Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
I have written many times about how pastors, counselors, authors, and other church leaders lead people like victims of abuse into a pit. They keep them in bondage. They sometimes even get them killed. Blind people need light, and that is something another blind person cannot provide.
What I noticed this evening in this Scripture is that Jesus says that the blind guide will also fall into a pit, not only those who follow his advice/counsel/teaching. And I suppose that is what the Lord and the Apostles meant when they wrote things like this:
They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. (2 Peter 2:19)
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. (John 8:34)
Our churches are infested with these kind. They present themselves as authorities on God’s truth, knowledgeable about most any subject. Marriage and all its nuances, finances, child-raising…just bring up the topic and off they are expounding. Oh, and even if you don’t ask them they are always ready to announce their position and insist that God requires everyone else to submit to it.
Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. (1 Timothy 1:6-7)
So as they lead others into a pit of slavery and bondage, they take themselves into that same abyss as well. Let me give you a real example.
Bob knows it all. Bob presents himself to his fellow church members, to his wife and children, to his relatives and most anyone else he is in contact with, as the finest Christian man to be found. And most of them, at least those who are blind, believe him. Bob almost always has one or two “disciples” over at his house for instruction. But what Bob is teaching is anything but Christ and the freedom we have in Him. Rather, he is teaching his own enslaving false doctrine:
- A wife must obey her husband just like the children and he needs to tell her so when she “wanders”
- Children, especially daughters, are on this earth to serve their father
- Doing any work on the Lord’s Day is not permitted by the Lord. Bob once admonished the church secretary for filling out the Sunday offering bank deposit slip in the church office after the service.
- Christians are required to be accountable to their church, even in making decisions such as whether to buy a car, where to buy a residence, whether to have television, and so on.
Now understand. Bob doesn’t establish formal doctrine on these topics and put them into print. No. Bob works behind the scenes dropping his dagger comments, usually when no one else but the target is around. Sometimes he will attack and accuse you in front of others, but only when he can do so to his own glory.
In reality, Bob is a reviler. Revilers, says Scripture, do not know Christ and will never see the kingdom of God. You can spot the reviler, people like Bob, by watching them repeatedly issue admonishments and guilting, shaming, accusing words to others. It is their habit. It is who they are. It is who Bob is.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
(1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
But not only is Bob leading others into a pit, as a blind guide himself HE is headed for that same pit. In fact, in many ways he is already in it. His enslaving, bullying, guilting teachings proceed from a heart that is evil. As Peter says, Bob is already a slave himself. Oh, he fancies himself to be his own man. He often employs the typical double standard of application to others while he himself does what he likes. Nevertheless, Bob has one foot in the pit already.
Bob is darkness and he is always at work to bring us into that darkness. We must all become wise about the Bobs who are so commonly found in our churches, and we must never yield to the yoke they are trying to put on us (Galatians 5:1). In fact, Bob is to be expelled from the church. We are not to even eat with such a one.
So why aren’t we doing what Christ so plainly instructed us in respect to these things? Why?