“As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.
Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.
Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.
And they glorified God in me.”
— Galatians 1:9–24
Here Paul defends his apostleship.
Remember that the Judaizers (Jews and some Gentiles who believed in Christ yet taught that you had to observe the Old Testament Levitical laws) questioned whether Paul was a real apostle, since he hadn't been one of the original apostles. And since he had been hired by the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders to persecute Christians, there was naturally a lot of distrust of him among Christians.
Paul was the Jewish Al Capone, a thug.
In Galatians 1:9–24 Paul says that he has no apology for his words:
“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
Paul is not a man pleaser. He is a God pleaser. He is not going through life saying, “oh those Galatians are being led astray, but I don't want to do anything to offend them. I don't want to make waves.”
What if he attended a church that started preaching modern day Judaizing, which is to say that you have to do something to be saved, and you have to keep doing it in order to stay saved, or at least not fall into sin?
There are many churches that teach versions of that.
Do you think Paul would be silent? Would he keep his mouth shut so as not to offend anybody? Would he worry that he wouldn’t be liked?
I don't think so.
He would hold the Bible high and say something like, “no, no, no, NO! The Word of God says what you're teaching is heresy. It says you are not to believe it and you're not to teach it. Stop!”
Do you know what would happen if he would say that in a heretical church today?
You probably have a good idea.
The fingers would be pointing at him:
“You're a troublemaker! How dare you criticize your church, your pastor? Do you think you know more than he/she/it does? You're being divisive. You're being schismatic. You’re being hateful. You're trying to divide this church. Paul, repent!”
I wouldn't be surprised if these accusations were brought against Paul by the Judaizers in Galilee.
If you're catching a lot of enemy fire, you must be near the target.
Paul is boldly proclaiming the truth. He says that if he tried to please men, he wouldn't be Christ's servant.
Not that he would ever needlessly be argumentative. Far from it.
In another place he says he becomes all things to all men in hoping he can win some to Christ:
“And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”
— 1 Corinthians 9:20–22
In other words, he tries to make friends with people and meet them where they are in order to witness to them.
Nor is Paul uncaring about preserving the peace and unity of the Church.
On the contrary, in the 13 epistles that we have of his, he strongly expresses his desire for peace for believers and the Church no less than 48 times.
Here are a few:
He tells the Church in Rome,
“let us pursue the things which make for peace”
— Romans 14:9
He tells the Church in Corinth,
“God has called us to peace, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints”
— 1 Corinthians 14:33
He implores the Church in Ephesus to
“keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace”
— Ephesians 4:3
To the Colossian Church he writes,
“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body”
— Colossians 3:15
And much more.
No, Paul is not one of those people that unfortunately are too common; people who nitpick and find fault with everything, especially their church.
There is no perfect church, and it's easy to find fault in even the most faithful of them – if you want to find them.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what some people want.
I believe that these people have less of a theological problem than they have a psychological problem.
We're not called to put our church under a microscope and sit in judgment over it. That's a sin.
And the people that do that are dividers, the real disturbers of the peace of the Church.
Now, what do you do when you see something you think is unbiblical in your church?
I'm not talking about a church or denomination abandoned the Gospel long ago, such as the Presbyterian Church USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and most of the other mainline denominations.
Those “churches” are spiritually dead, and apparently the Lord has abandoned them in order to make their iniquity complete.
I hope you wouldn't be part of that kind of false church.
What I'm speaking of is a Church that has been reasonably faithful to the Word of God, whose leaders are sincere in their desire to serve God.
Sometimes they are ignorant of what the Word requires in certain areas, so they've gone off track.
There are a lot of churches like that.
When you see that something has gone off track, how do you decide whether you should speak out boldly, proclaiming the truth, or should you keep silent in order to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace?
It's not easy!
But here is what you do first.
You keep your mouth shut.
And you soak yourself as never before in God's Word, and you pray fervently without ceasing.
You don't say anything to anyone -- for months.
And you do that until the Lord makes it clear, internally and externally, what you are to do next.
That's not going to take one evening.
And that's not going to take a day or two.
It's not going to take a week or two.
It's not even going to take a month or two.
If you think you have your answer in that short a time, very likely you're being sent a strong delusion by Satan.
Number two, ask the Lord to show you your heart.
Is your desire to confront the situation out of love for the body of Christ?
Or is it out of something else?
Ask Him if it is out of pride, that you understand the Bible more than most.
Deep in your heart, does it give you satisfaction to be known as the most biblically knowledgeable person in your church?
If that's your desire, it’s a serious sin.
And that attitude has destroyed a lot of faithful churches.
Beg the Lord to show you if that's your motivation and to give you true repentance.
And don't be in a hurry for the answer.
Keep begging Him.
Third, if you find yourself in this situation with the church and you're not sure what to do, if you're still convinced you've done all you should, and you're still convinced your motivation is out of love, and you've become convinced Biblically in your heart that you should speak out, and you can cite passages from God’s Word that prove that -- you do nothing.
You do nothing until the Lord has confirmed it externally.
Not only in your heart, but externally.
What do I mean?
You will know it when you see it.
Maybe the leaders will act on their own to make the change.
Maybe they have been pondering these very same things in their hearts, and suddenly things are going to change in that church.
That's an external confirmation.
Or maybe the Lord will send someone else better equipped than you to convince them.
Somebody else might speak out.
Maybe new leaders will be elected and they'll reform the situation.
Or maybe the pastor will get another call and leave the church and be replaced by a more faithful man.
Or maybe the opportunity to be instrumental in making the changes will open up to you.
Maybe because you've kept your mouth shut and don't have a reputation as a troublemaker, you'll be elected to the leadership.
Or your husband may be elected to the leadership and will be able to influence the church to change.
Or maybe a more faithful church will start in your town.
The possible external confirmations are almost endless when you start thinking about it.
Number four: If you've done all these things and you've received obvious external confirmations, but these confirmations do not indicate that you are to do something overt about the situation within the church, you must approach it quietly and gently.
First of all, and this is very important, do not make your objections known to other people in the church!
They are not in the leadership.
They can’t do anything about it.
That will only cause divisions.
It is horribly sinful.
They can’t do anything about it.
You're going to convince some people, you're going to get other people mad, and there's going to be fights in the church.
Divisions.
And you will be responsible.
You don't want that.
Instead, go to the pastor, to the other leaders, and make your case.
Proverbs 25 says:
“A word fitly spoken (that is, spoken in the right circumstances, at the right time, the right place, to the right people) is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.”
— Proverbs 25:11–13
Be the faithful messenger!