This past week America witnessed the worst kind of vile invective back and forth the political aisle. Fowl and vulgar language turned the air blue with words our mothers once washed out our mouths for saying. Debate crossed the line and became enmity. It is all very sad and sobering.
The book of Jude is instructive for Christians in this regard. He tells us by inspiration that Christians should not issue “railing accusations” towards other people, even apostates.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, dusrst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” – Jude 1:9
This verse is compelling on many levels. In fact, this is the only reference we have in the Bible regarding this instance of conflict between Michael and Satan, two former brothers in heaven now adversaries. Michael remained faithful while Satan fell. We do, however, have reference to this instance in a non-biblical source, The Assumption of Moses. This book is not inspired and is not contained in Scripture, though the Holy Spirit confirms here in Jude that THIS instance did, in fact, take place. Michael and Satan DID contend and dispute over the body of Moses. Jude uses these facts to illustrate a truth for us.
The book of Jude is the only book in the New Testament devoted exclusively towards dealing with apostasy. Other books, especially the epistles of John and Peter, deal with apostasy but are not devoted exclusively to it. Jude, however, deals with it singularly, passionately and completely. Verse 9 of his letter is somewhat like a steam valve. When the steam pressure in a boiler gets too high, a steam valve is used to lessen the internal pressure, thus bringing the entire environment back into safety. The pressure in Jude brought on by “certain men (who) crept in unawares” has been brought to a fever pitch by verse 8 and threatens to explode. Instead of sending his readers in angry fury toward these false teachers, Jude illustrates that “railing accusations” are not in the appropriate communication realm of Christian men and women. God is the only judge. Only He can ascertain and judge the hearts and the motives of men. Jude says, in essence, “If Michael did not issue a “railing accusation” against Satan, the epitome of evil itself, we should not issue such railings, accusations and judgments of motive towards apostates, false teachers and anyone else with whom we disagree. We need to leave such judgments to God and God alone.
Does this leave us with nothing we can or should do when false teachers enter the flock? Absolutely not! While we are not to judge by appearance or motive, we must “judge with righteous judgment” and “speak the truth in love.”
“Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” – John 7:24
“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the heard, even Christ:” – Ephesians 4:5
Assessing the facts of the matter, using the Word of God to teach the truth and to refute error is both allowed and expected by God. Michael did not judge the apparent motives of Satan and neither should we judge the apparent motives of false teachers, apostates and anyone else for that matter, that task will be accomplished by Christ on Judgment Day. (II Corinthians 5:10) Instead our speech should be “as apples of gold in a setting of silver.” (Proverbs 25:11) “WHY” people do what they do is between them and God alone and is not the business of man to discover. Let’s remember that our business is “WHAT’s” right or wrong, not “WHO’s right or wrong and certainly not “WHY” someone does or does not do a thing! Let’s keep our head, lower our tone, clean up our language and refuse to speculate regarding motive when dealing with our adversaries. Michael did and so should we.
Copyright 2010 by Russ McCullough - All Rights Reserved
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