I hope this open letter finds you doing well and living by the hope found in our Lord Jesus Christ. I am writing to encourage you to think and reason using God’s Word and logic.
While the local church needs to fight the good fight and stand for the truth of Christ in love, when did it become of need and even more critical for people to search out perceived wrongdoing in other autonomous congregations? Is there not enough for you to be concerned about within your congregation? Is everyone in your home congregation in good standing with the Lord and His commands? Does every man who leads a prayer hold the same conclusions you believe to be firm and true? Does every man who leads a song hold the same conservative principles found in the New Testament that you proclaim? Do you preach the truth and the need to obey the Gospel while there is one, or are there a few, who do not obey in every way? As the minister or an elder, do you have everything in your life bridled so that sin is not something that needs to be addressed in your own life?
I pray that when Jesus looks at your home congregation, He does not see the same things as He did when He looked at the church in Ephesus. I pray that you are not fighting the good fight while also being guilty of leaving your first love. I pray that Jesus does not see the same thing in your home congregation that He saw in the Pharisees when He proclaimed that they were whitewashed tombs. I pray that your home congregation is not neat on the outside but full of dead man’s bones on the inside. I pray that your house is kept in order when Jesus returns so that he may find you to be the beacon of light that you present yourself to be.
The common idea that one needs to police what other congregations believe or teach while there are problems with their local congregation is similar to the point Jesus made about judging without considering self-first. When you decide to police other congregations and problems exist where you are, you are the one who needs to remove the plank from your own eye first. Until that plank is removed, and the eye is healed, you have no business trying to help others see with more clarity. May I suggest that this activity is like the churches of Galatia telling the church in Corinth to repent and be holy like they are.
I wish I could see the benefit in your actions. However, I only see the arrogance and neglect. Your arrogance is seen in your mindset that everyone needs to bend to your views and your conclusions. Your neglect is seen in looking outward while there are problems in your own congregations that need attention.
The reality is that every one of our congregations has things that we could do better and teach more accurately. That is the journey we embarked on when we became preachers and teachers of the Gospel. We chose to work in this effort because we want to help the local church work toward holiness and shine the light of Jesus on the community that surrounds us. Please focus on your local work over something that someone said or did hours away. You will be richly blessed because the local congregation with be richly blessed to be paying a local man who works diligently to strengthen and grow the church there.
-Justin Guess
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