“Holiness and Meanness”

By Bishop Elijah H. Hankerson III, BA, MA, DD

(Unless otherwise stated; all biblical passages are from the New International Version).[1]

SCRIPTURAL OUTLINE

I. PURPOSE.

We will discuss: Is it wrong for Christians to degrade other religions? Is it wrong for preachers to belittle people from the pulpit? Were the “old saints” holy or just mean?

II. INTRODUCTION.

A. MEANESS DEFINITION.[2] Unkindness, spitefulness, or unfairness, nastiness, mean-spiritedness, spitefulness, disagreeableness.

III. BODY. Holiness means to be separated from sin and consecrated to God. Apparently there are times when being mean or harsh was connected with separation and consecration.

A. THE BIBLE RECALLS THE PEOPLE BEING TALKED TO VERY HARSHLY. While there were not pulpits as we understand them; these are times when groups of God’s people are being addressed.

1. MOSES TALKED VERY HARSH TO THE PEOPLE.

Exodus 32:25-29 ²⁵And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemiesJ ²⁶Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’s side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. ²⁷And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. ²⁸And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. ²⁹For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

2. EZRA TALKED VERY HARSH TO THE PEOPLE.

Ezra 10:9-11 ⁹Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain. ¹⁰Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. ¹¹Now honor the LORD, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.”

3. JESUS TALKED VERY HARSH TO THE PEOPLE.

Matthew 23:1 ¹Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:

Matthew 23:15 ¹⁵”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.

4. PAUL TALKED VERY HARSH TO THE PEOPLE.[3]

Galatians 3:1 CEV. You stupid Galatians! I told you exactly how Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross. Has someone now put an evil spell on you?

5. JAMES TALKED HARSH TO THE PEOPLE.

James 4:8 ⁸Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

B. SOME NEW TESTAMENT PRACTICES WOULD BE CONSIDERED QUITE MEAN.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. ²And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? ³For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. ⁴So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, ⁵hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

⁶Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister^[^c^] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

¹²What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

1 Corinthians 14:24-25 ²⁴But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, ²⁵as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

C. THE BIBLE RECORDS OTHER RELIGIONS BEING DEGRADED.

Deuteronomy 6:13 ¹³Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

Psalm 96:4-5 ⁴For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. ⁵For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.

Luke 4:8 ⁸Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the LORD your God and serve him only.’”

Acts 14:13-15 ¹³The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. ¹⁴But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: ¹⁵”Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

Romans 1:21-23 ²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

I Corinthians 12:2 CEV.[4] I want you to remember that before you became followers of the Lord, you were led in all the wrong ways by idols that cannot even talk.

D. THERE IS A DANGER IN TALKING TOO NICE AND TOO POLITICALLY CORRECT.

Isaiah 30:9-11 ⁹For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD's instruction. ¹⁰They say to the seers, "See no more visions!" and to the prophets, "Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. ¹¹Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!"

Jeremiah 6:13-14 ¹³"From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. ¹⁴They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.

2 Timothy 4:3 ³For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

1 John 4:1-6 ¹Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. ⁴You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

E. THE BIBLE TEACHES US TO BE KIND IN HOW WE DEAL WITH OTHER PEOPLE.

Proverbs 15:4 ⁴The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

Jeremiah 31:3 ³The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

Ephesians 4:32 ³²Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Colossians 4:6 GWT.[5] Everything you say should be kind and well thought out so that you know how to answer everyone.

1 Peter 3:9 ⁹Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

IV. CONCLUSION. While some of the early saints were actually mean; from what we have read there is a time to be nice and a time to be mean.

A. THERE’S A TIME TO BE HARSH AND A TIME TO BE KIND.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ¹There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: ²a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, ³a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, ⁴a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, ⁵a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, ⁶a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, ⁷a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, ⁸a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.