Rebels aren’t cool, they’re harmful …

I watched this man post a deluge of complaints against the church for an extended period of time.

The problem wasn’t that his local church was teaching anything wrong; his complaint with his church was that it was staying true to precisely what scripture teaches. And for that, there grew an inward seething in him toward God’s Word.

His behavior reminded me of the story about the five-year-old girl who was having a grouchy day with her mom, and she finally lost the battle when her mother commanded, “Go sit in the corner, right now! Don’t get up until I tell you to!”

The girl went to the corner and sat down. But after just a couple of minutes, the girl called out to her mother, “Mom, I am sitting down on the outside, but I am standing up on the inside!”

That’s the attitude this man developed toward the Word of God: he simply didn’t like what it said. So he started reducing his involvement with the church, while maintaining his arguments against it.

Then he finally announced his withdrawal from the church completely. He was done with it. He was giving his time to others instead and made extensive arguments about the superior value of everyone investing themselves in family and friends instead of the church.

As this man worked to build an argument against the church actually teaching what is really in the Bible, and slowly made his exit from his local church, he worked just as hard to convince others of the correctness of his position. The result is that he took a lot of people with him in his rebellion against God and departure from Christ’s church.

Therein is a primary danger of the rebel.

When people rebel against God, they usually don’t go quietly on their way; instead, like Satan did in his own rebellion against God, rebels prefer to take as many people with them as they can. Unfortunately, we tend to think rebels are “cool,” but the opposite is true.

Rebels can be immensely harmful!

The Apostle Paul describes the harm such rebels can cause when he addressed the issue of rebellion with Titus …

“For there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. They must be silenced, because they are turning whole families away from the truth by their false teaching. And they do it only for money,” Titus 1:10-11.

Because these rebels were leading entire families astray, Paul had no patience for them, but a harsh command against them instead …

“This is true. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in the faith. They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands of people who have turned away from the truth,” Titus 1:13-14.

The problem with the rebel is they have allowed their minds to become corrupt by believing that what the Bible clearly teaches is wrong, and their opinion on issues is right. So strongly does the rebel hold to the superiority of their opinions that their thinking takes them on a downward spiral to a rebellion against the One who is Truth. Paul doesn’t have anything flattering to say about what a rebel is really like …

“Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good,” Titus 1:15-16.

Jesus gave us a clear measure to understand those who truly stood with Him, and those who would rebel against Him when He said, “If you love me, obey my commandments” (John 14:15).

Where do you stand?

If you love Jesus, you will obey Him. If you don’t, you’re in rebellion to Him. It never ends well for the rebel …

“Evil people are eager for rebellion, but they will be severely punished,” Proverbs 17:11.

“God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land,” Psalm 68:6.

If you’ve been pushing against God, or perhaps have even slipped into full rebellion against God, you can repent and submit yourself to the sovereign Lordship of Jesus Christ today.

Leaders, if you have people with a rebellious nature engaging others in “useless talk” and deceiving others, then be quick to “… reprimand them sternly to make them strong in the faith …” before they mislead entire families.

Ultimately, it comes down to this: “If you love me, obey my commandments.”

Scotty