Journalism from hell (2), By Ayo Akerele

Where then did we get these journalists from hell? Men and women who have made the ruining of genuine ministries and marriages their primary agenda, or don’t you know the damages that are caused the body of Christ when you go to the rooftop of social media to “expose” the sins of your brother? Is that what the Bible teaches us to do when a fellow brother fails or falls?

“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God Day and night, has been cast down.” (Revelations 12:10).

There is a clear cut difference between genuine children and servants of God and full blown agents of darkness. These two categories of people aren’t treated the same way. Demons are cast out. Brethren are loved. Nowhere in the scripture is it taught or practiced that God’s children, who make mistakes or even sin intentionally, must be publicly shamed and humiliated into repentance. The ultimate goal of every restoration process is to bring people back to the place of repentance in an environment of love. This was exactly what Jesus displayed in the story of Zacchaeus, in Luke 19.

Zacchaeus was a sinner, a very corrupt man. Jesus walked up to him as he hung on that Sycamore tree, and showered him with love.

“And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9).

That was what broke this man. Could you imagine that if when Jesus approached Zacchaeus, in the company of thousands of people, He shouted at him, “Stupid man, come down from the tree. Everybody, come and see this thief of a man who has robbed you of your taxes.” Had that happened, this man’s story would have been different. But, Jesus’ approach was to model love for the body, and to pave the path of restoration for those who would need to repent of their sins. The same approach was used for the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery (John 8:4).

The fall of a genuine brother or sister in the Lord is the fall of a portion of the body of Christ, and we are all directly or indirectly affected and impacted. Don’t allow envy and jealousy to mislead you into using your platform to shoot down a fallen soldier. We must fight together or fall together. I am committed to the former.

“And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’” (John 8:11).

In fact, it’s still the same approach he uses when dealing with unbelievers. The process must be built on love. Our corrections must be founded and based on love. The Bible isn’t silent about this at all. Hear what Apostle Paul said in one of his epistles:

“But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

Where then did we get these journalists from hell? Men and women who have made the ruining of genuine ministries and marriages their primary agenda, or don’t you know the damages that are caused the body of Christ when you go to the rooftop of social media to “expose” the sins of your brother? Is that what the Bible teaches us to do when a fellow brother fails or falls? The fall of a genuine brother or sister in the Lord is the fall of a portion of the body of Christ, and we are all directly or indirectly affected and impacted. Don’t allow envy and jealousy to mislead you into using your platform to shoot down a fallen soldier. We must fight together or fall together. I am committed to the former. You can’t love the gospel more than the one who died for the gospel. If He has recommended love as His preferred principle for promoting repentance in people, doing it otherwise is not from God.

We don’t filter our actions through the lenses of the kingdom, by asking love-based questions like, “what is the consequences of what I’m pushing to the public on the body of Christ?” We don’t see the failure or the fall of a genuine servant of God as an attack against the entire body. And when you rush to social media to celebrate the fall of a member of the body, you are actually celebrating your own fall; you just didn’t know.

The focus of this article are the genuine brothers and sisters in the body of Christ who fail or fall into sin, willingly or mistakenly. I am also focusing on genuine servants of God who fail the test of morality and authentic Christian character, willingly or mistakenly. We all know who a genuine believer is; it is by their fruits. False servants of God don’t make mistakes when they steal money; they are thieves by nature. The scope of this article doesn’t cover false ministers who are out to destroy lives or fake Christians who have no relationship with Jesus. There is a massive difference between how we respond to the failures of fellow brethren and those of full blown agents of the devil, who have no place in the kingdom of God, except they give their lives to Jesus. The sad reality here is that many of us don’t know anything about the kingdom or about the body of Christ.

We don’t filter our actions through the lenses of the kingdom, by asking love-based questions like, “what is the consequences of what I’m pushing to the public on the body of Christ?” We don’t see the failure or the fall of a genuine servant of God as an attack against the entire body. And when you rush to social media to celebrate the fall of a member of the body, you are actually celebrating your own fall; you just didn’t know. Satan has just deceived you to think that that person who has just failed has failed for himself. That is the carnal assessment of the situation from the devil’s perspective. But from God’s perspective, which is a superior perspective, when one member is sick, the entire body carries the weight of this pain. Apostle Paul spent quite some time to explain how we function as members of the same body.

“And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26). To be continued

Ayo Akerele is the senior pastor of Rhema Assembly and the founder of the Voice of the Watchmen in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached through ayoakerele@gmail.com.