Have you ever heard a person say something that, for the most part is totally true, but which you know has some real wrong in it too? This happens when we try to comfort each other, explain mysteries, confront each other, and in a number of other places. If we are not careful, if we are not loving, we will say right things, or mostly right things, in a very wrong way.
In the book of Job, we know that Job’s 3 friends are not helping. The Lord strongly rebukes them for their useless counsel. But take a look at this 6 verse chapter, and think about how much Bildad said that was completely true.
Job 25
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “Dominion and fear are with God;
he makes peace in his high heaven.
3 Is there any number to his armies?
Upon whom does his light not arise?
4 How then can man be in the right before God?
How can he who is born of woman be pure?
5 Behold, even the moon is not bright,
and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
6 how much less man, who is a maggot,
and the son of man, who is a worm!”
Bildad is talking, and I would suggest that most, if not all, of what he says here is technically true. For sure, he is correct in verses 1-4. Perhaps verses 5 and 6 are problematic, especially in the maggot imagery. But in truth, he, in those two verses, seems to be coming from proper theology. This chapter says that God is high, holy, and mighty. Sin-stained creation is not holy to him. Mankind in our sin cannot be holy to him, not without him granting us a holiness from outside ourselves. For the most part, Bildad is right.
So what is wrong? Bildad is speaking his true theology at a nasty time and with a nasty assumption. In his way, Bildad is arguing with Job. This really is not a good time to argue with Job. The poor man has lost everything and is deeply hurting. Is now really the time to straighten every part of him out? Job is making some mistakes, for sure, and they will be corrected. But maybe Bildad needs to be loving his friend more than fixing him.
IN his nasty assumption, Bildad is assuming that he knows the heart motivation of the Lord. Bildad is assuming that he can say with certainty that the reason that Job is suffering as he is stems from the sinfulness of Job. Bildad is rebuking Job because God is obviously, to Bildad, punishing Job for his sin. And when Job retorts that he has not sinned to earn this punishment, Bildad says that no person is sinless enough not to earn God’s punishment.
The problem with Bildad’s assumption is that, in that assumption, Bildad is wrong. God is not punishing Job for Job’s sinfulness in this experience. In chapters 1 and 2, God points out the righteousness of Job and the narrator of the story tells us that, in those chapters, Job did not sin with his lips. Now, as the argument with his friends progresses, Job does sin, which is why he repents at the end. But Job is not suffering for his own sin. Job is going through a hardship because this is the will of God to the glory of God.
We should recognize, dear Christian friends, that we, like Bildad, can say very true things in very wrong and unhelpful ways. If we apply a theological truth to a situation that we do not understand, we can speak truth and be dead wrong. And if we speak theological truth in a loveless, uncaring, nasty way, we do not honor the Lord. Instead, we do harm to people that we are supposed to love.
I’m not at all suggesting that we not correct those in need of correction. I’m totally for us challenging people when they are in sin or when they preach falsehoods. There are many who claim Christ and who have bought into big lies from the world. We want to stand strong on the word as we challenge those positions. But I would suggest that we begin these conversations with as much love and respect as we can muster. And even if the conversation gets heated on the other side, let us remember to be the people who do not have to lose our cool, because we are the people standing on the word of God.
But when you have a hurting, Christian friend, a friend in deep emotional distress that is obvious, perhaps that is not the best time to drop a theological bomb on them. Be a friend. Be a comfort. When they are able to think with you again, help them straighten out their doctrine. Never belittle the word of God. But also do not crush the hearts of people made in the image of God.
Pastor Travis Peterson 