Did you ever think someone should get kicked out of your church or has someone ever gotten kicked out of your church? I know some people think that everyone who wants to be at church should be allowed to stay there. They have issues, but at least they came to church to try to get rid of them. Well, some people don’t come to church to get help for their issues; they come to church to start some issues. That is their ONLY reason for being there. And because that is their only reason for being there, they are singularly focused and easily cause deception to sweep through swiftly. What should be done with these people? What if you find yourself to be one of these people?
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.—1 Timothy 1:18-20
In this passage we see the Apostle Paul teaching the younger minister, Timothy, how to occupy his position in the church and giving him an example of what he did to people walking in deception. He told Timothy to “wage a good warfare,” meaning fight with all his spiritual might by holding on to his faith and following what he knows to be right. For Hymenaeus and Alexander, those who abandoned their faith and spoke bad things (probably about the Christian faith or its leaders), “Paul handed over to Satan.” We know Paul didn’t literally hand these men to the god of all evil spiritual entities, but his metaphor suggests that Paul no longer served as a spiritual guide, a protector, for these men. He cast them away from his arch of safety, allowing Satan to have free reign in their lives. Parents sometimes do this, throwing up their hands to allow wayward kids to go their way. It’s not that the parents don’t love them, but when the kids have gone too far in their deception the only thing that may bring them back where they need to be is the natural consequences of their sin. Paul realized this and simply helped to facilitate that with Hymenaeus and Alexander and so do churches that kick out troublesome members who “have made shipwreck their faith.”
With strong black women historically allowing our own strength, ethnicity and gender to dictate to us how we handle situations, it’s likely that there have been some Alexander and Hymenaeuses among us. My hope is that we put ourselves in check so we aren’t kicked out of a church, a job, a friendship or a position of confidante in a friendship. Let us leave our place of deception to come back and sin no more.
Copyright 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith