Articles
Spiritual Emergencies
It seems we can’t get through a Bible class or sermon at Centreville without sirens blaring from the fire station up the street. It is really annoying. But then I think: Where are the fire trucks and ambulances going? Who’s on the other end of those sirens? The sirens scream that someone’s day has gone terribly wrong, and they need emergency care. Much of the trauma people suffer is self-inflicted, as any fireman or ER doctor will tell you. But whatever the cause, humans are fragile; they make mistakes; the foolish and careless acts of others engulf the innocent, and urgent, professional care is needed.
The same thing can happen spiritually. We all have our ups and downs; we daily try to navigate the pitfalls that come our way. But sometimes utter disaster is looming just around the bend, a malignant spiritual sickness that places our faith in peril. We are now the emergency, and we need immediate care to save us from danger and restore our souls. Here are some NT examples:
The incestuous brother – 1 Cor 5. Paul spent four chapters dealing with sectarian division in Corinth, perhaps the most critical dysfunction that threatened the overall unity of the church. He then turns to a second acute problem: a man who has an intimate relationship with his own stepmother – “sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles” (5:1) – which is saying a lot. Whatever led to the man to become so wayward and the congregation to tolerate it, Paul says they “are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you” (5:2). Note the urgency here: there is no instruction to send elders or the spiritually mature to talk to the brother (cf. Gal 6:1-2); no Bible studies are to be scheduled; no urging of intercessory prayer; and especially that no other delays be allowed. Paul didn’t need further discussion map out a remedial plan. Rather, “For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, concerning him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (5:3-5).
This situation had already gone on too long, and great damage was being done by such egregious behavior not only in the church but among the community. Some sins are so toxic and volatile that they need to be confronted and resolved posthaste.
Rescue from the fire – Jude 22-23. Jude’s short epistle concentrates on the detrimental effects of false teachers. On the positive side Jude counsels “building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God …” (v 20-21). But on the negative side, he acknowledges that others are going to need help fighting the spiritual battle that threatens their souls: “And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh” (v 22-23).
Clinton Hamilton observes: “Christians should deal with all sin with an even hand of total opposition, but make a difference in how we deal with a person depending upon his peculiar situations, characters, and dispositions. This is very important in corrective discipline and almost universally ignored …” (Commentary on 2 Peter and Jude 503). Some who have fallen into sin have done so inadvertently through weakness or naïvete. The most effective way to reach them is to show gentleness, patience and compassion. Some will respond to such an approach in a positive way.
However, there are others who have become so deeply embroiled in sin of a most powerful, virulent nature that the only course of action is immediate, drastic intervention. The image is vivid: “pulling them out of the fire.” As a critically injured person in a wrecked automobile that is about to explode needs to be snatched none too gently from impending doom, so some Christians need blunt confrontation. There is no time for beating around the bush or spending weeks issuing polite but rejected invitations to talk. People deeply mired in sin do not want to talk because they usually know what is coming, but the issue needs to be forced by the strong – with the caveat of not being polluted by the sin in the process of correction: “hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” In other words, don’t get sucked into temptation by the very delusion and desire that victimized the faltering brother or sister in the first place.
Simon the sorcerer – Ac 8:18-24. Before his conversion Simon was a sorcerer, a shrewd and clever magician who deceived his audiences by keen insights into human behavior and vulnerability. Such people can amaze the unsuspecting by their occult shenanigans – things like palm reading, tarot cards, divulging supposedly secret information, channeling the dead, etc. Simon had both money and fame via his deceptive practices, and his attraction to the benefits of larceny wasn’t entirely eradicated by his own conversion to Christ (cf. 8:13).
Thus, when Peter and John came from Jerusalem to endow the new Christians of Samaria with spiritual gifts and “Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, ‘Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit’” (8:18-19). Peter’s response was not a 13-week study in the Holy Spirit or a class on First Principles. Rather, he was intense and direct: “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! … Your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent … of this your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity” (8:20-23). Simon was not in doubt as to where he stood after that shellacking.
What may at first sound rude is actually the kind of stern rebuke that is often needed to cut through resistance and confront the offender with their true state. While Peter may have had inspired insight into Simon’s heart, Christians of all ages are called upon to determine what measure of correction is appropriate for a given situation. Perhaps in some cases patience is the best course. But it may be that someone’s eternal welfare depends upon the wisdom and courage of those spiritually mature to recognize the acute danger that the victim either will not or cannot see. May God help us to help each other get to heaven.
