The Stove is Wrong

The old saying is, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen."    Actually, how it more often seems to work is, "If you can stand the heat, call the stove wrong."  When we don't like a verdict against us, we attack.   We see a good example in Charles Rangel, the congressman from New York who has attacked the bipartisan ethics committee again and again, until they found him guilty, at which time he begged for mercy.  Now another congress member, is trying the same approach.

This is nothing new.  You hear teenagers telling their parents that they are just trying to ruin their lives when the bring discipline.  Of course, that's what every parent hopes for, ruining your kids lives.  You see it when people run afoul of the police.  Sure you were speeding or weaving, but those police were just out to get you.  They should go get some real criminals.

It can often be the same in the church.  When discipline is brought to bear or even advice given that is not what someone wants to hear, suddenly the messenger is the problem.  Maybe you go after the leadership itself.  Maybe you attack the actual Bible, or at least try to twist its meaning into what you need it to say (or not say).  Whatever the cause, one thing that you don't see if submission.  Well, perhaps in this interesting case.

Now I am not saying that authority is never wrong and that it can't either make mistakes or even be malicious at times.  But so often we immediately turn to attack authority rather than listen to it.  We are at our hearts, rebellious.  This can play real havoc in churches when people refuse to humble themselves but instead attack.  Consider these things.

• When Jesus was accused (falsely) He did not fight against the charges.  He was found innocent by Pilate but killed anyway by those that hated Him.  He forgave them
• When Paul was accused he refused quick release but appealed to Caesar, not so he could defend himself, but so he could preach the gospel to power.

Another thing to note is that you can often figure out what is really going on with an accused Christian by looking at the fruit of their life.  The Bible says that you will know them by their fruit.  Is the person showing humility, a teachable spirit, and openness to correction, a desire for reconciliation?  If not, you should take note of these unBiblical reactions.

What if you are accused, falsely or otherwise?  First, listen.  Respond with humility.  Perhaps the accusation is unjust, but there maybe something you can learn and even if you are not completely at fault, perhaps there is a share of fault for you.  I once had a person accuse me of lying.  I listened carefully and respectfully even though I did not believe I had lied.  By listening honestly and being open, I found that what had happened was a misunderstanding caused by something I did say.  The result of the misunderstanding made it look to this person that I had lied.  My response was to apologize for my words that had caused the problem.  The other person and I were reconciled.

How we respond to accusation can say a lot about our maturity in Christ.  Because we are sinful humans, we are sometimes wrong and we need to allow others to correct us.  We need to be respectful to authority and not attack just because we don't like what it says.  If it turns out that an accusation is false, we need to see what part we might play in the conflict, we need to listen, and we need to use even false accusations as an opportunity to share the gospel of Christ.