Spiritual Defection

One of the realities of the Ministry is spiritual defection. There are those whom you lovingly minister to, with the truth of Scripture, who would over time drift away from the biblical moorings. These Christians may be led astray by false teachers, who seduce them with some strange teachings. These false teachers would appeal to their followers through teachings they love to hear and would want the followers to glorify them, instead of Christ. Such was the case with the Galatians, whom Paul had ministered to in his first missionary journey but, no sooner had he left them, that the Judaisers pounce upon the Galatians with the false doctrine that they must add to their faith, the ceremonial ritual of circumcision. It led an exasperated Paul to reprimand them “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth…” (Galatians 3: 1)

The Grief of the Minister

Paul was certainly very grieved that spiritual defection had come into the camp. The enemy had infiltrated within the camp to undo the very doctrine Paul had been expounding and defending i.e. ‘Salvation is by Faith alone’. “Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3: 3)

Ministers can certainly identify with this predicament. Was this not also the problem Paul had warned against in his letter to young Timothy – “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables…” (2 Timothy 4: 3-4)

The Trinitarian Grief

Israel’s dalliances with idolatory was source of deep grief to God. God had given them the truth, and each time she departed from His ways, God would lovingly woo them back again and restore her. Israel sinned against God. She wilfully rejected God’s ways and God’s grief for Israel, upon their defection, is expressed in poignant metaphoriacal terms.

The Lord Jesus Christ

Jesus chided the Jewish religious establishment as a damnable ‘generation of vipers’, who killed and stoned the prophets sent to them. He grieved over their recalcitrancy – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23: 37)

God

In the book of Hosea, we receive the tender insights of God toward the defection of Israel. Israel had been doted as a child by the Father, God who led her out of the bondage in Egypt. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” (Hosea 11: 1) Yet no sooner had they left Egypt that they sinned against God through their paganistic Idolatory. “As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.” (Hosea 11: 2)

God Healed Her When She Fell

In metaphorically language, God taught her to walk and picked her up, when she fell and healed her from her traumatic injuries. “I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; … ‘but’ they knew not that I healed them.” (Hosea 11: 3)

God Gently Eased the Yoke from Them

“I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.” (Hosea 11:1-4) Inspite of such loving overtures, wayward Israel departed from God. Quoting From Pulitzer playwright, Marc Connelly “Even Bénin’ God ain’t no bed of roses.” It even caused God to feel helpless. “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.” (Hosea 6: 4)

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is grieved when we sin and we are charged not. “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4: 30) It is sin that caused us to grieve the Holy Spirit. Notice that this exhortation is sandwiched between the list of sins in verses 29 and 31:

• “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”
• “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: …”

The Minister’s Response

The charge of the minister, “Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: … ” (Galatians 4:12)

The Call to Remembrance by the Minister

The Galatians were so gracious to Paul, when he preached the truth to them. As a result they were saved. “… Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. …” (Galatians 4: 13-14)

During his ministry with them, the Galatians put up with Paul’s infirmity. Then came the Judaisers, who seduced them with false doctrines. Paul then lamented that fact that Galatians are victims of that subtle subterfuge. He expressed it through this sarcastic question. “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16)

The Warning from the Minster

“They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.” (Galatians 4:17) Paul warns them against the false zeal of these Judaisers, who come to them ,spinning out image and flattery, only to seek for people’s approval and adoration. Paul’s teachings, on the other Hand, pointed to Christ and is eternally worthwhile.

The Minister’s Desire

Nothing can be nobler and gratifying for the minister than when he sees Christ likeness in the people he led to Christ. “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” (Galatians 4: 19) It is the height of the minister’s joy, when he is willing to go through the pangs of child birth again, in order to bring back the spiritual defecters back to the fold again and nurture them till they are Christ like. In endearing terms, Paul expressed his altruistic desire and affections with this dimunitive language.

Ministers would do well to imitate Paul in our ministry to others; and to love and thank those who love us enough to minister to us as he did to the Galatians. Is such a goal attainable by the minister? In this regard, only God can help us.

Rev Dr Lim Yew Cheng
Adapted from Evangel Weekly, 2 April 2017