Blind Guides

Beware Blind Guides

Matthew 23:13-16a “ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. Woe to you, blind guides!”

Why do we teach such absolutes from scripture. Just one example is Revelation 12:1-17 where “the woman” is perhaps Israel, or the church, or even Mary. I read three different commentaries and each put a different interpretation on the passage. One I read also referred to “the woman” as a real, actual woman. Each claimed correctness in their interpretation. In essence, each claimed an exclusive right to knowledge of the truth.

It is precisely this that has caused so many ‘denominations’ to come into existence. Followers of good men and women of God have claimed their own interpretation for certain verses of scripture to be absolute truth, inerrant, and the only ‘correct’ interpretation. Such arrogant claims are abhorrent to both God and men and lead to irreparable  schisms called denominations. I quoted the other day a child’s interpretation of this when one child asked another, “Which abomination do you belong to?” Any disunity, which all denominations are, is an abomination to the Lord and totally abhorrent in His sight.

This is why we need to be celebrating unity of shared beliefs rather than enforcing differences of belief in disunity. Yet too many leaders are sticking rigidly to the party lines laid down by their denomination. Too many Christians are being forced either down a path of bigoted and perhaps errant teaching or they are being hurt and forced to leave because of the inflexible and intolerant attitudes of those who shepherd them.

Such blind guides must be avoided. Those who find themselves in such unloving and legalistic churches need to move to one where love and a certain amount of tolerance is taught. A church where unity is practiced rather than either paid lip service or eschewed altogether.

Jesus is coming soon and we’ll all answer for this one day.