Let Us Think

But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him in public, because he was clearly wrong. 12 Before some men who had been sent by James arrived there, Peter had been eating with the Gentile believers. But after these men arrived, he drew back and would not eat with the Gentiles, because he was afraid of those who were in favor of circumcising them. 13 The other Jewish believers also started acting like cowards along with Peter; and even Barnabas was swept along by their cowardly action. 14 When I saw that they were not walking a straight path in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you have been living like a Gentile, not like a Jew. How, then, can you try to force Gentiles to live like Jews.
Gal 2:11-14 GNT.

In Antioch – Apostle Paul Openly Rebuked Apostle Peter for his wrong doing. Apostle Peter Was The Leader Of The New Testament Church at this time and He (Peter) took the rebuke.
He never said – because it was done in the open, you have insulted the grace I carry, neither did his followers turn to Paul to heap insults and to accuse him of being jealous of the achievements of Peter as we see today.

In our generation, Peter can be said to be a General Overseer, overseeing other General Overseer’s and yet he took the rebuke.
These men recognized that they were not infallible, rather they knew that whatever they have become is simply a function of the Grace of God that is at work in them.

Currently in our generation, a man of God cannot be rebuked in the secret or in the open without a threat that God will destroy you and his/her followers will rise in defense of him/her my unleashing all manner of curses on those who have the courage to say a man of God is wrong. Some will say – you’re judging the man of God.
Some people in the church system cannot speak anymore because if you do, you’re tagged a rebel who wants to pull down the man of God.
The church members will prefer to hate and destroy the image of anyone within the church system who dears to say the man of God is involved in one wrong doing or another, than to rebuke the man of God which in actual sense should lead to repentance. Hear the wisdom of the bible – Open rebuke is better than secret love. (Prov 27:5)

In the generation of the Apostles, even though they didn’t have the bible readily avaliable as we have it today, it was still the basis for righteousness and wrong doing both for the members and those who have been entrusted with the privileged assignment of ministry but all that has changed now.
The man of God is the determinant of righteousness and wrong doing. The popularity of the man of God exonerates him/her from wrong doings and places him/her on the platform of continuous goodness even when they are wrong.
Again, we always develop a comfortable explanation to present the wrong of a man of God as right.

Rebuke should be done with courtesy and the God-kind of love because the Christian values supports it.

The Big question is – Are we actually following the examples of the scriptures or have we developed a system that has enthroned wrong doing as righteousness in the leadership of the church?

Let Us Think