknowledge their labors in Christ; to idolize someone is to set them in a position in your heart wherein they are infallible, and every word they speak is from the throne room of God.

Big names in ministry have made grave errors in their teaching. One that comes to mind is an individual who said that even if you take the mark of the beast, you’re still saved, sanctified, and sealed, and that particular assertion goes against Scripture itself.

Yes, I may be repetitive, but it’s worth repeating: The Word of God is the final authority, plumb line, and arbiter. It doesn’t matter who is saying it; if what they’re saying goes against the Word, they are in the wrong and need to be called out on it. To say nothing is to allow for unbiblical teaching to take root, grow, and metastasize to the point that it is taken as general doctrine, and you have a whole different kind of beast you have to deal with.

Some men just like the sound of their own voice. Those are the ones who are easy to deal with. Others have a messiah complex wherein they’ve convinced themselves they’re more important than they really are. Those are the difficult ones to confront because they will not allow for the possibility that they might be wrong, even when they contradict the Word.

You have to deal with one differently than you would the other, so the first thing you must do is determine whether the individual is ignorant of the text or is purposefully twisting it until it says what they want it to say.

There’s a difference between a brother in error and a wolf who wants to install himself as a defacto messiah. One will take correction, repent, and be willing to sit down with you and let the Bible clarify matters; the other will attack you and keep attacking you because he deems you a threat to his empire of dust.

We’ve all run across those malicious, toxic individuals who hold to a position even though their position is proven unbiblical, and their continued insistence on the matter is bringing harm to the household of faith. It’s not new. This type of division has been around since shortly after the primary church with the rise of the Gnostics and their focus on the mystical and esoteric rather than Jesus.

Just because I don’t want to make this a long, drawn-out treatise on how to spot someone with a messianic complex, the best and most reliable rule of thumb is that if they claim exclusivity regarding anything spiritual, if they claim to be the only key to unlock deeper truths or the singular vehicle through which profundity can be achieved, run.

There is only one truth, there is only one door, there is only one way, there is only one savior, there is only one Messiah, and it is Jesus. Jesus has many servants, and His servants’ singular duty is to point the way to Him. Not to themselves or their understanding of a certain text or timeline, but to Him.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.