IS IT WRONG TO WARN AGAINST ERROR?

Many Christians have concluded that it is somehow wrong to pay attention to error and warn brethren to beware of it. Not all of them are ready to abandon the faith, embrace error or promote the change agenda, but their numbers and their intolerance of those who try to warn them make it very difficult for them to hear and accept the alarm we raise.

I suspect that in part it is a reaction to the type of heresy hunting and vicious journalism that some preachers seem to love so well. The change agents have been able to transfer and pin that ugly, hateful brand of religion to all who dare oppose them....and many naive brethren accept their pronouncement.

Add to the above, the proclivity of many conservative brethren to fall out and separate over small and insignificant matters...again and again. We don't have a pretty record in many quarters.  The virtue and value of unity with fellow-Christians has not always been appreciated and promoted as it should have been (Eph. 4:3).

Another factor is the negative, joyless, dead and unproductive churches that some conservative preachers have created and sustained. When pious people, who truly love the Lord and want to serve are confronted with such a situation they are turned off and against those who promote such.

The only suggestions I can offer are that we make sure that none of the above can be said of us. We must genuinely care for the souls of our fellow-men and we be sensitive and sympathetic to those who are in distress.  We must always reflect the mind or spirit of Christ in all we say and do (Phil. 2:5). We must be diligent in doing those things that Christianity is all about.  We must never get so busy fighting error that we forget to evangelize and edify our brethren. When we have to correct or warn, we must do so "even weeping" (Phil. 3:18). I remember reading as a child a book about a rough boy in an orphanage who had broken the rules and the supervisor whom they called Father Bare had to discipline him.  When the boy saw the tears in the supervisor's eyes, his tough heart was broken and he yielded to the discipline and rules. We can show brethren the similarity between the responsibility of a loving parent to his disobedient child who is flirting with danger and a preacher to Christians who are in harm's way. One last thought; as important as speaking the word of warning, is the way in which it is spoken.  It must always be in love (Eph. 4:15).

I suspect most of us know all of the above, we just have to remind ourselves to practice it as we deal with those who are doing harm to the family of God.