Accusers of Our Brethren?
Have you noticed that in the last few years there is an awful lot more accusation going around?
Leaders are blamed for not fixing what those they lead should have been the ones to deal with. On the other end of the spectrum, those with the fewest resources also get blamed for “not doing anything about it” by those who are in a position to take action, but would prefer not to.
In such a world, to some extent, we have to adopt a defensive position, for there are much hate and hostility at large, though even that is offset by the fact that most are victims, the confused ones, sheep without a shepherd, who “don’t realize what they are doing”. So we must still approach with some measure of patience and compassion.
But how much more the brothers who, even if they may be coming at things from an angle that is very strange to us, are nonetheless sincere seekers of truth? Iron does sharpen iron, but with genuine believers we should have a sense of shalom—a feeling of sabbath rest—when we encounter one another, a respite from the battles, not yet another battle. That's why it hurts so much to hear those under whose teaching my life was radically turned around raked over the coals by other Bible-believers.
Of course there are counterfeit brothers, “wolves in sheep’s clothing” of which possibility we must be aware; after all, Jacob’s own brother was Esau. Jacob’s uneasiness was warranted. But though YHWH “hated” him (a Hebrew idiom for “he was not the one He chose”), He still told us not to bother anything of his, for he was given an inheritance of a different sort. (Deut. 2:5) This time He said, “live and let live”, at least until the very end of the age, when the wheat and tares are separated. (Obadiah 18) Until then, Yeshua warns, our eagerness to root out the fakes puts us in danger of harming a genuinely-fruitful stalk that just looks a little different, or may have its roots tangled up with those of one of the bad actors. (Mat. 13:24-30, 36-43)
YHWH would rather "err" on the side of caution than “destroy the righteous with the wicked”, as Avraham hoped and confirmed. (Gen. 18:23-25) The Israelis’ bending over backwards, even putting their own lives in jeopardy, to ensure as little collateral damage as possible in war has its roots in these parts of Torah.
Who is the one Scripture calls the “accuser of our brethren”? Is it not Satan? (Rev. 12:10) That is what satan means in Hebrew: an accuser.
So if you routinely accuse your brothers in the faith, and habitually adopt an adversarial position, are you not siding with the Adversary? Is that really where we want to be?
Don’t get me wrong. There is a place for accusation. In fact, in modern Hebrew, the prosecuting attorney in every court case is called the satan (in a generic sense). But even in the most serious criminal case, there is a fair trial; no one is to be considered guilty until proven so beyond any reasonable doubt. Up until that point, we should try hard to give the benefit of the doubt. Torah mandates that we undergo a thorough search and inquiry, following every lead that could get someone off the hook, especially before handing down a death sentence. (Deut. 13:14) After we conduct such a search, and light is finally shined into all the dark corners, we often find that the accusation reflects more the mentality of the accuser than of the accused.
Things are bound to go wrong in a world that sin has corrupted. But the human tendency—which reared its head not a moment later than we first started the ball rolling—is to want to blame someone. Yes, we can often pin responsibility on a specific person for a particular problem, but this problem is truly systemic (and this one runs far deeper than mere racism). We all make mistakes, but we seem to want to minimize our own and maximize those of others, though they may not be all that different objectively. We want to compare our small errors with someone else’s big ones, as if that would truly make us less sinful than someone who is not as skilled at talking his way out of the consequences.
Is that really the kind of people we want to be, when Yeshua said that what would make us stand out—what would prove to the world that we have a different energizing source—was our love for one another? (Yochanan 13:35)
Very rarely do we find anyone who is always “on the same page” as ourselves about everything. But if we are “in the same Book”, we can find enough common ground to be able to accept, support, and encourage one another, for if we are studying the book that is so unique and hard to categorize that it is only called “the Book”, whatever page we may be on has enough buried treasure to take up several lifetimes.
If you aren’t mining the same one I am on today, does that give me a right to think less of you? If what I am reading is earlier in the book than where you are reading, can you can boast that you know more than I because you have read further? Might I not have read the whole thing many times, but found I had to turn back to a chapter that laid the groundwork in order to understand it better, to be sure I am building on the right foundation, to regain a perspective that time and emphasis have made me forget, or to get back to a balance I had lost?
If you are not on the same tangent as I am right now, does it mean I am any more right? To follow any tangent very far takes one off the circle, and a sad side effect of learning something really life-changing is often that we look on those who don’t share that viewpoint as unenlightened, worthless, or even enemies. But when we get to the next “page”, we often find that Providence has put us right where we need those very same “enemies”, and if we have burned our bridges because of the squabble, we will indeed find ourselves up the proverbial creek.
Some critique is needed to be sure we are really getting to the facts, but too much of it will rob us of the tools we will sooner or later need in our arsenal; usually it’s more fruitful to approach each other’s discoveries with the expectation that, despite the weeds, we can gain at least one gem from everyone who is intent on finding truth.
As important as the Bible says wisdom, knowledge, and discernment are, loving one another is even more important than being right! (1 Cor. 13) Because no matter how much we have got right, we always still have some things wrong. People do wrong to us without intending to, because the world is a broken place. It needs healing, not more injury, but that is always what comes when we seek revenge and don’t take responsibility for our side of the equation.
“Why not rather be wronged”, Paul asks (1 Cor. 6:7), than to become like brothers who have wronged us by throwing back at them the things they accidentally set in motion when they merely tripped and upset an already-fragile balance?
Yeshua did just the opposite: he took responsibility for a problem that he had never contributed to, and resolved it by absorbing all the venom into himself and letting it be buried so that the world could actually be freed from it rather than perpetuating the cycle of tort, retort, and re-retort. And that is extremely comforting, especially if you are on the receiving end of the blame game.
As our dear friend Randy Stonehill sings, “I’ve got news for you: we are all the same… I’ve got news for you: we are all to blame, and when that is understood, we are free to live again.”
Free—from the burden of always hiding the guilt we know is in us. Free—from a debt we would never be able to pay in a thousand lifetimes. Free—from the Accuser who is behind it all, because not only has our very real guilt been buried; we have been raised to new life, “born again” as members of a new race (yet one older than our old one), and are tasting the powers of the age to come when haSatan will be bound, unable to either tempt or accuse. When humans will again be benevolent rulers over the rest of creation and even snakes will no longer either bite or tempt. (Isaiah 11:8)
Let’s use those powers, as those who have been shown unimaginable mercy, to, in another dear friend Michael Card’s words, “shine our light upon a world that badly needs to know a human soul can love another human soul”.
We each have only part of the puzzle, and mine may not just fill in your missing parts, but also anchor and stabilize both of us against all that militates to prevent us from getting the picture as complete as it can be this side of the great veil. So let’s battle those spirits, not each other, so we can all keep advancing in the knowledge of the Holy One without crippling each other in the process.
If we reach an impasse in our understandings, we may have to step back from each other for a while, but sooner or later, we're going to need every link in the chain to get the job done. We are not in competition with each other. The real winners in this “race” are those who help each other get to the finish line.
We who have accepted the redemption that is offered to all no longer have to worry about saving face, for we have been given a new identity cleared of our past record. We have no ultimate fears for the future, for it is secured for us.
So let us use the time that we have left in the “valley of tears” to make the hard journey easier on those it burdens most, rather than adding to their burdens by pointing out the fact they are already most aware of—that they are imperfect. By reminding them of who we will be and who we have already been made to be in the eyes of the One who is most objective, we will empower them to line their present reality up with it just a little bit further each day.
And that is a victory over the accuser every time.