“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:4)
Friendly fire – it’s a term we often hear during wartime. Simply stated, it refers to the discharge of a military weapon that results in the death of an ally or fellow soldier. In fact, we heard it several years ago when it was used to explain the death of former Arizona Cardinal’s football player, Pat Tilman, who gave up his lucrative professional football career to serve his country in the war again terrorism in Afghanistan. Tilman, we later learned, had been accidentally shot by fellow soldiers who thought his patrol of Army Rangers was the enemy.
My father-in-law and I were discussing Pat Tilman’s fate one weekend. “I told a preacher I know that he ought to preach a sermon on friendly fire in the church,” he told me. “You see it in churches, too.”
“What do you mean,” I asked.
“I’ve seen too many good churches destroyed from within,” he explained. “And it’s being done by their own members.”
The more I thought about it what he said, the more I agreed. Friendly fire is alive and well in the church. Let me give you two examples of where we see it the most.
The most common example is where the church membership has run off a good pastor. If you’ve attended church for any length of time, you’ve either personally witnessed it or heard accounts from friends where it has happened in their church. I never cease to be amazed at how critical, sometimes vicious, church members can be when it comes to their pastor. Here is the appointed, and more importantly the anointed, leader of the church, who comes under attack because he doesn’t measure up to the expectations of the members. Hello – did anyone ever think about asking God what He thought?
Let me tell you something. God will deal with those who partake in such foolishness. The psalmist wrote, “Touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm.” (Psalm 105:15) Think about that verse the next time you hear someone “talk about the preacher.” Your pastor is called, not by the church, but by God. He deserves our respect and our support. The truth is, I don’t know of a more demanding and important role in our community.
Do you remember the comic strip Pogo? Pogo once worried out loud about the weakening environment of his swamp home near the Mississippi River bayous. He then found out it was the very ones living in the bayous who were destroying them. “We have seen the enemy, and they is us,” Pogo declared.
Amen. We destroy each other in our churches. We talk about other members and sometimes seem to revel in their troubles. That’s what the Apostle James meant when he said, “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” (James 3:6) Need I say more?
Think about your conduct in your church. Love your pastor and care for your members. Demonstrate the Christian witness that will serve as instruction for church members who might just be watching you to learn how to live out their faith.
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