Reactions

 When you spend enough time in front of crowds, whether preaching or giving a talk, you learn to read expressions better than most. You know whether a message is having an impact or they’re just waiting for noon to roll around and find the nearest exit so they can get a primo spot at the local buffet. It’s not coincidental that messages that stroke men’s egos, telling them how beloved and highly favored they are, land better than ones that carry a word of warning or rebuke, but the messages of warning and rebuke are just as necessary as those of encouragement if not more so.

Correction is biblical; so is rebuke. James isn’t out of pocket when he admonishes the brethren not to grumble against one another, but it’s likely just as many took it the wrong way then as they do today. I’m sure ‘Who does he think he is?’ or ‘Who is he to judge’ or perhaps even, ‘I agree with the sentiment, but surely this was meant for someone else’ crossed the minds of many who read his letter, because whenever we come across something corrective, whether in the Word or a sermon, we rarely acknowledge that it may just be talking about us, or to us.

James then proceeds with a layered and vivid illustration, reminding those who would read his words of those who came before them, namely the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord and their example of suffering and patience. It’s easy to look to past generations and see those who served the Lord as beyond human, giants in their own right, whose faithfulness we could never hope to replicate, dismissing the fact that they were just as human as you and I in every way. There was nothing inherently special about them, whether being physically imposing or psychologically superior; they just understood the cost, and their obedience was paramount, secondary to nothing in their life. The blueprint for an exceptional spiritual life is not difficult to decipher. It’s not a mysterious thing that must be teased out after countless years of introspection. Every man of God who stood out throughout the pages of scripture was a man of prayer, faithfulness, and obedience. There you go. I just saved you years of trying to assemble a puzzle that was never a puzzle but rather something self-evident and clearly proven in the Bible.

While some had it harder than others, none had it easy. The messages they were tasked with delivering were not conciliatory or congratulatory but rather warnings and rebukes for a people who had strayed from the will of God, who had gone their own way and served their own interests without regard for the insults they leveled at God, and the rebellion they exhibited in perpetuity.

If you want to know whether you’ll be loved, adored, praised, elevated, and have an easy life if you are called to be a messenger to a rebellious nation, all you have to do is look at what happened to the prophets of old, and what they had to endure for following through and delivering the words they were tasked with delivering.

Whether it was rejection of the messages they delivered or physical violence upon their person as a way of lashing out against the message, there isn’t a prophet in the Old Testament who did not endure some sort of hardship.

It’s not as though Jeremiah ever came off as overly dramatic, but even if he had, you’ve got to be going through something pretty grim to wish you were never born.

Juxtapose the lives of Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses, Ezekiel, and even lesser-known prophets such as Hosea with those claiming to be prophets today. Compare and contrast their lives, what they had to endure, and the obedience they had to live out in order to be entrusted with a message from God and tell me if they harmonize or rhyme in any way.

When one of these men came on the scene declaring they were prophets of the Lord, it wasn’t braggadocio or a way to assert some sort of spiritual authority over others; it was a statement of fact, something they did not relish declaring but had to because the Lord had deemed them as such. 

James admonishes us to look at their example of suffering and patience, not their rock star lifestyle or how many people they convinced to sow into their ministry so they might continue proclaiming their sappy, indulgent, generalized, and unbiblical words of knowledge.

No, I didn’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but too many believers are taken in by the claims of people who have nothing of God’s authority without taking the time to vet their claims and determine if the words match the actions.

You can’t keep telling people that the Lord showed you California was going to drop off into the ocean while you’re buying multi-million dollar beachfront properties. It just doesn’t add up. Either you’re lying, you don’t believe what the Lord showed you, or you are spurning God's message personally while declaring it generally.

No, this isn’t grumbling against the brethren; this is pointing out inconsistencies that should be as alarm bells to anyone with an iota of wisdom.

We no longer count those who endure blessed; we count them suckers and insist that they don’t have enough faith to believe for a mansion and a Bentley. Yet, the Word tells us we should count those who endure blessed because they are.

We must learn to discern the difference between truth and error, embrace the one, and reject the other. Even if the error is sugar-coated and seems a tasty morsel, even if the lie is flattering and puts us in the best possible light, even though we know we don’t deserve to be there, it’s still a lie and will lead to ruination. No good can come from deception. No good can come of obfuscating the Word of God or insisting that it says something it clearly doesn’t.

In case you haven’t noticed, half-truths are big business, and they attract many adherents. They prosper and boast but only for a season, only for a time, and that time is coming to a swift end.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.