We’re busy with 1 Kings 18. We’re mirroring our hearts in the life of Elijah so we can see who the real men and women of God are.
At Mount Carmel Elijah got rid of the ungodly influence in Israel and we need to do the same in the church. The Holy Spirit asked me to quote from my book ‘Sermon on the Mount Secrets’, chapter 12, to highlight the danger of false influences in the church.
“If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell,” (Matthew 5:29, 30).
If we look carefully at this passage, we see that there is more to it than meets the eye. It intrigues me that Jesus mentioned both the right eye and the right hand. He literally referred to the right side of the body. Metaphorically, that is a place of honour or authority. The eye is often a metaphor for the mind, and the hand can be a symbol of help, as in a helping hand.
Since the body can also denote a number of people closely united or a family, we can conclude that this passage can refer not only to an individual stumbling because of sin, but also to the body of Christ. Jesus seems to say that if a person or a leadership team teaches or helps from a position of authority and causes the body of believers to stumble, they should be dealt with before they cause the body to lose direction and end up in hell. The Lord specifically mentioned the right eye and hand because people will listen to and believe only those who speak with authority.
It is important that the discerners of these actions have the courage to alert the leadership in order to have the person dealt with, and if a leadership team is at fault we should pray for them and challenge them.
We are not talking only about wrong doctrines, but also the causing of the members to be passive, introspective, or lukewarm. If e.g. obedience to the Lord is not preached, but only His goodness, we are deceived for He needs us to be active (read Matthew 7:21). The same applies when people are not trained to be effective servants of the Lord (read Ephesians 4:11-16). These are often greater dangers.
If the church doctrine causes its members to be content with their spiritual condition, in other words not regularly preaching rebirth, people are deceived and are often on their way to hell without knowing it. Such people become introspective, looking after only one another, not concerned about a lost world. They believe that as long as they adopt the church’s doctrines, they are okay, and it doesn’t matter whether you have a personal relationship with Jesus. Such deception usually does not preach salvation and the need to make a decision to follow Jesus - to be born again. When the deception is vast and not caused by an individual or leadership team in the local church any more, it becomes impossible to “gouge” out the deception and it’s then better to “gouge” lost souls from them.
Lord, please open our eyes to see deception and deal with it. Give us an awareness of truth and the courage to do it.
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