Do We Grieve Over False Teachers?
False teaching should make us mad. At times, it should even make our blood boil with righteous anger. False teaching leads people into darkness and hurts people made in the image of God. It props up idols masquerading as Christ and distorts God’s perfect Word. Yes, this should make us indignant for God’s glory and the souls of the lost.
But does it ever cause us to mourn?
Does it cause us to weep hot tears of both anger and grief? Does it cause us to tremble at the judgment that awaits those teachers? Does it break our hearts when trials come their way as we realize what their theology says to suffering hearts? If we felt this kind of grief, how would that change our words and actions towards false teachers? Perhaps we’d be better proclaimers of the truth they need.
Rethinking our Motives
At times I’ve lost my grief over false teaching and replaced it with sanctified mocking. As Nate Pickowicz aptly phrased it, we can be tempted to “sinfully glory in their shame” without hoping for their repentance.
When the latter is our attitude, our goal in rebuking false teaching becomes more about mockery than God’s glory. We find more joy in making mocking memes about false teachers than we do in seeking their repentance. We care more about crafting the perfect snide remark over their error than we do about telling them the truth in gentleness. We spend more time laughing together at their ruin than praying for their salvation.
The underlying motive of it all is the pursuit of our own glory. As seasoned blogger Tim Challies recently wrote, “The easiest way to gain a following, whether in the Christian world or outside it, is to be known for what you are against—to be a skeptic or critic or cultural commentator.”¹
Perhaps some of us, in our zeal for good doctrine, have forgotten the purpose of rebuking false teaching altogether: To proclaim the true gospel to the lost. Both the deceived and the deceiver need the gospel, because without it they are under God’s wrath without Christ. This thought should break our hearts and propel us to preach the true gospel, rather than focusing on the evils of false teaching alone.
Basking in their Suffering
Likewise, when we stop mourning the destructiveness of false teaching, we are prone to bask in their suffering. As with most Christian celebrities, when false teachers suffer it’s broadcasted. They are held high by the media for us to peer and snicker at.
We should scorn heresy and call out its promoters, and we can be righteously angry at all the harm they are doing. We can pray for their eyes to be opened and call them to repentance. But we should never forget that they are fellow image bearers made by our Father. They are not one of Satan’s demons. They are people who grieve and feel heartache. And precisely because of their wrong understanding of God and the gospel, we should be keenly aware that their suffering may cut even deeper.
Instead of using their suffering as an opportunity to mock them, we can choose a better option. We can pray they would find comfort in the true God and believe the true hope the good news offers. We can proclaim the gospel that offers a better answer to pain and suffering. And as we do, we should do so humbly—coming before God with a trembling heart that recognizes we could have easily been in the same place as them if God hadn’t opened our eyes to the gospel.
Where Change Usually Happens
When we feel that anger and grief boil up in our hearts by the lies around us, we need to remember the ordinary place for change. People usually aren’t awakened to the truth by clever memes or shouting matches on Twitter. And while there is a place for books and blog posts that call out the errors of false teaching, we need to remember God’s ordinary means he has given us in the local church. The accurate preaching of the Word, the right administration of the sacraments, and the fellowship of the saints are the ordinary ways God brings about change and repentance in his people.
There’s opportunity for each of us to be workers for the gospel in our local churches and to show how much greater it is than the false gospels being offered. Let’s seek that work first, and humbly fall to our knees in grief-stricken prayer for the lost and the false teacher. People on the internet and people in our local churches are suffering without God—and will for all eternity if they don’t believe the gospel. We need to be bearers of the good news to them, not jesters poking fun at their foolishness.
Let’s be propelled by the same desire as C. H. Spurgeon for the lost: “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.” Let this be our attitude as we rebuke false teaching.
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Tim Challies, "Tips for Young (and Maybe Not-So-Young) Bloggers," Challies, September 4, 2020, accessed September 9, 2020, https://www.challies.com/articles/tips-for-young-and-maybe-not-so-young-bloggers/
