Listen, then Speak

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. (Prov 18:13)

How quick are you to voice your opinion in matters of doctrine, morals or politics? The public debate of our day is  replete with strongly held, yet poorly thought through opinions, voiced with great aggression. Sadly, Christian debate is no exception. I say "sadly" because being quick to speak and quick to anger is a mark of ungodliness. We are commanded to be the opposite: Slow to speak and slow to anger (Jas 1:19)

I recall my first steps into christian online debate forums around a decade ago. Full of self-confidence I would revile against anyone who held differing doctrinal understandings on issues like baptism, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, or forms of worship. I was shocked to find that those who were older and wiser than me were able to destroy my arguments with the greatest ease. Why? Because I hadn't thought it through. I was just parroting what I'd heard other people say. And I really hadn't taken the time to understand the position of those who disagreed with me. No wonder then, that every arrow I fired at them seemed to miss.

While I've revised some of my opinions since then, most of them still remain the same. My problem was not that I was wrong. My problem was a lack of thoughtfulness. I was quick to speak, but I was not wise. I would have done well to heed the advice of the Bible; If you just shut up, people won't know you're stupid.

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. (Prov 17:27-28)

There is a time to speak, but before that time ever comes around there is a time to be quiet and just listen, so that you can gain understanding and wisdom. And if you get this order wrong, you will almost certainly end up looking like a fool.

The Weeds - A Parable Against Church Discipline?

You may regard this as a bonus feature to my ongoing Bible study on the book of 1. Corinthians. As I've been working my way through the doctrine of Church Discipline, as presented in chapter 5, I'm increasingly aware of the fact that most churches either ignore it or actively resists it.

Some have tried to present the parable of the weeds as an argument against the Biblical doctrine of Church discipline. Of course pitching scripture up against scripture like this is an absolutely dreadful hermaneutic. The true Christian is not willing to loose a jot or tittle of God's written revelation, so trying to invalidate a scripture with another goes against every fiber of our being. But that apparently doesn't stop people from doing it. So let's deal with it. Here's the text from Matthew 13:24-20:

He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

So the argument goes, that we should not go plucking people out from the church just because we think they may be weeds. We may be wrong about them, so we should let them stay in the church until God judges them. It might at the outset seem like a fair interpretation of the parable, but it does not align with Jesus' own interpretation of it a few verses down.

You see in this interpretation the field is the church, and gathering up the weeds is setting them outside of the church. But when Jesus explains the parable, the field is the world (verse 38) and gathering up the weeds would mean to eliminate them from the world. This is what Jesus is speaking against. He is warning against establishing a religion of the sword, trying to cleanse the world of unbelievers. That is his own job, that he will send forth his angels to do at the close of the age (verse 39)