Why did Christ decline to give “Signs on Demand”?

After Jesus cast out a demon from a mute person and the onlookers marveled, some demanded a greater sign:

Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.

Luke 11:16

Matthew’s parallel account reveals that these “others” were the Pharisees and teachers of the law (Matthew 12:38). Apparently exorcising an evil spirit wasn’t good enough for them; they wanted a miraculous sign of cosmological scope, like the rearranging of the stars. They didn’t want the Sovereign LORD and truth; they wanted a subservient genie who would grant their whims on demand.

The Messiah responded:

“This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.”

Luke 11:29-30

In Matthew’s account Christ adds:

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Matthew 12:40

The Lord always refused to give miracles on demand because signs were not the means by which he appealed to unbelievers. Healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, exorcizing demons and raising the dead were not really signs, but rather the results of Jesus’ God-anointed service to people (Luke 4:18-19 & Acts 10:38).

The only sign that will be given in this age is the core message of the gospel—that the Messiah died for our sins and was raised to life for our justification so that those who believe will not perish but have eternal life (Romans 4:25 & John 3:16).

Recall Jesus’ punch line in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus wherein Abraham—a character in the story—is speaking:

‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’

Luke 16:31

“Moses and the Prophets” was a reference to the Old Testament Scriptures, which were the only Divine revelation available in textual form at the time. In other words, hardhearted carnal people who refuse to heed God’s Word—God’s revelation—will not be convinced by some incredible miracle. The Old Testament constantly testifies to this; here are some glaring examples:

The Israelites escaped bondage to Egypt via the LORD’s spectacular deliverance at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21-22, 26-28).
They wandered in the desert wilderness led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22).
They were miraculously fed by manna and quail (Exodus 16:11-15).
They received life-giving water from a rock (Exodus 17:3-6).

Despite these great signs they were crippled by unbelief and continued in their transgressions.

Christ’s punchline in the parable—‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’—speaks potently to the sufficiency of God’s revelation to overthrow unbelief. Keep in mind that God’s revelation in Scripture does not exist in a vacuum. It stands on the foundation of…

God’s revelation in creation (Psalm 19:1-4 & Romans 1:18-20);
God’s revelation through human conscience (Romans 2:14-15) and the conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-11).

This divine revelation to humankind is sufficient to spur people to repentance & faith, which explains why the Bible says people “are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-22). Any kind of miraculous evidence—like an amazing healing, great deliverance or awesome provision—is just icing on the cake.

But if a person is so hardhearted to reject God’s revelation in the above areas no incredible miracle is going to inspire repentance & faith, like the opening of the Red Sea or a pillar of fire. This is why Christ declined to give signs on demand. Not to mention, he’s the Sovereign LORD, not some subservient genie or magical cartoon character.

Faith — What Is It? Why Is It Important? How Does It Grow?

The Six Basic Doctrines of Christianity

Spiritual Growth — The Four Stages

Spiritual Growth is Like Climbing a Mountain

What’s the Bible Say About MARY and MARY VENERATION?

Humble Mary was “highly favored” of the LORD (Luke 1:28) and her relative Elizabeth called her “the mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43). Moreover Mary’s inspired song says that future generations would call her blessed (Luke 1:48).

This shows that believers should have a high respect for Mary, which is what ‘venerate’ means. But the veneration of Mary by some Catholics borders on excessive, which is why they’re sometimes accused of Mary worship by Protestants, et al.

Here’s where the issue becomes complicated: Venerate and worship mean the same thing—to adore, respect, reverence, honor or celebrate. The main difference is that worship usually applies to a deity, but not always. For instance, if I say “I worship my wife,” I simply mean that I adore and honor her. If you hear it said “Our culture worships youth” it refers to adoration or devotion similar to religious homage.

Both the Hebrew and Greek words for ‘worship’ literally mean to prostrate oneself—bow down—to illustrate adoration or reverence. For verification, you can look up the Hebrew shachah (shaw-KHAW) here and the Greek proskuneó (pros-koo-NEH-oh) here.

All of this begs the question: Are Catholics & others who venerate Mary simply showing their great respect for her or are they worshiping her as a deity? If it’s the former, there’s no problem since Luke 1:48 says future generations will call Mary blessed. However, if their veneration smacks of worshiping a deity or idol worship, it’s obviously not good since it breaks the first two of the Ten Commandments: 1. “You shall have no other gods before me” and 2. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:3-5).

It all comes down to what’s going on in the person’s heart. In other words, only God and the individual venerating Mary know if the veneration is simply giving honor or if it’s worship in the sense of worshiping a deity or idol. Obviously any behavior that hints of idolatry or the idea that Mary is anything other than a blessed—but otherwise normal—human being should be forsaken.

Is Mary the “Mother of God”?

The answer is no. As Elizabeth pointed out in Luke 1:43, Mary is indeed the mother of the physical Lord Jesus Christ, but she’s not the mother of God, the Great I Am. This passage helps explain:

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

While an infant child was born into this world through Mary by the Holy Spirit, the Son of God was given to us because the Son already existed since forever. This passage sheds light (keeping in mind that “the Word” refers to Christ):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1-14

As you can see, the Mighty Christ is God and the earth & universe and all living things were made through him. So Mary did not give birth to the Word because the Word already existed from eternity and created all physical things in the universe; she was simply the blessed human vessel through whom the Word could manifest to the world as a physical human.

Jesus’ Attitude Toward Mary

What was Christ’s outlook toward Mary? Notice this exchange with a woman after Jesus exorcized a demon from a mute individual:

²⁷As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”

²⁸He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

Luke 11:27-28

The Messiah didn’t deny the blessedness of Mary, but he clearly didn’t support the elevation of Mary as an object (idol) of veneration/worship. Mary’s esteemed position as the mother of Christ’s physical being didn’t grant her any greater honor than the blessedness of those who simply receive God’s Word and put it into practice.

This is augmented by a similar account that occurred earlier:

¹⁹Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. ²⁰Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”

²¹He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

Luke 8:19-21

Yeshua loved & respected his blessed physical mother but, again, he put those who seek divine truth and live by it on the same level as Mary (as well as his physical brothers).

Let that sink in.

Closing Word

Mary should certainly be honored as the woman privileged with the job of birthing & nursing the child Jesus, not to mention parenting him through puberty and adolescence. She should be venerated—greatly respected—for this. But, as Christ Himself pointed out above, any person who seeks God’s Word and strives to put it into practice should be equally honored as Mary (which includes you & me, if that’s what we’re honestly doing).

The biblical references to Mary in the Gospels & Acts reveal a normal woman, albeit one blessed with an extraordinary God-appointed role:

After Jesus’ birth, Mary & Joseph had common sexual relations, which birthed several children (Matthew 13:54-56 & Mark 6:3).
Jesus softly reproved Mary when he was 12 years-old for failing to grasp his exceptional concern for the things of God (Luke 2:43-50).
Eighteen years later Jesus performed Mary’s requested miracle at Cana, but also gently rebuked her (John 2:1-11).
When the Messiah was crucified he committed Mary to John’s care (John 19:26-27) and, after he ascended, Mary & her sons were with the believers in Jerusalem awaiting the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14).

As you can see, there’s zero scriptural support for Catholic doctrines concocted hundreds of years later that added unwarranted dimensions to the appreciation of Mary:

The Immaculate Conception, which suggests that Mary was sinless, born without original sin. This false belief didn’t become official Catholic dogma until 1854. (It is often confused with the biblical doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, which is the Incarnation).
Perpetual Virginity, which maintains that Mary was always a virgin—before, during and after the birth of Christ. The earliest this false doctrine can be traced is the 4^th century.
The Assumption of Mary (aka Assumption) suggests that Mary was bodily taken up to Heaven at the end of her earthly life. This didn’t become Catholic dogma until 1950.
Mediatrix, the idea that Mary functions as in an intercessory role in Heaven, i.e. a mediator in the salvific redemption via Christ and that the Lord bestows graces through her. The first mention of Mary as “the mediatrix of the whole world” can be traced to a 4^th century prayer by Ephrem the Syrian. The Marian title of “Mediatrix” has been used by several Catholic leaders since the 5^th century, reaching its height in the literatures of Louis de Montfort and Alphonsus Liguori in the 18^th century.

These beliefs are post-biblical and therefore extra-biblical, not to mention utterly fantastical, and, as such, must be rejected.

Roman Catholicism – Is it the “Original Church”? (No)

Does Matthew 16:18-19 Support the Idea of a Pope?

Who Wrote the New Testament Books? Who Authorized them as Scripture Canon?

Why Didn’t Catholics Want People Having Access to Scripture?

Legalism — Understanding its Many Forms

Hermeneutics — Proper Bible Interpretation

Nosiness and Manipulation (NOT Spiritual)

Unspiritual people have a tendency to pry into other people’s business. In other words, they have an unhealthy interest in the private affairs of others. This is nosiness and can be observed when Christ prophesied how Peter would eventually die, which prompted Peter to nosily inquire about how John would die. Jesus responded, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (John 21:18-23). This can be translated as: “Don’t concern yourself with John; your business is to focus on what I’ve called YOU to do.” It was a soft correction, but a correction nevertheless.

Needless to say, if you sense someone is snooping into your personal business put an immediate stop to it, even if it’s a pastor or pastor’s wife, but please don’t overreact. This will erect a protective boundary in your relationships, which is important because people who are nosy also tend to be gossips, even unfortunately some pastors and their spouses. In short, if you don’t want private matters spread to the community, don’t give-in to inquisitive minds.

There’s a freeing revelation here: Don’t concern yourself with other people’s business; it’s not your job. If you sense something is wrong with a certain person or group, pray for them; if they ask for counsel, give it. If you can genuinely help, do it. But don’t nose into other people’s lives, unless a crime is being committed. And, even then, you have to use wisdom to tackle the situation effectively. How God works in other believer’s lives is none of our concern. Our concern is to follow the Lord and fulfill the responsibilities of our unique callings.

Paul expressed it perfectly when he asked, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?” (Romans 14:4). He was referring to judging other believers on any type of disputable matter, like what food to eat and what holiday to celebrate. By stressing “someone else’s servant,” Paul meant God’s servant, that is, other believers. Simply put, other believers are God’s servant, not your servant or my servant. Even in cases where a believer functions within a pastor’s “flock,” the pastor is merely the under-shepherd, not the Chief Shepherd; Christ is the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:1-4). This is why the text instructs pastors to not lord it over believers, but rather be humble, godly examples (if they can’t do that then they have no business being pastors).

This is a very liberating! Being a nosy religionist is an exhausting and unhappy life — constantly nosing into other people’s affairs, negatively judging them, trying to manipulate, stalking “heretics” (aka anyone who openly disagrees with what their sect insists is the truth, even if it’s not actually scriptural), keeping up appearances, putting on airs, etc.

A good example of manipulating others is when an arrogant sectarian tries to manipulate you into coming to their assembly and joining their sect. I’m not talking about a friendly invitation here or there, which are welcome; I’m talking about conceited coercing that borders on harassment, even if it’s done with a fake smile. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been walking with the Lord for decades and have ministered to thousands of people across the landscape. These nosy controlling types won’t accept you unless you’re doing what they think you should be doing and going where they’re going. They’re pompous, condescending, discrediting, disrespectful and annoying. They unsurprisingly suck the life out of you, the very opposite of what the LORD – the Fountain of Life – does (Psalm 36:9 & Luke 24:32).

What a burden to live like this! No wonder the Pharisees were so joyless and hostile.

By contrast, Jesus’ yoke is easy and his burden light (Matthew 11:29-30). We’re free of legalistic nosiness and all that entails, e.g. manipulation. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

This article was edited from…

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Related Topics:

Legalism — Understanding its Many Forms

Condemnation & Authoritarianism

Insights on Moderation

Spirituality — How to be Spirit-Controlled Rather than Flesh-Ruled

Sectarianism — What is It? What’s Wrong with It?

Holidays—Which Ones Should Christians Observe or Not Observe?

Nonkosher Foods — Are Believers Free to Eat Them?

Law (Torah) — New Testament Believers are NOT Under the Law

Law of Christ—What is It?

Ministerial Abuse — The Diotrephes Spirit vs. the Davidic Spirit

Ministerial Pitfalls and Abuses

Insights on Moderation

To walk in moderation concerning anything means to have a spirit of self-control that avoids excess or extremes.

The problem with excess is that the person loses sight of self-control and becomes obsessed with the thing in question, which wastes his/her time & energy that could be spent on more productive pursuits. I’m not talking about things that apply to one’s occupation since your work pays the bills, but even that can become a problem if you become a workaholic. I’m talking about things like music, movies, computer games, Facebook, message boards, food, certain beverages, golf, boating/fishing, TV, sports-watching, lawn maintenance, etc.

Things like this can become a “weight” that hinders your life & productivity, as noted in Hebrews 12:1. How do you prevent this from happening?

It all comes down to:

Learning to guard your heart as the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23 & Matthew 12:34).
Maintaining moderation in all you do, that is, a spirit of self-control that avoids excess or extremes.

For instance, Christ didn’t completely abstain from alcohol (Matthew 11:19) and Paul instructed Timothy to drink a little wine apparently for health reasons (1 Timothy 5:23). Moreover, the LORD permitted the Israelites to drink fermented beverages at certain celebrations (Deuteronomy 14:26). Yet the Bible also instructs “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery” (Ephesians 5:18), not to mention candidly points out the negatives of drunkard-ness (Proverbs 20:1). So the problem isn’t the alcoholic beverage itself, but rather the individual who loses a proper sense of moderation.

Proverbs 25:28 stresses the importance of self-control: “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” Back when this verse was written cities required walls for defense against enemy invasion. The comparison is obvious: The individual who loses sight of moderation is like a defenseless city. The enemy can come in and misdirect his/her life anytime.

If I ever sense myself becoming obsessed with something and it’s hindering me spiritually I make a clean break from it for a determined season. As I write this I’m fasting from something for 40 days and it broke the ‘spell’ that I discerned was cooling my fire for the Lord and my ministry assignment. My enthusiasm almost immediately returned and I finished my project in 21 days!

New Testament Advice on Moderation

Paul brought up the topic of personal moderation twice in his first letter to the believers at Corinth. Here’s the first time:

“Everything is permissible for me” – but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me” – but I will not be mastered by anything.

1 Corinthians 6:12

Paul was quoting a popular phrase of some believers at the Corinth church: “Everything is permissible for me.” This is the attitude of libertines in a nutshell. “I can do anything I want” is what they believe. Now Paul wasn’t against freedom since he preached liberty to these very same believers when he said “the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Yet Paul adds some wise framework for freedom here: Whilst people have the power of volition and can essentially do whatever they want if they decide to do it, Paul points out that “not everything is beneficial.” This is an obvious fact, of course, but he had to stress it because not everyone in Corinth realized it. Since following the deceitful desires of the sin nature is never beneficial, anything sinful is off-limits to the believer. Why? Because it’s not beneficial; it’s destructive.

Say, for example, if a married man meets a pretty woman at work and entertains the idea of committing adultery with her, would this be beneficial to his life or destructive? Even if he’s not a believer, it’s a destructive course of action because it would hurt his wife and could harm his marriage, possibly even destroy it, not to mention the domino effect of hurting his children and losing the respect of the community. No sane person respects unfaithfulness, not even unbelievers.

Paul quotes the popular phase again in the second half of the verse and this time adds “but I will not be mastered by anything.” Here Paul isn’t just talking about the corrupt desires of the flesh but rather anything neutral that has the capacity to master him and put him in bondage. Today, we see people mastered by many destructive addictions, like alcohol, drugs and various forms of sexual immorality. But millions are just as mastered by things that aren’t considered bad, like food, a particular beverage, computer games, watching or playing sports, TV, “meds,” forms of recreation and even church activities. Of course none of these things are bad in and of themselves, but they can become bad if a person is mastered by them — becomes obsessed with them — in which case they become idols. (I should emphasize that something like playing sports — e.g. tennis, golf, pool, chess, basketball or football — can’t become an idol if one uses it to make a living; in other words, the sport is the person’s occupation).

We don’t see many people in modern Western Civilization worshiping literal idols, but people can become so addicted to certain things that it becomes a form of idolatry because idolatry is the worship – the adoration, glorification – of something above God. Christians are free, but we have to be careful to guard our hearts as the wellspring of life so that nothing takes us away from our devotion to the Lord (Proverbs 4:23).

I recently discerned that I was mastered by strong French roasted Arabic coffee: I got in the habit of drinking two K-Cups of this coffee in the morning and two in the afternoon. It got to the point where I didn’t even get a ‘perk’ from the heavy caffeine intake. What I eventually did get was a feeling of a vice gripping my heart. Now, I’m not on any medications because there are too many side effects with drugs, so I looked for natural ways to remedy the problem and too much caffeine was listed as a contributor.

Needless to say I immediately stopped and switched to decaf and an occasional regular coffee. Now when I drink a cup of caffeinated coffee I feel the perk. More importantly, the tightness around my heart ceased. I’m just giving an example of how easily we can become mastered by something considered normal, plus the negative repercussions thereof. I don’t want to be mastered by anything, especially something that’s going to hamper my health. Furthermore, I want my true ‘perk’ to originate from the Fountain of Life (Psalm 36:9), not anything of this world.

Paul brings up the popular phrase a second time shortly later in his letter:

“Everything is permissible” – but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible” – but not everything is constructive. ²⁴ Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24

Paul again points out the obvious: Everything is permissible because we have been blessed with freewill and therefore have the power of decision. We have the power to choose to act or not act on any impulse, whether good or bad; but Paul stresses, once again, that not everything is beneficial. This is a repeat denouncement of engaging the deceitful desires of the flesh, which are never beneficial. Christians are free in the Lord but the appetites of the sinful nature are off-limits because they are destructive. If there’s any doubt Paul cleared it up with his statement to the Roman believers: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Romans 6:15).

He repeats the phrase again, “everything is permissible” and this time adds “but not everything is constructive.” This obviously refers to neutral things. The believer is free to do the neutral activity, but we have to ask ourselves if it is constructive. He then adds that “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.” For instance, if you’re blowing so much time & energy on something that it significantly subtracts from your relationship with your spouse or kids, it becomes a negative thing.

Teachers and preachers can share these principles until they’re blue in the face but some believers will never “get it” because they lack wisdom, which is the ability to distinguish difference. Anyone who wants wisdom must seek it as if it were a treasure; and God will give it to him/her (James 1:5). This is an encouragement to acquire wisdom for moderation concerning any thing that can become a weight in your life and prevent you from fulfilling your call or responsibilities.

The bottom line is this: Believers have freedom in Christ but it’s not freedom to embrace the flesh, but rather freedom from the bondages of the flesh. We have true freedom in Christ, but we must be careful to not allow anything to master us, and we must use wisdom – common sense – in what we choose to do – and how much time we spend with it – since not everything is constructive, for ourselves or others.

How to Obtain Your Desires

Your Thoughts RUN Your Life!

Legalism — Understanding its Many Forms

Spirituality — How to be Spirit-Controlled Rather than Flesh-Ruled

Libertinism — What’s Wrong with It and How to Walk FREE

Spiritual Growth is Like Climbing a Mountain

Drug Obsession (Idolatry) is of the Flesh

Can a Certain Style of ART be Evil?

Absolute Pacifism (Unbiblical) vs. Limited Pacifism (Biblical)

Should true believers never resort to violence under any circumstances whatsoever, as hardcore pacifists advocate? Did Jesus Christ support this position as these people claim? What’s the Bible say, particularly the New Testament?

Two Kinds of Pacifism

First, consider the two forms of pacifism:

Absolute Pacifism: A peaceable attitude that refuses to ever turn to violence in response to evil.
Limited Pacifism: A peaceable attitude that only resorts to violence when necessary. This position is selectivism because the person selects whether it’s just or not to turn to violence on the occasion in question. People who embrace selectivism — limited pacifism — are selectivists.

Absolute pacifism sounds nice in theory, but it doesn’t work in a fallen world where people are sometimes a threat to the well-being of others because they choose to live according their sinful nature and/or they adopt intolerant, violent ideologies that severely threaten others. Consider the example of thugs breaking into your home and threatening you & your loved ones with death or rape. Should you just kick back and let it happen in the name of absolute pacifism? Of course not.

Limited Pacifism is What Christ and the New Testament Advocate

Limited pacifism, aka selectivism, is the balanced position on violence advocated by the New Testament. Of course some people think that the New Testament supports the idea of absolute pacifism, but it doesn’t. Jesus’ ministry team had a treasury box with loads of money and some of his workers carried swords for protection from thieves and murderers (Luke 22:49-50). They had ministered with Jesus for over three years by this point, which indicates that they carried swords because Jesus permitted it. Why did he permit it? Because they traveled with a money box that contained all their ministry earnings as they journeyed from town to town. The swords were obviously for protection from potential thieves, particularly in the many desolate regions they had to travel.

Furthermore, if Christ meant we should be doormats to every thief and criminal that comes down the pike why did he radically chase the “robbers” from the Temple twice during his three-and-a-half-year ministry, as depicted in John 2:13-17 and Mark 11:15-18? Jesus got a whip and chased all the greedy fools out of the Temple — throwing over tables, swinging the whip and yelling. Read those passages yourself. These are plainly not the actions of an absolute pacifist. What the Messiah did was so radical it caused the legalistic religious leaders to fear him and plot murder (Mark 11:18). Harmless ultra-pacifists don’t inspire fear and provoke murder plots.

Moreover, Christ refused to allow murderers to apprehend and kill him on multiple occasions, as illustrated in Luke 4:28-30, John 7:30,44, 8:59 and 10:31,39? The only time the Messiah submitted his life to the hands of people with ill-intent was when he was arrested in Gethsemane because it was God’s will that he suffer and die for the salvation of humanity. It goes without saying that we have to be balanced with Jesus’ teachings and example in the Bible, otherwise we’ll fall into error and embrace ideas he never actually taught.

Human Governments are God-Ordained to Punish Criminals

The New Testament clearly states that the righteous laws of human governments are God-ordained for the purpose of punishing criminals, including the right to execute when appropriate. Observe for yourself:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ²Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. ⁴For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

⁶This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.

Romans 13:1-6

The passage conveys four important points:

First, verses 1-2 show that human governments are established by God and, therefore, those who rebel against them are rebelling against what the Almighty has instituted, consequently bringing judgment on themselves, not from God directly but from the civil authorities he has established.*

* God has established four authorities on Earth: (1.) Governmental authorities over citizens, (2.) Church authorities over believers, (3.) parental authorities over children, and (4.) labor authorities over employees. Individuals are only under these authorities while functioning within their sphere of power. ‘Abuse’ is the misuse of power. It goes without saying that if any of these authorities overstep their bounds by unrepentantly abusing their power individuals are freed of their obligation to submit.

Paul was obviously speaking of government in general and not only to Nero’s Roman government, which ruled the region at the time. He even goes so far as to call the rulers in question “God’s servant” or “God’s servants” whose purpose is “to do you good” (verses 4 & 6). How could rulers like Nero be called God’s servant when he persecuted Christians? Because, generally speaking, Nero and his government maintained societal order and punished criminals, which is the purpose of all governments in general. Keep in mind the subject of the passage: Paul was not addressing Christian persecution but rather Christian obedience to the laws of the land. His point is that human government – “God’s servant” – is established for the good of the people, to restrain evil and protect life and property; if any believers break the law “God’s servant” will punish them. Why? Because, as Isaiah 61:8 plainly points out, the LORD loves justice and hates crime. In fact, justice and righteousness are the very foundation of his throne (Psalm 89:14).

Secondly, human governments bear “the sword,” a figure of speech for the authority to execute wrongdoers and the right to punish lawbreakers in general. Even in our increasingly ‘progressive’ societies today we execute the most heinous criminals.

Thirdly, since civil authorities are ordained by God we should submit to them, which is clearly stated in verses 1 and 5. Submitting to the governing authorities does not mean blind obedience, but rather respecting and abiding by its laws. We must recognize this authority over us even if we don’t always agree with it. It also means we should financially support them, i.e. pay taxes, as shown in verse 6, which was something Jesus advocated as well (Matthew 22:15-22).

The only exception to this rule is if government oversteps its bounds by intruding upon the realm of God and universal morality. In such cases believers are required to obey the LORD rather than the governing authorities. Examples in the Scriptures include the Hebrew midwives who refused to obey the Pharaoh’s command to kill male infants (Exodus 1:15-21), the three Hebrew’s refusal to obey king Nebuchadnezzar’s command to worship a 90’ gold idol (Daniel 3), Daniel’s refusal to obey king Darius’ wicked edict (Daniel 6), and Peter & John’s disregard of the command to not preach the gospel (Acts 4:18-20). While disobeying governing authorities is generally wrong it’s unavoidable in cases where human law supersedes God’s Word. How do we reconcile this with the fact that God established the existing authorities? Simple: Although God’s authority stands behind the governing authorities, right or wrong, it also stands over them; hence, Christians who belong to this higher authority are permitted to supersede the human authorities if there’s no other recourse.

Fourthly, since God ordains government as his servants to promote good (verse 4) we should take advantage of this divine commission by exercising our rights to obtain justice.

A good example of this is found in Acts 16:16-40 where Paul and Silas were unjustly flogged and thrown in prison after exorcizing a demon from a girl. They maintained a worshipful spirit despite their tribulations and were miraculously released whereupon they evangelized the jailer and his family. The next day the civil authorities wanted Paul and Silas to quietly leave Philippi but Paul responded: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly. No! Let them come themselves and escort us out” (verse 37). Although Paul maintained a faithful, spiritual attitude while enduring the mistreatment he was understandably angry at the injustice. And, yes, a person can be angry and not sin, it’s called righteous anger (Ephesians 4:26, Mark 3:5 & John 2:13-17). Notice that Paul didn’t just automatically forgive the Philippian authorities for their humiliating abuses. He didn’t just sweep the matter under the rug, so to speak. No, he appealed to his and Silas’ rights as Roman citizens and insisted that the magistrates come and personally escort them from the prison. How did the magistrates respond? They were “alarmed” to learn that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens with legal rights that protected them from such abuses; these believers could potentially protest to Rome and justly remove them from power, ruining their political careers. They had no choice but to humbly go to Paul & Silas and “appease” them (verse 39).

The next time Paul was wrongly apprehended and threatened to be whipped he insisted upon his rights and evaded the flogging altogether (Acts 22:22-29). You see, Paul didn’t have a martyr complex like some Christians today. He refused to allow himself to be abused if it was within his power to evade it. You could say he refused to be a doormat. Another example can be found in Acts 25:11 where Paul appealed to Caesar.

It should be pointed out that Paul wasn’t the only New Testament writer to relay these truths, Peter gave similar instructions in 1 Peter 2:13-14. Another coinciding text is Titus 3:1.

What can we derive from these four points? Christians are clearly mandated by Scripture to submit to the civil authorities, which are ordained by God to punish wrongdoers. Since this is so, it naturally follows that we should do everything in our power to see to it that criminals are apprehended and penalized by “God’s servants,” the governing authorities. If criminals commit crimes and we’re prone to just automatically forgive them, that is, dismiss the charges, we’re obviously not submitting to these authorities because we’re not respecting their laws enough to seek justice and press charges. I’m of course referring to real crimes here, not trivial infractions. It’s the spirit of the law that’s important.

For important insights on biblical forgiveness go here.

**The Balanced and Biblical Position on Violence**

The majority of sane Christians realize that limited pacifism is the balanced and biblical position on violence. In other words, genuine Christianity supports the position of selectivism. Unfortunately, there are a minority of extremists who refuse to be balanced with the Scriptures on this topic and insist that physical conflict and especially armed conflict is never appropriate. But the simple fact is that some people are so degenerate and evil that radical opposition and even execution are sometimes just reactions. This is why the LORD ordained human governments to bear “the sword,” which is the authority to execute when justified, as explained above. It’s why God had Herod Agrippa wiped off the face of the Earth after much patience and mercy (Acts 12:1-5 & 19-23).

Limited Pacifism allows Believers to “Love their Neighbor” who is being Abused

The error of absolute pacifism — that is, never ever resorting to violence — prevents believers from helping their neighbors who are threatened by wicked people. Remember, loving one’s neighbor is the second greatest command after loving God (Matthew 22:34-40). Take the first Nazi death camp at Dachau in southern Germany. The Poles that were there would’ve gone straight to the ovens within two days (or died in a forced march, etc.) if the Americans hadn’t come through the wall with weapons drawn on April 29th, 1945.

We must understand that “Love does not delight in evil,” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) which means not tolerating evil people preying on innocent victims. If your neighbor is threatened by thugs and it’s within your power to help them it would be a sin not to do so under the guise “I’m a pacifist and must never resort to violence.”

The New Testament clearly supports limited pacifism (aka Selectivism) — only resorting to violence when necessary — not absolute pacifism. How total pacifists don’t see this is a great mystery. It’s spiritual blindness due to religious bondage based on an unbalanced understanding of New Testament passages. Speaking of which…

‘What about “Turning the Cheek”?’

There’s gross misunderstanding concerning Christ’s teaching to “turn the cheek” (Luke 6:27-29). Jesus was referring to a backhanded slap to the face, which was an insult in that culture. In other words, we can all save ourselves a lot of trouble in life if we learn to ignore the antagonism of various fools who would like to divert our focus and ruin our day. The Old Testament teaches this as well: “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult” (Proverbs 12:16).

So Jesus was talking about giving an antagonist a break for the sake of peace in situations of personal offense; he wasn’t referring to cases of severe criminal acts. Again, the Bible maintains that governments are “God’s servants” for good in the sense that they protect citizens from criminals; they “bear the sword,” meaning they possess the power to punish and even execute criminals when justified (Romans 13:1-6).

“A Time to Kill”

One of the wisest persons who ever lived, Solomon, eloquently conveyed how there are justifiable occasions for killing and war in this fallen world, which should not be confused with murder (a criminal act):

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

‘But one of the Ten Commandments is “Thou Shall Not Kill” ’

That is a quote from the King James Version. The more accurate rendering of the original text from Exodus 20:13 is “You shall not murder,” as verified by more modern English translations. There’s a difference between murder and justified killing. Murder is always unjust whereas the latter is just.

Let me put it this way: While all murder involves taking a human life, not all taking of life is murder. Capital punishment is a good example of justified killing, assuming the person is actually guilty. In fact, the very next chapter in Exodus supports capital punishment (Exodus 21:12) and the following chapter advocates justified killing in self-defense when necessary (Exodus 22:2).

Meanwhile violence in defense of the innocent is permissible and commendable (Exodus 2:17-19 & Proverbs 28:1) and violence against an unjust aggressor is justified (Genesis 14). Both of these include the possibility of justified killing. The incident from Genesis 14 involved Abraham, “the father of all who believe” (Romans 4:11).

**Responding to an Absolute Pacifist Christian**

This is an addendum for anyone interested. I’m including it because it’s educational to observe how absolute pacifists are unbalanced with the Holy Scriptures when it comes to the topic of potential physical violence. The man’s arguments are cited in red italics, followed by my answers.

The dialogue begins with the absolute pacifist responding to the question “Is it Okay for Believers to Serve in the Armed Forces?”

The Christian’s warfare is spiritual.

The question isn’t about Christian warfare, which is obviously spiritual first and foremost. The question is: Can a believer serve in the military forces of his/her country? And the answer is yes, presuming he/she is led of the Holy Spirit to do so. You can read details here.

No is the answer. Switzerland has no standing army! They renounce war. Every Christian MUST renounce war.

The reasons for these wars are mostly greed and selfishness. True Christian can’t be part of such!

Switzerland embraces neutrality, but that does not mean the Swiss have no military. The Swiss Army trains for both national self-defense and internal security.

The Swiss wisely refuse to enter military alliances unless they are attacked. They don’t take sides in international conflicts and refuse transit to foreign forces.

As detailed above, the Bible says governments are “God’s servants” in that they PROTECT CITIZENS; they “bear the sword,” i.e. they possess the power to punish & execute those who threaten them, domestic and foreign (Romans 13:1-6).

Jesus instructed that we are to love our enemies.

Jesus was talking about believers loving their enemies in their personal relations; he wasn’t referring to nations pathetically allowing a wicked nation to invade & conquer them. That wouldn’t be love, but rather stupidity.

Meanwhile hardcore criminals must be caught & punished by the God-ordained governing authorities to protect citizens (Romans 13:1-6) because “the LORD loves justice and hates crime” (Isaiah 61:8).

Furthermore, to genuinely love others means more than just the conventional soft variety of love. The Bible plainly shows that tough love is sometimes in order. See this article for details.

If you fight the spiritual war, you won’t need the physical war. Look at how you guys have turned the USA and Europe into nations of Atheists and Sodomy. That’s the war you are fighting.

You have turned Christianity into a laughing stock because of your craving for physical things!

I agree that we should focus on the spiritual war first & foremost, but criminals – domestic & foreign – sometimes force one to physical action. Jesus said “If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would NOT HAVE LET his house be broken into” (Luke 12:39). It’s just common sense.

Now let’s put that statement on a national scale: “If the country’s leaders knew when & where an enemy nation was going to attack & invade they would NOT HAVE LET their country be invaded.” Again, it’s just common sense.

And the disciples had SWORDS FOR PROTECTION from thieves & murderers in their travels, which Christ PERMITTED (Luke 22:49-50). On this particular occasion Jesus instructed the disciples to put down their swords for obvious reasons explained below. The point is that Christ permitted his disciples to have swords for protection in their ministry travels.

What you say about the USA is irrelevant to this topic. And what physical things am I supposedly craving? It’s a curious point to make. People usually deviate from the subject and resort to bluster when they discern they can’t win the debate through relevant facts.

Jesus said “Those who live by the sword will perish by the sword.”

Jesus instructed Peter to put the sword back in its place, not throw it away (Matthew 26:52); and there’s a difference between living by the sword and utilizing it when necessary. It was not necessary for Peter to draw the sword on this occasion for two obvious reasons:

First, the group that came to arrest Jesus was comprised of soldiers & officials and therefore represented the governing authorities to whom we are obligated to submit. More importantly, as pointed out above, to resist on this occasion simply wasn’t in accordance with God’s will, which is why Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11). Peter was simply ignorant of Jesus’ ultimate assignment and therefore not privy to God’s will, just as on an earlier occasion when Jesus rebuked him as “Satan” (Matthew 16:21-23). Also, why would Jesus’ disciples even have swords after working for Jesus for over three years at this point if the Lord opposed weapons and violence in the absolute sense?

In support of this is Jesus’ statement to his disciples just prior to leaving for Gethsemane and his subsequent arrest. Christ said, “… if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one” (Luke 22:35-38). This instruction was in contrast to previous occasions where the disciples ministered without such supportive items in their travels. Possessing swords obviously pertained to protection, not aggression, as the threat of criminal persecution increased. These swords were short, dagger-like instruments commonly carried in that culture and were used for other things as well as protection. The point is that Jesus clearly authorized his disciples to carry instruments of protection, which is backed up later in the very same chapter when the disciples asked, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” (verse 49). Why did they have swords? Because Jesus authorized it.

The Bible says “The slave of the Lord does not fight.”

More accurately the verse says “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome” (2 Timothy 2:24). But this doesn’t mean that a believer cannot fight thugs if (1) threatened as a citizen, (2) someone else is threatened, or (3) working as a government servant, whether a cop, soldier or executioner.

You refuse to fight a spiritual war but you are geared up for mortal war — shame!

Even Muhammad Ali refused to fight in the Vietnam war and he was even a Christian. Why? Because he knew war was senseless.

Who says I “refuse to fight a spiritual war”? I preach on spiritual warfare in detail in this ministry; and arguably more than most. What’s really a shame are absolute pacifists who refuse to be BALANCED with the Holy Scriptures.

Meanwhile, your comment about Ali and Vietnam are irrelevant.

As far as war being senseless goes, not when an aggressing nation attacks and murders innocent people; such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on ‎December 7, 1941, where 2400 Americans were murdered and 1175 injured, including 84 civilians consisting of men, women & children. What should the USA have done on that occasion? Kick back and let an unjustly aggressive nation get away with mass murder and possibly take over Hawaii down the road? Should Americans have just loved this Japanese junta and sent them flowers? Should Americans have said “Come on over and take over our whole nation, if you want; we won’t resist. We luvvy wuvvy you!”

Obviously war is sometimes necessary in a fallen world.

Jesus called his followers sheep. A Christian is a sheep. Sheep don’t fight. Never!

You’re mistakenly making an absolute statement about a limited figurative description. The Bible also clearly says “the righteous are as bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).

Meanwhile pastors are shepherds, not sheep; in other words, they lead sheep (with the understanding that Christ is the Chief Shepherd and fivefold ministers are under-shepherds — 1 Peter 5:1-4). Also keep in mind that believers are called to imitate the Lord (Ephesians 5:1). Was Jesus a sheep when he cleansed the Temple or a fearsome lion? (Mark 11:15-18).

Furthermore, Christ added important exposition on the metaphor of sheep when he instructed his disciples: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). “Shrewd” refers to skill or sly cunning in practical matters, like when Paul mischievously implemented “divide and conquer” tactics when held before the two sects of the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:6-8).

Christians today are often too nice, naïve and gullible yet the Lord said we need to be shrewd as snakes while maintaining our blamelessness. He even gave an entire parable commending the shrewdness of a wasteful manager who was about to lose his job (Luke 16:1-9). Why would Christ encourage us to be skillfully cunning? He explained it himself: because we’re amongst wolves. By all means, walk innocently before your Creator but sweetness and naiveté won’t cut it when you’re dealing with arrogant, hostile, deceitful people like Joseph’s brothers who were jealous of their younger brother and sold him into slavery; and then lied about it. Such wolves will automatically regard niceness and gullibility as marks of weakness and take advantage. In short, they’ll chew you up and spit you out! This explains why Joseph—who was a type of Christ—pretended to be a stranger to his brothers, spoke harshly, and falsely accused them of being spies; he was being shrewd. Shrewdness was the only way to break his carnal brothers. See this article for details on this story.

One other thing on this topic, your argument assumes that the New Testament’s description of believers as “sheep” is a compliment. It is in some ways, but definitely not in others. For instance, in parts of Africa it is common to see goats, chickens, cattle, and sheep on the road. While goats, cattle and chickens have the sense to run to safety at the sight of an approaching vehicle, sheep do not seem to be blessed with this wisdom. Rather, they’ll remain in the road or, worse, will run in front of the vehicle, as if trying to get hit.

Furthermore, sheep seem to lack the ability to properly care for themselves. When born sheep are pure white with a soft coat of fur, but within weeks their fur gets filthy and they have no concern about keeping themselves clean. sheep tend to turn this unsightly shade of brown and are covered with all manner of whatever. They are pathetic-looking animals that aimlessly wander about scarcely able to keep themselves alive.

Christ said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… I know my sheep and my sheep know me. (John10:11,14). This implies that Christians are a purposeless progeny who, without the day-to-day direction and shielding given by our Great Shepherd and Holy Spirit, wouldn’t be able to take care of ourselves, at least not spiritually. We would be stuck in a ditch, figuratively speaking, needing succor. Without Christ we are helpless, but in Christ we “can do all things” that God calls us to do (Philippians 4:13).

You arrogate to yourself highfallutin names just like the Pharisees. I tell you, you already have your reward in full.

Apostles and other early Christians never fought war and is one of the reasons they were so persecuted.

No true Christian will engage in war.

What highfalutin name do I (supposedly) claim for myself? I just go by “Dirk,” a humble servant of the LORD.

The apostles & early Church leaders oversaw assemblies of believers within the Roman Empire. They weren’t warriors and knew it was useless to even attempt to fight the Roman Army, the largest and meanest fighting force in the ancient world, which was the main reason Rome became such a powerful empire.

If being in the military is intrinsically evil why didn’t John the Baptist rebuke the Roman Soldiers in Luke 3:14 for serving in the military? Keep in mind that John was preparing the way for the ministry of Jesus Christ by calling people to repentance (Mark 1:4). If merely being a soldier is intrinsically evil John would have said something like, “It’s wicked and sinful to be a soldier; flee from the military or you will suffer God’s wrath!” You’ll find no such statement anywhere in the New Testament, whether from Jesus, Paul or anyone else. Simply put, governing authorities need police and military personnel to fulfill their God-ordained mandate to maintain societal order, which includes protecting the country (Romans 13:1-6).

This is not to say, of course, that individual Christians don’t have the right to object to military service due to personal conscience or what have you. In such cases the military is better off without them since their hearts wouldn’t be in it, so to speak (see Deuteronomy 20:8 & Judges 7:3).

Nor am I saying that corrupt governments shouldn’t be resisted or corrected, like the Nazi-led government in Germany during WWII or the Japanese “constitutional monarchy” of the same era (which was, in effect, a military junta). A good biblical example of resisting corrupt government can be observed when Nathan made a bold stand against the gross corruption in David’s monarchy (2 Samuel 12:1-10).

Anyway, according to your dubious absolute pacifistic view all politicians, cops & militarists should be PAGANS (keeping in mind that politicians are the ones who authorize what cops & militaries do when confronting thugs, domestic & foreign). Needless to say, that’s a recipe for disaster for any nation.

(In response to the verse “the righteous are as bold as a lion”) You are twisting the Scriptures to satisfy your lust. True Christians don’t fight physical war!

Christianity became a state religion of Rome when they were under severe persecution. Jesus fought the war himself. No man did!

How am I twisting Scripture? I merely quoted Proverb 28:1. And what “lust” am I satisfying since I’m a thoroughly peaceable man?

If Christians can’t ever fight physically — when necessary as a last resort in a wicked world — WHY did Jesus permit his disciples to have swords for protection (Luke 22:35-38,49-50)? Keep in mind that this was three years into his earthly ministry. If it was sinful to possess swords for protection because violence is always evil the Messiah wouldn’t have allowed them to have weapons.

Speaking of which, Christ had the faith to receive miraculous help when he was criminally threatened (Luke 4:28-30, John 7:30,44, 8:59 and 10:31,39). Notice, by the way, that Jesus didn’t allow these thugs to abuse & murder him (he only did so in the Garden of Gethsemane because it was God’s will for him to suffer & die for humanity at that time). Since most believers don’t have the faith that Christ walked in to receive miraculous assistance in these kinds of threatening situations, they’re going to have to protect themselves & their loved ones with weapons if necessary.

If Christ meant we should be doormats to every thug that comes down the pike why did he radically chase the “robbers” from the Temple twice during his ministry, once near the beginning and 3 years later near the end (John 2:13-17 & Mark 11:15-18)? Jesus got a whip and chased the fools out of the Temple — throwing over tables, swinging the whip & yelling. These are plainly not the actions of an absolute pacifist. What the Messiah did was so radical it caused the legalistic religious leaders to fear him and plot murder (Mark 11:18).

Secular countries like Japan and Switzerland have renounced wars.

Europe has stopped fighting wars between each member country.

Why ? They realized war is senseless. This is why the UN was formed.

Yet you think is good to be a military man. Let the dead bury the dead.

Actually, Japan has a military for purposes of self-defense called the Japan Self-Defense Forces. These forces are constitutionally prohibited from being used in war with other countries separate from self-defense. Go here for details.

As noted earlier, Switzerland embraces neutrality, but that does not mean the Swiss have no military. The Swiss Army trains for both national self-defense and internal security. However, due to their neutrality they don’t take sides in international conflicts and refuse transit to foreign forces. They will not enter into military alliances unless they are attacked.

Do you seriously think the modern UN is a force for good? This reveals political ignorance and naiveté.

Whether it’s good for a believer to function as a warrior in the military depends upon the leading of the Holy Spirit, the specific nation and the purpose of the conflict in question. As noted above, not all war efforts are senseless & evil. Some are noble and good, like the Allies fighting the Axis powers in WW2.

Oh, gosh, What’s this? This is waste of my time.

What’s this? It’s simply what the BALANCED Scriptures plainly teach on the topic, my brother.

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Turning the Cheek

Military Service — Is it Okay for Believers to Serve in the Armed Forces?

Dealing with Personal Offenses vs. Criminal Acts

Why You should always Forgive when the Offender is Repentant

How to Keep BALANCED in Every Area of Life

There are different areas to our lives—family, marital, work, devotional, ministerial, educational, recreational, fitness, social, homestead, dating, and so on. How do you recognize God’s will in these areas? And how to you achieve and maintain balance? How do you keep from being sidetracked—hindered—by things that drain your time & energy and aren’t conducive to your God-given goals?

As Christians living in a wicked generation, I encourage saturating yourself with the things of God with focus on (1) cultivating a relationship with the LORD and (2) growing in knowledge, understanding & wisdom of the Holy Scriptures. Put in practice what you learn as you have opportunity.

Keep in mind, however, that the Bible doesn’t teach us to seek the LORD only, but rather seek God first (Matthew 6:33). In short, we’re to make our Creator first priority—i.e. sell out to God—but don’t get out of balance by seeking God only. That’s a ticket to looney religiosity and burnout.

Acknowledge God in your life and the LORD will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). He’ll show you where He wants you to go as you seek Him. Simply ask the LORD in prayer to instruct you and teach you in the way you should go in each area of life. The Bible says that God hears us when we ask according to His will (1 John 5:14) so you can base your request on passages like Proverbs 3:5-6 and Psalm 32:8-9.

How exactly does God “direct your path” when you acknowledge Him? By dropping desires in your heart to motivate you. The Hebrew word for desire is ta’avah (tah-âv-AW), which means “that which you earnestly long for.” It’s a desire that stays with you and you can’t get rid of it. The more you pray about it, the stronger it gets. We’re talking about a righteous desire, not a wicked one (examples of the latter include the desire to commit sexual immorality or engage in gossip/slander). The Bible says that the desire of the righteous is good (Proverbs 11:23)! Religion has told us for centuries that all desire is bad. No, only evil, sinful desires are bad. Christianity is not the death of desire—it’s the death of selfish and ungodly desire as you learn to walk in the spirit and be spirit-controlled rather than flesh-ruled.

You can’t obtain your (righteous) desires until you know what they are; so get close to the LORD, look deep within, and draw them out. This is in line with godly wisdom as shown in Proverbs 20:5: “The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out.”

How is this applicable to finding balance in every area of life? Once you know your purpose you then have a goal. Hebrews 12:1 instructs us to “throw off (1) every thing that hinders and (2) the sin that so easily entangles.” The passage then encourages us to run with perseverance the race (goal, mission) marked out for us.

The “thing that hinders” is a something that holds you down and prevents you from fulfilling your God-given objective. The thing itself is neutral and not a sin, but it saps your time and energy so much that it hinders you from completing your assignment. It therefore becomes a weight in your life—something that weighs you down and encumbers more productive output. People can become somewhat obsessed with such a thing and it thus creates imbalance, hampering the person from fulfilling their current assignment (God-given goal).

This “weight” could be any number of things depending on the individual—computer games, movies, sports-watching, golf, boating/fishing, a certain person/relationship, etc. These things are not evil in and of themselves, but because they distract you from your calling (goal/assignment) and drain your time & energy they become a negative thing for you. You must either carefully guard the time you spend with such things or, if necessary, remove them from your life altogether in order to fulfill your mission, at least for a season.

If something has a “hold” on you—i.e. you’ve become kind of obsessed with it—consider fasting from it and that will swiftly break the “spell.” By “fasting” I mean abstaining from it—putting it on the sideline for a period of time. Seek the LORD and the Holy Spirit will guide you on how long to fast from the thing in question. Consider 40 days. If you find that excessive, consider 21 days, 10 days, 7 days or 3 days — whatever will be effective to break the thing’s hold over you and bring back balance in that particular area of your life. Be led of the Holy Spirit.

Consider sports-viewing. I like to watch a game now and then for R&R,* but one game is about 3 hours. If you watch 2 games that’s 6 hours! Needless to say, guard how much time you spend on sports each week. Decide beforehand how many games a week you’re going to watch and stick to your plan. The same goes for movies, TV shows, computer games, boating/fishing and so forth. Free-up your time so you can spend it on your Spirit-led goal/assignment, whatever that may be.

* Sloth is of the flesh, of course, but R&R is necessary and healthy, as long as it doesn’t become an idol. The Bible teaches that there’s “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:4).

As for the “sin that so easily entangles,” this is any flesh proclivity that you’ve developed a taste for and it therefore seriously tempts you from time to time. You must make it a top priority to remove this sin from your life, whatever the cost (Genesis 4:7). If you don’t, it will prevent you from obtaining your God-given desire/goal. Check out the simple 3-point strategy in this article as it will help you walk free of any carnal pitfall.

Put these things into practice and you will keep balanced in every area of life. I practice them daily and could give examples from my life and the lives of others. They’re tried & true.

For a simple three-point plan that will help you (1) discern God’s will in each area of life and (2) how to fulfill it, see this article or the corresponding video.

This article is available in book form as a section in chapter 5 of…

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Related Topics:

How to Obtain Your Desires

Legalism — Understanding its Many Forms

Spirituality — How to be Spirit-Controlled Rather than Flesh-Ruled

Libertinism — What’s Wrong with It and How to Walk FREE

The “Berean Spirit” — What is It? How Do You Cultivate it?

What is “Backsliding”?

Insights on Moderation

The Issue of Eating Meat Sacrificed to Idols

Paul clearly established that eating meat sacrificed to idols was a neutral issue in the epistle of 1 Corinthians, which was written in 54-55 AD. Fifty years later John wrote in Revelation about Jesus rebuking the church at Thyatira for allowing a woman prophetess to mislead believers into sexual immorality and eating meat sacrificed to idols, which seems to contradict Paul’s message on the topic. How do we explain this apparent contradiction?

Let’s first read what Paul taught:

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. ²Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. ³But whoever loves God is known by God.

⁴So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” ⁵For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), ⁶yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

⁷But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

⁹Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? ¹¹So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹²When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

1 Corinthians 8

Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, ²⁶for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

²⁷If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. ²⁸But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. ²⁹I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? ³⁰If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

³¹So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ³²Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—

1 Corinthians 10:25-32

As you can see, believers are freed-up to eat meat that was sacrificed to an idol because there is only one God whom we serve through Jesus Christ. The idol is just a block of stone or wood representing some god that doesn’t even exist. So it’s an irrelevant issue.

Yet Paul instructed that believers should be discreet about doing so because immature believers with weak consciences — usually Jewish believers who were understandably repulsed by anything linked to idol worship — would take offense to it and this could cause someone to stumble or even destroy their faith. Paul said it’d be better to not eat meat at all than eat it and cause a brother or sister to fall.

Paul also indirectly addressed the topic in Romans 14, which was written a couple years after 1 Corinthians.

The issue of eating meat that was sacrificed to idols is irrelevant today since people don’t sacrifice meat to idols in most countries (and then sell it to the public). But we could relate the issue to other things, like drinking alcoholic beverages. While drunkard-ness is a sin (Galatians 5:19-21 & 1 Corinthians 6:9-11) drinking a sip of alcohol is not (1 Timothy 5:23 & Deuteronomy 14:26). Yet believers who know this and walk in their corresponding freedom in Christ have to be careful about openly drinking such a beverage in front of believers who have weak consciences on this issue, especially in places like America where there’s a somewhat puritanical attitude toward alcoholic beverages in religious circles, particularly Evangelical and Pentecostal.

Paul summed up the issue like so:

It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

²² So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

Romans 14:21-22

Reflect on these things and be blessed; I don’t think it’s necessary to add any further commentary

Does Revelation 2:20 Contradict what Paul Established?

The book of Revelation was written about 50 years after what Paul already established above by the Holy Spirit. Let’s read the passage in question:

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²²So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Revelation 2:20-23

Verse 20 seems to contradict what was earlier established by Paul since Christ clearly isn’t pleased that “Jezebel” misled some believers at the church in Thyatira into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

To explain, the name Jezebel was a pseudonym for this woman because she negatively influenced believers the way Jezebel misled Jews into sexual immorality and idol worship in the Old Testament. Since we know buying & eating food sacrificed to idols is not a sin if done inconspicuously then we know “Jezebel” was misleading believers into (1) openly eating food sacrificed to idols which offended believers with weak consciences and caused them to stumble and/or (2) her teaching to eat meat sacrificed to idols was part of an insidious doctrine that engaged believers in idol worship.

It might help to understand that the epistles are the Church’s primary source for practical Christian doctrine whereas the book of Revelation is prophetic in nature and therefore secondary in this respect.

Legalism — Understanding its Many Forms

Spiritual Growth — The Four Stages

Spiritual Growth is Like Climbing a Mountain

Libertinism — What’s Wrong with It and How to Walk FREE

Bible—Is it Full of Contradictions? Does it Promote Slavery, Tyranny and Discrimination?

What did Jude mean about not daring to bring a Slanderous Accusation against the Devil?

Let’s read the passage in question:

In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. ⁹ But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

Jude 1:8-10

The subject of the passage is established in verse 4: “godless men who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our sovereign and Lord.” That is, they deny Christ through their unrepentant immoral actions; see Titus 1:16.

This refers to libertines, aka lawless, licentious, hedonistic people who, in this particular case, put on the airs of being “Christian” in order to slip in amongst believers and teach their licentious false doctrines.

As far as “heaping abuse on celestial beings” goes (verse 8), these hedonists “reject authority” in general, as did the sinning angels (v. 6), both natural and spiritual authorities, thus rejecting the authority of the Holy Scriptures and denying Christ (v. 4). Apparently they ridiculed spiritual powers that were beyond their comprehension, likely because libertines (hedonists) are naturally oriented to the physical realm, as opposed to being genuinely spiritual.

In confronting and contending with the devil in a dispute over Moses’ body, Michael the archangel did not personally condemn such a powerful fallen angel for his sins — he’s The Slanderer, of course — but instead deferred to the ultimate, sovereign power of God following the supreme example of the Angel of the LORD in Zechariah 3:1-2. This illustrates how believers are to deal with Satan & demons: Utilize the LORD’s intervening power against them, e.g. “In the name of Jesus Christ I cast you out!” In other words, instead of cursing the darkness, simply turn on the lights.

This doesn’t mean that a believer can’t, for instance, refer to Satan as a “loser” in a sermon/article/book or describe him as “morally filthy” because both are true — Satan is the Ultimate Loser who’s morally filthy — and thus pointing this out is not slander. Christ called the devil & his foul minions “snakes and scorpions” (Luke 10:19). At the same time, we should be careful about copping a cocky, flippant air when it comes to celestial beings, fallen or not.

Jude 1:3-10 is paralleled in 2 Peter 2 for those interested.

Demonic Spirits — How to Deflect Them

Demons Vs. Jesus Christ — No Contest!

Armor & Weaponry of God

Spiritual Warfare — Do You know What You’re Fighting For?

Is Name-Calling Ever Appropriate?

Does the Bible Support a JUSTIFIABLE LIE?

Is it ever right to lie for just reasons? In other words, is lying ever justifiable? Is it the right thing to do in certain situations? The answer is, yes, the Bible does support a “justifiable lie” on rare occasions. I’ve come across occupational ministers that graduated from formidable seminaries who furiously object to this, but they always change their tune once they see what the Holy Scriptures blatantly say on the topic. As with any biblical topic we have to be honest & balanced with God’s Word and resist the temptation to ignore or write off clear passages that might challenge our current position.

I want to stress that lying for selfish, evil purposes is always a sin (Leviticus 19:11 & Colossians 3:9). Please read that again so there’s no doubt. However, a justifiable lie is not a sin for the precise reason that it’s justified and done with the greater good in mind. In other words, a justifiable lie is not evil, it’s good. Therefore those who implement a justifiable lie on an appropriate occasion are not committing an evil act, but rather a righteous one. Please read that again.

Before getting into the scriptural proof for this, it’s important to point out that the Lord plainly described the devil as “the father of lies” (John 8:44) and referred to his followers as “everyone who loves and practices falsehood,” whose fate is the lake of fire (Revelation 22:15). A “lying tongue” is one of the LORD’s most hated things (Proverbs 6:16-19) and “all liars… will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

We’ve all met pathological liars who lie about anything and everything for egocentric or wicked purposes. Remember when President Bill Clinton, standing with his wife, sincerely said at a press conference on January 26, 1998: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”?

Modern Liberals are Exhibit A of people who revel in falsehood, like the false accusers of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his public hearings in September, 2018. Christine Ford’s Lawyer later admitted that her (false) accusations were politically motivated.

Ms. Ford broke the ninth commandment: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). Please note, however, that this commandment does not say that lying itself — giving inaccurate data — is absolutely a sin on every occasion, but rather lying about the actions of another person, which is slander and can hold severe ramifications for the accused person, depending on the claimed transgression. Keep in mind that ‘devil’ means “accuser” and Satan is described in the Bible as “the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10).

It goes without saying that children of God — genuine believers, the body of Christ — should be people of truth, not people of the lie. After all, the Lord is truth and the Spirit is truth (John 14:6 & 16:13) whereas the Adversary is “the father of lies” and “the accuser of the brethren.” If you don’t want to be like Satan, then don’t be a liar who loves and practices falsehood; and don’t be a constant accuser of people, especially fellow Christians. So-called believers who act like this with no concern of repentance reveal their true nature: they’re children of the devil regardless of their lip-service to being a Christian.

That said, justifiable lies may sometimes be necessary in a fallen world where the father of lies is the “god of this world” and his deceived people run things in one capacity or another (2 Corinthians 4:4 & 1 John 5:19).

Even the LORD utilized a lying spirit to carry out his righteous objective of executing wicked Ahab. See for yourself:

Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing on his right and on his left. ¹⁹And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab king of Israel into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’

“One suggested this, and another that. ²⁰Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’

“‘By what means?’ the Lord asked.

²¹“‘I will go and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said.

“‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord. ‘Go and do it.’

²²“So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”

2 Chronicles 18:18-22

It should be stressed that God did not deceive Ahab here, but he authorized a lie being sent which thus gave Ahab a choice between believing a lie and believing the truth, the latter being presented via the righteous prophet Micaiah. Ahab embraced the lie simply because it corresponded to his misguided desire. The bottom line is that the LORD used a lie to carry out his righteous judgment on Ahab. This account is recorded twice verbatim in Scripture (see also 1 Kings 22:19-23).*

* You can read interesting details of this occasion in this article.

Similarly, in the New Testament we observe God sending a powerful delusion in the end times so that the wicked “will believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

Prime Examples of Justifiable Lying to Save Innocent Lives

One obvious example is the Hebrew midwives who lied to the king of Egypt to save male babies:

¹⁵The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” ¹⁷The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. ¹⁸Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

¹⁹The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

²⁰So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

Exodus 1:15-21

The midwives lied to the Pharaoh because (1) his command was evil and (2) their purpose was to save innocent lives. These two factors made the lie justifiable. Their actions proved that they “feared God” and thus God blessed them! Someone could argue that, technically, God blessed them because they feared God, not because they were lying, but the proof of their fearing God on this occasion is that they saved innocent Hebrew babies by justifiably lying to the king because his order was evil.

In a similar situation Rahab the harlot lied to the king of Jericho to save the two Hebrew spies:

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

²The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” ³So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

⁴But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” ⁶(But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)

Joshua 2:1-6

Rahab had become a believer in the LORD (verses 10-13) and verified her faith by hiding the Hebrew spies and lying to her king about their whereabouts to save their lives. Her justifiable lying also saved her life and the lives of her family members when the Israelites subsequently sacked the city. On top of this, she is hailed for her actions in the Hall of Faith chapter (Hebrews 11:31) and James commends her actions (James 2:25). The context of the latter verse is that faith without works is dead (2:14-26): Rahab’s deed of saving the spies via hiding them & justifiably lying about their whereabouts verified her salvation! Nowhere is it suggested in the Bible that Rahab’s lying to the Jericho authorities was evil; on the contrary, she’s honored for her faith and corresponding actions, which preserved the lives of many people.

There are other glaring examples of this type of justifiable lie in the Old Testament:

When David’s life was in danger from wicked King Saul, he instructed his close covenant friend, Jonathan, to lie to Saul — Jonathan’s father — about his whereabouts and Jonathan did so in order to protect David: 1 Samuel 20:5-6,27-29.
Michal saved her husband, David, by letting him escape through a window and then making a dummy of David in their bed. She then lied to Saul’s operatives, saying David was ill: 1 Samuel 19:9-17. The account also shows Michal lying to her father Saul about her motive for doing this, which she no doubt did because she feared that Saul would’ve executed her for her actions.
David’s closest friend, Jonathan, lied to his father, King Saul, in order to apprehend vital information in order to protect David from being unjustly murdered: 1 Samuel 20:27-31.
David lied to Ahimelech, the priest at Nob, to protect the priest from any accusation from Saul concerning involvement with David’s escape; he was also obviously protecting his own life: 1 Samuel 21:1-4. Jesus incidentally cited this occasion and, more specifically, David’s request for bread to which Ahimelech gave David the consecrated bread of the Presence. This illustrated the principle that human need takes precedence over ceremonial Law (Luke 6:3-4). Likewise, innocent lives take precedence over speaking the truth on occasions where the former would be endangered by the latter.
During Absalom’s rebellion, Ahimaaz and Jonathan — the sons of two of David’s priests — were forced to hide in a well from Absalom’s men. The unnamed woman of the property told Absalom’s men they weren’t there, but had crossed the nearby brook: 2 Samuel 17:20.

The moral we derive from these examples is that it’s acceptable to lie in order to save guiltless people. (‘Guiltless’ as in blameless in the situation in question, not sinless; no one is sinless except Christ). Let’s say you were living in German-controlled territory during WW2 and hiding Jews in your abode. If Nazi authorities came to your door looking for hidden Jews, would you say “Yes, I cannot tell a lie; they are hiding in the attic”? Of course you wouldn’t. In short, you are not obligated to tell the truth to wicked authorities if speaking the truth will result in great evil. Why? Because evil people are not rightfully due data that they will use to abuse and slay. You’re only obligated to speak what the Holy Spirit leads you to say (Mark 13:11).

Of course it’s never okay to deny Christ, even if your job or life is on the line (2 Timothy 2:12 & Matthew 10:32-33). Speaking of Christ…

**Jesus Justifiably Lied on One Occasion**

Here’s the incident:

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. ²But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, ³Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. ⁴No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

⁶Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. ⁸You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.

John 7:1-10

In verse 3 Jesus’ half-brothers try to steer him to go to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. Verse 5 shows that these brothers were unbelievers so their request is basically a challenge for Jesus to go to Jerusalem and prove he is who he says he is. In verse 8 Jesus plainly replies that he’s not going to the festival, but verse 10 shows him going after his brothers had left, in secret.

The word “yet” was added to verse 8 in later manuscripts as in “I am not yet going up to the feast.” But there’s no Greek word for “yet” in the most reliable manuscripts, as verified here. So why was “yet” added to the text? Obviously some religionists felt they needed to cover for Jesus and so added the word, but the Mighty Lord doesn’t need anyone to cover for him.

We know that the Messiah did not do or say anything without the Father’s leading as shown here:

So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.”

John 8:28

On this occasion in John 7 the Father instructed the Son to go to the feast in Jerusalem in secret. Why? Because, as verse 1 points out, the religious authorities there were intent on murdering Christ and the Jews could not kill him before God’s perfect timing and plan were ready (Galatians 4:4). If Jesus was commissioned by the Father to go to the festival in secret he naturally couldn’t inform his brothers that he was going. So he told them he wasn’t going; and, after they departed, he went in secret. This was a justified lie because he had divine instructions to do something clandestinely. In order to follow these divine instructions it was necessary to fib about whether or not he was going to the festival. If Christ told these manipulative unbelievers that he was actually going to the feast he would’ve disobeyed his Father’s instructions, which is sin. So — in reality — the Messiah’s justified lie was the very opposite of sin; it was submissive obedience to God.

Now some argue that Jesus didn’t technically lie because he hinted at the truth in his response by saying “My time is not yet here,” referring to his time to go to Jerusalem and die for humanity. This is flimsy evidence because the plain impression his brothers got from Jesus’ reply was that he wasn’t going to the festival and so they left without him, which enabled him to follow the Father’s instructions to go in secret.

It could be argued that Jesus’ lie was a case of not telling his half-brothers the whole truth. He told them “I am not going to the festival” whereas the fuller truth was “I am not going to the festival with you” or “I am not yet going to the festival.” Jesus’s obedience to his Father’s instructions required him to leave out this additional information. Yet leaving out a word or two completely changes the meaning of his response and, as pointed out above, the impression his brothers got was that he wasn’t going to the feast.

Was this justifiable lie a sin? No, because — while lying is a sin (Leviticus 19:11 & Colossians 3:9) — justifiable lying is not. The Bible plainly says that Jesus was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15) and on this occasion he was simply following his divine instructions to go to the Festival in secret. You can’t do something secretly if you publicly announce that you’re going to do it. So, when asked about going to the festival, Jesus denied that he was going.

Something else was going on here that should be considered in appraising the situation: Jesus’ half-brothers were arrogantly trying to manipulate him; and Christ refused to allow these mocking unbelievers to steer him like he was their puppet. We have to get away from this idea that Jesus was some weak pushover. He discerned the carnality behind his brothers’ attempt to manipulate him and so told them he wasn’t going — strategically leaving out “with you” — but then went anyway in secret. Simply put, Christ refused to allow arrogant people to manipulate him. You can read more on this topic here.

This example from Christ Himself shows that justifiable lies are sometimes necessary to fulfill one’s calling. These types of lies are rare and Spirit-led. They are not the same as the casual, habitual lying of those who “love and practice falsehood” (Revelation 22:15). In short, a justifiable lie is not equivalent to deceiving people for selfish or evil purposes, like lying to your spouse about committing adultery or Christine Ford’s false accusations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

This is the only example of justifiable lying in the New Testament, which shows that it should be a very uncommon action, if done at all.

Justifiably Lying to Obey an Authority for a Righteous Purpose

Jesus’ justifiable lie in John 7:8 is an example of obeying an authority for a righteous purpose. The Son’s instruction from the Father was to only go to the festival in Jerusalem in secret because Jesus had to die according to the Father’s timetable. To fulfill this righteous instruction he justifiably lied to his manipulative half-brothers. This is not a sin because it’s not lying for selfish, evil reasons, but rather righteous ones.

We observe this kind of justifiable lying elsewhere in Scripture with Jeremiah’s obedience to King Zedekiah’s instructions:

Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you may die. ²⁵If the officials hear that I talked with you, and they come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us or we will kill you,’ ²⁶then tell them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.’”

²⁷All the officials did come to Jeremiah and question him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they said no more to him, for no one had heard his conversation with the king.

Jeremiah 38:24-27

Zedekiah was the last king of Judah and hardly righteous, but godly Jeremiah obeyed his instructions on this occasion because Zedekiah was still the king and these particular instructions were appropriate in this context. In short, Jeremiah justifiably lied. But, remember, a justifiable lie is not a sin, only lying for selfish, evil purposes is.

Some argue that Jeremiah didn’t actually lie here. They suggest that he told the Babylonian officials the truth; he just didn’t divulge all the details of his conversation with the king to which the princes had no right. Actually, the text plainly says that Jeremiah “told them according to all these words that the king had commanded” (NKJV).

Justifiably Lying to Purge Evil

Police sometimes conduct sting operations to capture criminals and remove them from the populace for safety, justice and rehabilitation. For instance, officers will pretend to be an underage girl on the internet and set-up a meeting with an interested adult male. When the sexual predator shows up the police cuff him and take him in to custody. We observe this type of justifiable lying in the Bible, albeit decidedly more barbaric:

Jael, a Kenite, offered welcome sanctuary to Sisera, the commander of a Canaanite army, when the Israelites were chasing him. She kindly gave him a covering and something to drink in her tent, but shortly later drove a tent peg into his temple while he was sleeping: Judges 4:17-24. In the subsequent Song of Deborah Jael is praised for her actions: Judges 5:24-27.
At the beginning of Saul’s kingship, the city of Jabesh Gilead was besieged by the Ammonites and so Saul swiftly marshalled an army to deliver Jabesh. He sent word to the threatened inhabitants that his troops would be there the next day and so they told the Ammonites, “Tomorrow we will surrender to you, and you can do to us whatever seems good to you” fully knowing that Saul’s God-anointed army would slaughter them by that time: 1 Samuel 11:1-11.
When David was a fugitive from Israel during Saul’s reign he & his small army found sanctuary in the Philistine town of Ziklag for almost a year and a half. He lied to the naïve Philistine king about his raids on Israel’s enemies: 1 Samuel 27:1-12. He later put on an innocent act for King Achish: 1 Samuel 29:7-9. Keep in mind that David was “a man after God’s own heart” handpicked & anointed by the LORD to take over kingship of Israel from wicked Saul.
Jehu was privately anointed king of Israel by one of Elisha’s subordinate prophets and commissioned to wipe out Ahab’s wicked heritage. Baal worship was introduced to Israel by Ahab & his wife Jezebel. To eliminate this idol worship Jehu had to draw the Baal prophets out of the woodwork, which he did by announcing (falsely) that he would serve Baal even more than Ahab did and calling for a religious service for all the Baal ministers throughout Israel. Once they were all gathered Jehu had them executed and the LORD commended Jehu for his actions: 2 Kings 10:18-30.

In none of these cases were these Hebrews rebuked for lying; in two of them they are congratulated for their actions. Why? Because these are examples of justifiable lies, which aren’t evil because, well, they’re justified.

Joseph Shrewdly Deceived His Wicked Brothers to Break Them

Joseph was a type of Christ. A ‘type’ is simply an illustration of some future truth; hence, Joseph’s experiences foreshadowed the life of the Mighty Messiah in seven ways:

Joseph was the beloved son of his father, Jacob.
He was sent by his father to his brothers.
He was hated and rejected by them and sold for pieces of silver.
He was severely tempted and overcame.
He was “killed” and “came back to life” as far as his father was concerned.
He graciously forgave his offenders when they repented.
He subsequently provided them a new home that was a paradise compared to where they had been living, at least as far as sustenance goes.

The fact that Joseph was a type of Christ makes his example of godly shrewdness all the more pertinent to Christians since ‘Christian’ literally means “follower of the Anointed One.” Needless to say, it’s to every believer’s benefit to pay close attention to Joseph’s example since he exemplifies the very life of Christ.

As noted, Joseph was wrongly betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. He spent about 13 years as a slave and prisoner before miraculously becoming second in command of the greatest nation on earth at the time. That’s when his brothers desperately traveled to Egypt to acquire food to endure the famine in the area. In order to break his brothers and bring them to humble repentance Joseph…

didn’t reveal his true identity to his siblings, which is a form of deception (Genesis 42:7).
accused them of being spies even though he knew they weren’t (42:9).
gave orders to fill their bags with grain to be taken back to their families in Canaan, which proved his compassion for them and their kin, but he also slyly ordered that the silver with which they paid for the grain be put in the bags as well, which would freak them out when discovered (42:25-26).
when the brothers returned to Egypt with Benjamin, Joseph still refused to reveal his true identity and continued to pretend like he didn’t know who they were (Genesis 43:15-16).
had the brothers’ sacks filled with food to take back home but he also sneakily had his personal silver cup placed in the mouth of Benjamin’s bag. After the brothers left to travel home Joseph sent a detachment to catch up with them and (falsely) accuse them of stealing the governor’s treasured chalice. After the cup was discovered in Benjamin’s sack they returned to Egypt and threw themselves at Joseph’s feet. Continuing his ruse, Joseph asked them why they stole his silver cup (Genesis 44:1-15).

Joseph was a type of Christ and yet he used sly tactics to humble his carnal brothers and spur them to repentance. These shrewd tactics included forms of deception, but they were justified. Justified deception is not evil even if a misguided pastor or sect insists otherwise. How do we know this for sure? Because the Bible clearly teaches it.

“Be Shrewd as Snakes”

Jesus instructed his disciples, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). “Shrewd” refers to skill or sly cunning in practical matters, like when Paul mischievously implemented “divide and conquer” tactics when held before the two sects of the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:6-8).

Christians today are often too nice, naïve and gullible yet the Lord said we need to be shrewd while maintaining our blamelessness. He even gave an entire parable commending the shrewdness of a wasteful manager who was about to lose his job (Luke 16:1-9). Why would Christ encourage us to be skillfully cunning? He explained it himself: because we’re amongst wolves. By all means, walk innocently before your Creator but sweetness and naiveté won’t cut it when you’re dealing with arrogant, hostile, deceitful people like Joseph’s brothers. Such wolves will automatically regard niceness and gullibility as marks of weakness and take advantage. In short, they’ll chew you up and spit you out! This explains why Joseph pretended to be a stranger to his brothers, spoke harshly, and falsely accused them of being spies—he was being shrewd. Shrewdness was the only way to break his carnal brothers.

Believe it or not, this is in keeping with the very character of God, as seen here:

²⁵ With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;

     With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;

²⁶ With the pure You will show Yourself pure;

     And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.

²⁷ For You will save the humble people,

     But will bring down haughty looks.

Psalm 18:25-27 (NKJV)

This passage shows that God deals with us according to the way we choose to live and treat others. Don’t take this in the wrong spirit because verse 27 plainly shows that the LORD saves the humble so, no matter how bad we might miss it; if we’re willing to humbly repent God will respond with gentle forgiveness and restoration (1 John 1:8-9).

Yet, notice how the Lord deals with devious people in verse 26: He shows himself shrewd. This reveals that being shrewd toward crooked, wolfish people is actually a godly characteristic! The Bible instructs us to “be imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1). Consequently, if we’re dealing with devious people, like Joseph’s brothers, we need to imitate God by being shrewd, not nicey-wicey and wuvvy-dovey.

How nice was Jesus with the Pharisees and other stuffy religionists? He openly rebuked them and called them “foolish people” who were “full of greed and wickedness” (Luke 11:39). Sometimes he would answer their devious questions in such a way that stunned them to silence (Luke 20:20-26) while others he’d refuse to answer their questions at all and asked them a question instead (Mark 11:27-33). You see, Jesus simply refused to be manipulated by people, including these religious cons. Although this may not have been nice, it was certainly kind and good. After all, the kindest thing you can do for arrogant fakes like the Pharisees is openly rebuke them in the hope they’ll be shocked out of their deathly legalistic stupor. Although some devious people are incorrigible, like Judas Iscariot, shrewdness is the only way to break the ones who aren’t. This explains Joseph’s actions toward his wicked brothers and Jesus’ approach to the rigid religionists.

**Is it Okay to Lie if Your Life is in Danger?**

The great prophet Elisha did so when an army of troops from the king of Aram surrounded the city of Dothan in order to capture him. Notice what Elisha does:

18As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

19Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.

2 Kings 6:18-19

After praying that these warriors be struck with blindness, the prophet:

Pretended not to be Elisha:
Misled them to a place where the prophet was not located.

So, to save his innocent life, Elisha justifiably lied on two counts.

Now, consider a couple examples from the modern day…

Several years ago a mentally dubious man broke into a Christian woman’s abode and she suddenly found her life in serious danger. A strategy flashed through her mind to which she immediately implemented: She told the stranger she loved him dearly and put on this act for the next few hours in order to quell him, eventually talking him into getting help. Thus the man was taken into custody with little harm done.

Was it evil for her to lie to this psycho about loving him in order to save her life, as well as get the man the help he needed? Obviously not. It’s an example of godly shrewdness — cleverly adjusting your behavior in a fallen world to overcome evil in a dangerous situation. No doubt the Holy Spirit gave her this brilliant strategy to save her life and get the ill man the necessary rehabilitation. Joseph enacted a similar clever strategy to break his wicked brothers.

Like this Christian woman, my wife implemented a justifiable lie when visiting Oahu as a young woman. A cab driver drove her to her motel and discovered that she was going to be alone for her first full day so he offered to take her to breakfast the next day and give her a tour of the island. Being young and naïve, Carol accepted. After breakfast and an informative tour that took several hours they were driving in a remote area of cane fields when the man unexpectedly stopped the car and informed her, “You know, I could do whatever I want with you and no one would know.” Carol searched her heart and quickly responded, “Yeah, except for the girl at motel who gave me a wake-up call and knew I was going out with the cab driver who drove me from the airport.” The man clearly wasn’t happy with this response and silently drove her back to her motel.

Carol wasn’t a liar back then and nor is she now. She isn’t comfortable with lying and could never pull it off convincingly. But she did so on this occasion. The Holy Spirit gave her the words and the grace to do it. What would’ve happened to her if she hadn’t justifiably lied on this occasion? Rape for sure; and very possibly death.

David also justifiably lied to safeguard his life when he first met Achish, the Philistine king noted earlier. This was before David acquired his men and he was therefore alone. He fled from Saul’s wrath to Gath where Achish reigned and David felt it necessary to act like a madman to preserve his life: 1 Samuel 21:10-15. Acting, of course, is a form of deception. David felt it was justified on this occasion to deceive Achish & the Philistines in order to preserve his life.

While I think it’s a no-brainer that lying in these types of situations is justified, you should always do what you feel led of the Spirit to do. But obviously you should never deny Christ, even if your life is on the line (2 Timothy 2:12 & Matthew 10:32-33).

I should add that Abraham, our ancient father of faith, felt the need to lie on two occasions by having Sarah tell people she was his sister, not his wife: Genesis 12:10-20 and 20:1-13. However, this was not actually a justified lie because Abraham’s life wasn’t really in danger; he was simply walking in fear rather than faith. In both cases his unnecessary deception caused unnecessary problems for others. Both accounts reveal God’s grace and how far the LORD is willing to go to protect his people when they act foolishly.

A Justifiable Lie is NOT Sheqer or Kazab

The heart of the misunderstanding can be traced to the difference in meanings of the English word ‘lie’ and the Hebrew word translated as “lie” or its variations, like “lying,” “liar” “false,” “falsehood” or “deceitful” (e.g. Exodus 20:16 & Proverbs 6:17,19) The English ‘lie’ means non-factual whereas the Hebrew word sheqer (SHEH-ker) refers to fraudulence or deception with evil or hurtful intent. Fraud means to cheat someone; and to cheat someone means to not give people what they are rightfully owed.

Since Nazis looking to apprehend Jews during WW2 had evil intent they were not rightfully due factual information since it would result in evil, whether unjust imprisonment, abuse or murder. In such a scenario, the person lying to the Nazis would indeed be guilty of giving non-factual information but s/he would not be guilty of sheqer. Giving non-factual data in such a situation is a justifiable lie, but it’s not sheqer. The Hebrew sheqer—to defraud someone or deceive with evil intent—is not used in any of the examples of justifiable lying cited above.

Is trickery inherently evil, that is, sheqer? Only if the intent is to con someone out of what is rightfully due him/her. If the intent of trickery is good then it’s not sheqer. For instance, the LORD instructed David to use deceptive military tactics to defeat the Philistines in 2 Samuel 5:22-25. How was this justifiable? Because the Philistines were the enemies of Israel—God’s consecrated nation—and the noble goal was to defeat them. How about the use of trickery in games, like football? When a quarterback fakes a handoff to a running back it’s trickery, but it’s not sheqer. Why? Because the context of the trickery is a game—a contest—and the goal is to win, not to be transparently honest with the opponent which, needless to say, would be asinine. It’s the same thing with other competitive sports, like basketball and certain card games.

Another Hebrew word translated as “lie” is kazab (kaw-ZAB), which is used in this passage: “God is not human, that he should lie (kazab), nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19). Kazab literally means “Vain words spoken to deceive, cause failure or disappoint; that which does not function within its intended capacity” (Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible). This explains the use of kazab in this passage:

“You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail (kazab).”

Isaiah 58:11

A spring whose waters fail is a lying spring because it’s not functioning according to its intended capacity. When the Bible says “God is not human, that he should lie (kazab)” it means that God is not going to speak vain words that deceive in the sense of failing or disappointing the person rightfully due. When Christ—God in the flesh—lied to his unbelieving, manipulative brothers about going to the festival in Jerusalem it was a justifiable lie since he was following his Father’s instructions to go to the feast in secret. It was technically a lie—giving non-factual information—but it wasn’t sheqer or kazab. Are you following?

Something else to consider: A person can be guilty of sheqer or kazab even if what they say is factual and they’re not technically lying. Say a man is selling a naïve lady a house & property: Everything he says is true, but he shadily leaves out vital data that would dissuade her from purchasing because he’s only interested in getting his big commission. This would fall within the definition of sheqer or kazab. He didn’t technically lie, but his actions where fraudulent; he failed to walk in a spirit of love toward his neighbor.

A genuine “white lie” wouldn’t be sheqer or kazab either if it’s done because you love the person and don’t want to unnecessarily hurt them. Say a wife shows off her short haircut to her hubby beaming with smiles. He doesn’t like it, but wisely tells her it looks great because he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings and, besides, telling her the truth would do little good since it would take at least eight months for her hair to get back to the length he preferred. Once her hair grows back he can tell her the truth and encourage her to never cut her hair short again.

I want to stress that this is not an excuse to be a pathetic bullcrapper. Nor is it a justification to cover up your own sin because you don’t want to hurt the person, like covering up adultery. I’m talking about rare occasions where telling a person how you really feel would unnecessarily hurt them and you don’t want to do that out of love. Nor am I talking about situations where someone asks you for your honest opinion and it concerns his/her work, like an item that’s going to be sold to the public. For instance, if someone gives me their song, artwork or book for my evaluation I’m going to be explicitly honest, albeit tactfully.

In short, these kinds of genuine white lies may technically be lies, but they’re not sheqer or kazab. When David adamantly declared “I hate and detest falsehood (sheqer)” (Psalm 119:163) he was referring specifically to sheqer, not justifiable lies. The latter are non-factual info, but they’re not sheqer. We need to get a hold of this.

Conclusion

Since the LORD hates “a lying tongue” (Proverbs 6:16-19) and those who love and practice falsehood will end up in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8 & 22:15) it goes without saying that we should be very careful about justifiable lying. We must only do so as led of the Spirit on rare occasions for a righteous purpose, like saving innocent lives, obeying an authority for righteous reasons, shrewdly exposing & purging evil or simply walking in love so as to not unnecessarily hurt.

The biblical data in this article is important to balance out the topic of lying. Yes, lying for selfish, wicked purposes is always wrong and is always sin, period. But justified lies are not wrong and they’re not sin because they’re not sheqer or kazab. Understanding this sets the believer free from the daft “Boy Scout Syndrome,” which is actually religious bondage. I’m talking about the misguided idea that you can never, under any circumstances, tell a lie or put on an act that gives people an erroneous impression; you are always obligated to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even when dealing with wicked arrogant people with evil intentions in a fallen world; even if great evil occurs as a result. This article reveals straight from the Holy Scriptures — God’s Word — that this is simply not true. It’s a religious lie that puts people of God into religious bondage. As Jesus said, “The truth will set you FREE” (John 8:31-32).

For those who disagree even after being exposed to the colossal amount of evidence that supports the necessity of justifiable lies when appropriate, that’s fine. Do what you have the faith to do (Romans 14:23). I’m just glad the midwives — hailed in Scripture for fearing God — weren’t like this, not to mention Joseph, Rahab, Michal, Jonathan, David, Jael, the people of Jabesh, Jeremiah and Jesus Christ, amongst others.

Jesus Christ — Milksop or Mighty Lord?

Insights on OFFENSE & FORGIVENESS from Joseph’s Story

Bible—Is it Full of Contradictions? Does it Promote Slavery, Tyranny and Discrimination?

Berean Spirit — What is it? How Do You Cultivate It?

Hermeneutics — Proper Bible Interpretation

Legalism — Understanding its Many Forms

Is Name-Calling Ever Appropriate?

OFFICIAL Prophets (Ministers) and INDEPENDENT Prophets (Ministers)

A prophet is someone who proposes to speak for the LORD and therefore represents God. In the Old Testament we observe two kinds of prophets:

Official prophets who served on the king’s court wherein they advised the kings of Israel or Judah, such as Nathan during David’s reign (2 Samuel 7:1-17, 12:1-14 & 1 Kings 1:22-23).
Independent prophets who functioned outside the official sanction of the king, like Elijah, who opposed Ahab, the king of Israel (1 Kings 18:16-21).

Both types are good and necessary but — as with anything — each can be corrupted. When corruption enters the picture, abuse is always nearby (abuse is the misuse of power).

The potential pitfall for official prophets is that they can easily become “yes men” in an effort to maintain their position and recognition. The obvious challenge for independent prophets is their immediate lack of human accountability and potential for unorthodox positions, meaning unbiblical teachings.

A good example of the former would be the 400 “official” prophets of Israel that righteous Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, recognized as dubious:

⁵But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the Lord.”

⁶So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?”

“Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”

⁷But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?”

1 Kings 22:5-7

Jehoshaphat was the righteous king of Judah whereas Ahab was the wicked king of Israel, although Ahab had a sincere season of repentance around this particular time (1 Kings 21:25-29). Whatever the case, it’s clear that Jehoshaphat didn’t trust these 400 “official” prophets who served Ahab. He discerned that they were worthless “yes men.” So he inquired of Ahab:

⁷…”Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?”

⁸The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”

“The king should not say such a thing,” Jehoshaphat replied.

⁹So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”

1 Kings 22:7-9

Micaiah (mih-CAY-ah) was an independent prophet who was unknown to the king of Judah and disregarded by Ahab because he refused to tickle the king’s ears with untruths. Notice how Micaiah responds to the messenger who was sent to get him:

¹³The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”

¹⁴But Micaiah said, “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me.”

1 Kings 22:13-14

As you can see, the envoy pressured this independent prophet to agree with the words of Ahab’s numerous official prophets, but Micaiah nobly stressed that he could only convey what the LORD gave him to say. Observe what happens next:

When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not?”

“Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”

1 Kings 22:15

Micaiah was implementing sarcasm here, amusingly mocking Ahab’s 400 “official” prophets. He then proceeded to tell Ahab and Jehoshaphat the truth, which you can look up yourself.

Uriah the priest during the reign of wicked Ahaz, king of Judah, is another sad example of a minister who weakly just goes with the flow in order to maintain his position and keep bread & butter on the table. Ahaz went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria wherein he noticed an altar to Asshur, worshiped by the Assyrians, and sent Uriah in Jerusalem sketches of the pagan altar and corresponding orders concerning idolatrous worship. The account culminates with this sad statement: “and Uriah the Priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered” (2 Kings 16:10-16).

Keep in mind that Uriah was supposed to be a priest of the LORD and that the previous king of Judah and the following king were righteous (the father and son of Ahaz respectively). Wouldn’t you think that the head priest closest to the throne would defend staying faithful to Yahweh and adamantly object to gross pagan idolatry in God’s Temple? Not in this case. Uriah might have been an “official” minister of the LORD, but obviously not in his heart or practice. We see similar “official” ministers today in various compromised sects. Whatever dubious doctrines & practices are approved by the authorities of their sect they just wimpily go with the flow.

In contrast to Ahab’s 400 prophets and Uriah the priest, Nathan is an example of an official prophet who refused to become a pathetic “yes man.” He boldly spoke the truth and confronted error when applicable, come what may (2 Samuel 12:1-14).

As noted above, Elijah and Micaiah are good examples of righteous independent prophets, as is Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:17-19).

The unnamed “man of God” who rebuked Eli, the High Priest at Shiloh, is another good example (1 Samuel 2:27-36). Keep in mind that Eli was a descendant of Aaron and his position was of that magnitude, not to mention he “judged” Israel for 40 years, meaning he led the nation (1 Samuel 4:18). In short, he fulfilled the office of both priest and judge of Israel during that time. All the official ministers in Israel would’ve technically been under Eli and would’ve understandably been leery about confronting & correcting someone of such stature. This independent “man of God,” by contrast, didn’t allow Eli’s great position to prevent him from fulfilling God’s instruction. This is one of the reasons we need independent ministers.

An example of an independent prophet becoming corrupt is the nameless old prophet who lied to a younger prophet — simply referred to as a “man of God” — about an angel supposedly visiting him and giving him instructions that deviated from the LORD’s personal instructions to the younger prophet (1 Kings 13). Foolishly believing the older prophet’s lie and disregarding the Lord’s direct instructions resulted in his death (verses 18-25).

Official Ministers and Independent Ministers in the New Testament Era

The history of Israel and the patriarchs in the Old Testament serve as examples to us, the worldwide Church (1 Corinthians 10:11 & Galatians 4:24). God’s kingdom reigned on earth in the Old Testament via the physical nation of Israel whereas God’s kingdom reigns on earth in the New Testament period via the spiritual nation of the Church (1 Peter 2:9). We’re currently living in the New Testament era, of course.

Israel was led by kings, priests, judges and prophets (Jeremiah 2:26) while the Church is led by apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, which means fivefold ministers (Ephesians 4:11-13). ‘Minister’ means “servant,” by the way, so the Church is led by servant-leaders.

Just as Israel had official prophets and independent prophets, so the Church has official ministers and independent ministers. Official ministers in the Church are those who function within the structure of a particular camp/sect/denomination. These ministers receive their credentials through schools in these groups and largely function within their camp. In most cases they only function within their camp. To one degree or another, their allegiance is to their sect, but hopefully to God & His Word first and foremost.

Independent ministers, by contrast, function outside of sectarian tags even if they might get their human credentials through a particular group or via a school that serves Christians from several sects that operate under the banner of, say, Evangelicals. Of course, some genuine independent ministers don’t have proper public credentials at all, but neither did Christ or the original apostles; the latter simply walked with the Lord and were anointed of God.

I personally was ordained at a special service in 2006 and received a diploma from a reputable Bible college in 2010. When I got these credentials I put ’em under my bed and continued to do what I was already doing in service of the Lord. Actually, they’re displayed on my wall; I’m just making a point.

Just as the physical nation of Israel was split into sects after Solomon’s reign, that is, Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 12) — and, for a brief period, Benjamin separated to essentially fight for homosexual rights (Judges 19-21) — so the spiritual nation of the worldwide Church is split up into sects, some good, some bad and many somewhere in between.

Even if you’re part of a particular sect — and there’s nothing wrong with that if it’s where the Lord leads you to grow/serve — it’s best to strive to be as non-sectarian as possible, which you can read about here. Where and how you function & serve in the body of Christ is determined by your stage of spiritual growth, as well as the Lord’s calling and the Holy Spirit’s leading.

A Scriptural Example of an Independent Servant of Christ

An obvious example of an independent minister can be seen on this occasion (observed from two different accounts):

“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”

⁵⁰“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”

Luke 9:49-50

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

³⁹“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, ⁴⁰for whoever is not against us is for us.

Mark 9:38-40

At this time Christ & the disciples who ministered with him were the only “sect” of Christianity on Earth, but here John observes someone operating outside of their “sect” driving out evil spirits from demon-oppressed people. John was growing in the Lord, of course, yet he was obviously still spiritually immature, which can be seen in his religious reaction to an independent disciple boldly carrying out the work of Christ (Acts 10:38). John wanted to stop the man simply because he wasn’t “one of them”; in other words, the man served God outside of John’s group and so he instinctively objected. This is the spirit of sectarianism, which is a work of the flesh and a form of legalism; legalism is counterfeit spirituality. People who function according to rigid sectarianism, like John here, are in Stage Two spiritual growth (see this article for details on the stages of spiritual growth). Yet notice that the Lord had no issue with this independent minister based on the reasoning “whoever is not against us is for us.”

Why is this account in the New Testament, twice? To show us that God has zero problem with believers taking the initiative and doing the work of the LORD independent of the in-vogue sect, whatever that might be. Please note that Christ did not say, “Yes, he must be discouraged and stopped immediately — he is not accountable!” We have to get away from this childish idea that, unless believers have official sanction from a certain sect, they can’t do anything legitimate for the kingdom of God and they’re not worthy of receiving from. Christian servant-leaders — whether apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers (Ephesians 4:11-13) — are not limited to a man-made religious box! (Which is not to say that genuine Christian sects or camps are all “man-made religious boxes,” just that they can be).

Strengths & Weaknesses of Official Ministers and Independent Ministers

Assuming the camp/sect in question strives to be Bible-believing and Bible-preaching, official ministers are reliable sources of Christian ministry, but they’re naturally prone to the flaws of their camp/sect, whatever those might be. In cases where the Scriptures clearly don’t agree with a particular doctrine or practice of their sect, they’ll likely side with their group above the Scriptures since it’s convenient and that’s where they get their bread & butter, so to speak, not to mention their position/recognition. Few official ministers are willing to risk losing these things, although Martin Luther did so when he boldly posted the 95 theses on the Wittenberg Door and eventually split from the Catholic sect.

Another downside of ministers functioning solely within the framework of a particular sect is that they can become spiritually inbred with the corresponding rigid sectarianism. Their ministry — e.g. their sermons — are prone to cop a “same old, same old” vibe with little freshness. As a result, they can become uninspiring.

The strength of independent ministers is that they’re less interested in the official doctrines/practices of a particular sect and more interested in what the God-breathed Scriptures actually teach. They can shake things up for believers in a positive way. It goes without saying that receiving from independent ministers can be refreshing and invigorating. Actually, the Word of God and anointed ministers should always shake us up in a positive manner (I’m obviously not talking about abusive non-ministry tactics, like a wicked spirit of condemnation, which sucks the life out of believers). The potential weakness of such ministers is that their quirks and lack of immediate governing structure can lead them astray into dubious doctrines/practices. However, any minister that simply sticks to the rightly-divided Word of God will avoid this pitfall.

Diotrephes (dye-OT-rah-feez) was a pastor within the apostle John’s circuit of assemblies. He clearly wanted to become more independent in ministry, which is fine, but he started walking in the flesh to carry out this goal, which isn’t good. Observe what John said about him:

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. ¹⁰ So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

3 John 1:9-10

Diotrephes was likely the head pastor of the fellowship. After all, who else but the pastor would have the authority to prevent leaders of John’s stature from coming and ministering? Who else but the pastor has the power to excommunicate? Unfortunately, in Diotrephes’ desire to become more independent in ministry, he took a grossly carnal turn — slandering leaders and unjustly excommunicating believers.

Christ was an Independent Minister

For the record, Jesus was an independent minister. Sure, he was a Judaic believer who regularly attended synagogue, but he didn’t identify with the various Hebrew factions of the 1^st century: Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Essenes, Zealots, etc. Being independent and devoted to God & the Scriptures first and foremost, Christ wasn’t biased based around sectarian allegiances. Interestingly, while he warned his listeners about the corruption of the Teachers of the Law, he didn’t hesitate to commend one Teacher of the Law when appropriate (compare Mark 12:38-40 and Mark 12:28-34). In other words, just because a person belonged to a group he denounced, Jesus was able to give merit where it was due. We should do the same.

Likewise, independent ministers today are decidedly Christian, but they don’t necessarily identify with a specific group, like the Assemblies of God, Baptist, Reformed, Nazarene, Church of Christ, Word of Faith, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopal, Catholic and so forth. There are much smaller sects in most local areas. This is not to say that independent ministers won’t minister within the framework of any of these groups. They can and do. It’s just that they refuse to allow the doctrines/practices of these groups to inhibit their service in the Lord.

When official ministers allow independent ministers to serve at one of their services they usually have to get the permission of the higher authorities of their particular sect. If not, there can be repercussions. For instance, the Assemblies of God require pastors to obtain permission to allow ministers outside of their sect to minister at a service. In the mid-2000s a Nazarene pastor I know allowed an independent prophet to minister at several services in his assembly, but this prophet was a Charismatic, i.e. he believed and functioned in the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). Apparently that’s a no-no for Nazarenes because the pastor swiftly got kicked out of his denomination and moved to Canada to pastor another fellowship.

Who should you Receive from—Official Ministers or Independent Ministers?

Why not both since the Bible includes both types in the Old and New Testaments? Learn to “eat the meat and spit out the bones,” whether you’re receiving from an official minister or an independent one. This is a modern rephrasing of something encouraged in the New Testament (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).

Be aware of the strengths and potential weaknesses of both official and independent prophets. Reject the problematic or dubious, but receive the good. If you’re not sure something is scriptural put it on the back burner, so to speak, until you acquire more detailed information to draw a proper conclusion. But don’t just blindly accept whatever your camp/sect/assembly says is true, because it might not be. Keep in mind that all fivefold ministers are human beings with individual quirks. All of them have a downside, all of them. There’s no such thing as a perfect minister, just like there’s no such thing as a perfect church/camp/sect.

However, the minister should be free of sin as a lifestyle and it’s important that they show evidence of the fruit of the spirit on a consistent basis (Matthew 7:15-23 & Galatians 5:19-23). They must be completely free of major sin and, when they miss it in smaller areas, they should be humble enough to admit it and spiritual enough to quickly ’fess up, receive forgiveness and move on (1 John 1:8-9).

If you sense an abusive, accusing or rigidly legalistic spirit with little evidence of fruit of the spirit, head to the hills, whether it’s an official minister or an independent one. This is what Christ instructed us to do (Matthew 15:14). Since pride is sin numero uno, arrogance is the worst indicator. I’m talking about a pompous, boastful, condescending spirit that refuses to ever admit they’re wrong and loves to manipulate.

The most glaring evidence of arrogance is when a supposed minister insists that only he/she and their particular group is the “one true church” and every minister/assembly outside their group is false. These types are quick to call anyone a “false teacher” who happens to disagree with their conclusions on any jot or tittle of Scripture. Of course they justify such rash pomposity under the guise of “spiritual boldness.” It’s both eye-rolling and cult-ish. Needless to say, if you come across one of these types flee for your spiritual welfare. Even if they’re right on a particular issue, so what? Everyone is right about something. Their gross arrogance tells you everything you need to know. Leave them (Matthew 15:14).

Lastly, the doctrines (teachings) a minister teaches/preaches should be as biblical as possible because the Holy Scriptures are the LORD’s blueprint for authentic Christian doctrine & practice (1 Corinthians 4:6). Ministers should be held accountable to what God’s Word teaches based on sound hermeneutics.

This article is also a chapter in…

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Prophets — New Testament and Old Testament (There’s a Difference)

Hermeneutics — Proper Bible Interpretation

What’s the Difference between TEACHING and PREACHING?

Ministerial Abuse — The Diotrephes Spirit vs. the Davidic Spirit

Ministerial Pitfalls and Abuses

Should Ministers Be Addressed with Titles?

Legalism — Understanding its Many Forms

Kingdom of God — What Does it Mean?

Roman Catholicism – Is it the “Original Church”? (No)