More about POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS

Jerusalem was under a cloud of doom due to politically correct “friends”who said exactly what everyone wanted to hear. Nobody told the people they were doing wrong, or warned them of impending disaster. The November 10 reading, shows just how destructive PC friendship can be:

. . . who can heal you? Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading. - from Lamentations 2:13-14

My responsibility, if I want to be a friend to those around me, is to tell the truth. It is correct for me to be politically INcorrect at times. In the November 12 reading, the prophet Ezekiel was sent to warn God’s people. He was instructed to speak truth regardless of whether his listeners were willing to hear him or not. Ezekiel was not to prejudge what people would think of him, or whether they would take his warning to heart.

In fact Ezekiel was to speak a non-PC message of condemnation, an unpleasant warning of impending disaster, even though he was quite certain to be unappreciated and ill-received. He was to go on talking in spite of his own extreme discomfort in the matter (shoot, the Lord took his wife, and the poor guy wasn't allowed to mourn). Yet Ezekiel's discomfort would have been far more extreme if he kept silent. If Ezekiel failed to deliver the warning, he would be held personally accountable for the people’s downfall:

If I [God] say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way . . . his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked . . . you will have delivered your soul. - from Ezekiel 3:18-19

At the end of the chapter, God reiterated his instructions to the prophet:

. . . I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse . . . - from Ezekiel 3:27

Ezekiel's example serves as a reminder to me. I read the Bible nearly every day, and it's a sure bet that some little bit of truth is always fresh in my mind. I am responsible to share that little bit of truth when it is fitting. I dare not keep silent for the sake of political correctness, even if I’m certain what I say will rub someone the wrong way. If I trust God and want to be a real friend to those around me, I'll speak Bible truth and leave the response in God's capable and loving hands.

CUT TO THE QUICK - Politically Incorrect!

Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord with slackness, and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed. - Jeremiah 48:10

The words of warning from yesterday's reading are a potent metaphor against political correctness in my day-to-day dealings. The sword in my modern Christian arsenal is the word of God (per Ephesians 6:13-17). If I keep it sheathed in order to spare someone a little discomfort, I am asking for trouble.

Often I am guilty of "slackness" in the work of the Lord, and of holding back the sword of God's word. I avoid speaking Bible truth because I can't stand to hurt someone's feelings. I keep silent even though I see that a passage I've recently read pertains to a situation I'm hearing about. I fear my words might come across as criticism. I prejudge whether or how I'll be received if I speak up.

At the end of yesterday's calendar reading is a reminder about the power of the sword of the spirit. I hope I can take it to heart, and that I'll trust the Sword in my hand. Though it may seem to cut to the quick, may I trust that God's word does good work, and that sometimes hurt can be helpful. The wounds the truth inflicts are painful, but constructive in exposing the root of trouble.

. . . the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. - Hebrews 4:12-13