“Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?

Matthew 15:12 (ESV)

I recently received a copy of a new study Bible for which I will write a review in the next week or so. To prepare for the review, I thought I would use it as I do my daily Bible reading and assess the helpfulness of the notes as I go through each passage.

Looking at the notes for the passage cited above, the commentator referred to this as a “non-issue” for Jesus. Jesus was not concerned at all about offending the Pharisees, even though they held significant influence in society at that time.

We need to face the fact that sometimes the truth is offensive. Sometimes what we need to hear is the opposite of what we want to hear. In a fallen, broken world, we cannot escape this.

When the doctor tells me that I need to change my behavior or face health consequences, he is not being intolerant even though he is telling me something that I don’t really want to hear. I don’t like it, but I know it is true, and it is in my best interest to act on that information.

In the popular religion of our society, we are asked to never give an offense. We are asked to never call any behavior wrong. We are asked to accept any and every belief as equally true. We are asked to offend our own conscience for the sake of not offending someone else’s.

In our societal religion, the definition of tolerance has morphed from being willing to let someone else hold a different opinion to accepting every opinion is equally true.

Unfortunately, this societal religion has crept into the church.

When the discussion of church leadership moves away from how we can lovingly communicate the truth of the gospel, and focuses on being inoffensive on a Sunday morning, we have succumbed to societal religion and have started down a path that will lead us away from Jesus Christ. When the leadership of a church takes down the cross because someone might be offended by it, that church has begun moving away from following Christ.

Certainly, we want to be good communicators of God’s love. We follow Christ out of our gratitude for the grace we have been given. We want to present the beauty of God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. We should accurately reflect the attitude of Jesus who welcomed all to come into relationship with himself. In doing this, we should do it in a way that accurately represents who Jesus is and how he loved humanity.

But Jesus did not shrink from conveying to humanity that those who reject him will face consequences. Nowhere can you find Jesus indicating that ideas don’t matter and any belief is acceptable as long as it is firmly held. On every page of the gospel accounts, Jesus says something that is deemed intolerant by our society.

Let’s face the fact that Jesus was divisive. He had a narrow view of truth.

Therefore, if our desire to be inoffensive interferes with our ability to present the truth that apart from Christ there is no salvation (Jesus said that, it is not me making this up), then we have ceased being the Church and have become just another social club that is nominally religious.

Two things that I know we need to be cautious about doing are pulling verses out of context and being overconfident in our ability to interpret prophetic statements.

I’ve always been a little suspicious of those who, with great confidence, provide a detailed description of how prophecy will be worked on on the world stage. So, I’m not one to connect any particular prophecy with any particular event.

As we learn in the gospels, inspired writers have applied Old Testament Scripture in ways that were surprising. So, we need care before expressing any certainty about interpretation unless corroborated by New Testament Scripture.

But there are statements in the prophets that seem to have universal application from which we can derive great encouragement.

One such passage I read this morning:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”

Isaiah 55:8–11 (CSB)

In my previous post, I lamented the behavior of those who abuse the sheep rather than care for them. But with this passage, I am reminded that none of this has escaped the notice of Almighty God. And since he is almighty, the behavior of mutton-eating shepherds cannot derail His plan.

God’s word will accomplish what He pleases, despite any effort to keep it from happening. I can’t accidentally derail God’s plan and no one can intentionally derail it either.

This is good news that can encourage us today when so much seems to be going wrong in the world.

Even a casual observer of church history should be able to notice that the church (speaking of the universal church, not a particular sect or denomination) has gone through ups and downs over the years. Those of us who feel that we are seeing the church in one of the down periods can become overwhelmed by what we see around us.

But we can be encouraged by history. For example, in spite of all the negative things that were happening in the organized church of the early 16th Century (and there were plenty of them), God brought about the reformation through Luther and the other reformers.

I have written about many of the frustrating things I’ve seen in churches over the last few years. But I am reminded that despite the misguided, or perhaps even evil, plans that leaders sometimes inflict upon their congregations, God still shows his ability to build the church.

I need to constantly remind myself that the Church is not an organization. The Church is not a building. The Church is made up of all of us who have been made alive in Christ Jesus, no matter how imperfectly we behave at any given moment.

I recently saw an article on the internet that claimed abandoned church buildings as evidence of the death of the church. Borrowing from Mark Twain, reports of the death of the church have been greatly exaggerated. As a one of my favorite teachers used to say, “the Church has always outlived her pallbearers.”

Keep in mind that Jesus is the one that proclaimed his authority to build the church and then backed it up by rising from the dead. He will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail.

Bottom line is, don’t bet against the church, the true church made up of true believers. God will continue to call people into relationship with himself, no matter who is at the helm of the religious organizations that call themselves churches.

The point of this ramble is to say that when I take my eyes off the people that are damaging the organization that we call the church, I become open to see the work that God is doing around me in individuals that are seeking God.

God continues to be at work and we can be encouraged as we see his handiwork in spite of incompetence and antagonism.

We can indeed be encouraged.