- Baseless Blames
Everybody will not sing your praise, but it should also be a cause for concern if everybody inputs to you a blame. Woe unto those whom all men praise, Jesus said (Luke 6:26), but woe unto those also whom all men blame. It does not matter what you do, some folks will still find a fault. Some blames are baseless, true, but never give occasion for them. Miriam and Aaron (the ‘church board’) blamed Moses for marrying whom he did, but God defended him. Why? They were imputing to him a false and malicious blame borne out of their personal pride and jealousy.
Jesus was a holy man, yet there were those who still found fault with Him, who called Him a wine bibber and the friend of Publicans and sinners (Matthew 11:19). Their blames were borne out of malice.
You cannot prevent people from finding faults, but never validate the faults that they input to you. You cannot stop people from talking about you, but never become the wrong things that they say about you. In 1 Timothy 3, blamelessness is the first of about sixteen criteria for the one who ‘applies’ to become a bishop. In fact, that condition is not just primary, it appears to be so mandatory that it is posited with an imperative modal verb: “A bishop then MUST BE blameless…” (1 Timothy 3:2). By “must,” maybe Saint Paul intended to speak of it as a ‘compulsory credit’ for admission into the College of Bishops.
A similar condition was prescribed for the deacon in the early Church: “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report…” (Acts 6:3). Blamelessness was the first of three criteria put out, the other two being fullness with the Holy Ghost and fullness with wisdom. Honesty is what someone is, but an honest “report” is what others say about the person; it is the ‘report’ (sometimes confidential, sometimes public) that they write or say about someone. God takes note of how they rate whom He has or would choose. I shall tell my own story next, and you surely want to hear it.
From The Preacher’s diary,
November 23, 2023.
(continued in Part 6 of 6)
Hallelujah, holy and blameless
“Honesty” and an “honest person” form the basis for holiness.
Holiness cannot be attained in utter dishonesty.
This generation is blessed for having such a teacher like the preacher, for always digging up what many would consider “irrelevant” wisdom from lines of the scripture. It’s simply the art of mining scriptures. More grace, dear Preacher.