”If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.“
Matthew 18:15-18 ESV
If you aren’t familiar with Doug Wilson and his Canon Press suffice it to say that Mr. Wilson is a vigilant worker in the Lord from the town of Moscow, Idaho. There he has a church, a university, and has written a multitude of books as well. Apparently, he doesn’t sleep…or needs less of it than yours truly. Also, and this is important, he’s ardently post-millennial and reformed. We’ll get back to this.
Across the ring is Kevin DeYoung who’s the senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan and the author of one of my favorite books, Just Do Something. I’m currently reading another one of his, also quite excellent, The Hole in our Holiness. Also in DeYoung’s corner and throwing some jabs, as well as some borderline body-shots, is Ligon Duncan, Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary. (A quick admission: I’ve personally met Ligon Duncan. He’s preached at my home church and his extended family are devoted members and leaders here. Though I’m not close to Ligon, I consider his extended family dear and beloved church friends.)
Okay, now that you’ve met the primary combatants in this little reformed Christian dustup, let’s move on, shall we? Let’s get to the heart of the matter. The gist of it is that Mr. DeYoung and Mr. Duncan consider the so-called “Moscow mood” to be, well, a wee bit too combative. Too much sarcasm and mockery for their taste. Mr. Wilson, be sure, believes that illustrating the great sins of our time – so many emanating from the Woke left – and engaging them head-on – is a necessary function of the church. The issue is one of preference, in this author’s humble opinion. But underneath this there’s a broader point I’d like to make.
That point is this: the divide between the Wilsonian and DeYoung camps revolves around their respective understanding of the times and the manner in which Christians should contend for the truth. The Wilson’s of the church think that the times are epically perilous and that business as usual means shrinking back from battle, i.e., cowardice. On DeYoung’s side (and Duncan’s) there’s the belief that Christians must always err on the side of love when engaging a hostile culture lest they alienate the very people they’re trying to reach with the gospel. Wilson believes that he’s defending the faith by fearlessly engaging the Woke lies and that this approach is needed to encourage the downcast amongst us who are taking it on the chin as the culture lurches atheistic-leftward. Wilson’s supporters see him as a David going out to rhetorical battle with Goliath. DeYoung’s people are apt to see Wilson as an uncouth street-fighter rather than a minister.
What’s going on is that both sides are needed. They’re all Christian brothers, so Matthew 18 looms large. We must never be flippant when discussing a brother or sister in Christ.
Matthew 18:15-18 is, aside from the myth of neutrality, the most ignored passage of Scripture by the Christian church in this author’s opinion. It appears in a chapter that finishes with this rather solemn warning:
”Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Matthew 18:32–35 ESV
On this point, it’s fair to say that God isn’t playing. For us to seriously consider how blessed we are to be forgiven our sins is to take less and less account over our neighbor’s missteps. More than that, it absolutely requires that we “keep no record of wrongs” and consider all things in love. The implication of loving our neighbor is, alas, refusing to evaluate his/her motives in the most negative fashion possible. It’s to this that we’re shamed so very often, both you and I! A small disagreement, often fed and fueled by a personality difference, or a mere cultural one, leads us to the actual sin of assuming by divine-self fiat the motive of the other person.
But the rule from above is clear: if our brother sins against us, go and tell him.
Over the years I’ve learned how damaging it is to the unity of the body of Christ that we don’t obey this commandment, which itself is, by the way, a rational extension of loving our neighbor. I certainly don’t want one of my neighbors to audit everything I do, find a foible, assume the worst, and then go off half-cocked about it and tell others…completely leaving me out of the loop. But such is par for the course. By virtue of Matthew 18, none of us should ever, under any circumstances, speak ill of another person – especially a Christian! Period. End of story.
But there’s more.
If I have a problem with you but the problem isn’t a sin as defined by Scripture, then it’s not you that has the problem, but me. Period. End of story. The words of our Lord can’t be more clear. Again: the obligation upon us under the Lord is that if a brother sins we must go to him privately to discuss the issue. The motive and goal of the whole thing is unity in the Lord and righteousness, love, and peace.
I don’t get to define what sin is. Neither do you. As Donald Grey Barnhouse once wonderfully remarked, “I am not your judge and you may not be mine.”
That’s God’s job and He isn’t very likely to ever outsource it. Imagine a world in which the church actually follows this prescription for conflict resolution. Imagine a church where we’re all actively rooting for one another in Christ, remembering the great lessons of Romans 12-14. Imagine if we regard personality differences with loving awe (awe because it’s God that has created each of us, after all) and don’t confuse them with sin. There’s a challenge in every generation, one which should be taken much more seriously methinks, to differentiate between cultural norms and righteousness. A man who speaks too loud and sometimes chews with his mouth open isn’t a reprobate even if you’d rather not have him over for dinner.
Okay, back to DeYoung and Wilson.
So, Mr. DeYoung writes that the “Moscow mood” is divisive and, well, too snarky. He takes issue with Wilson’s attitude and use of sarcasm and snark. We note that there’s no chapter and verse attached. That’s the problem. DeYoung wrote:
“…I’d love to see them devote an entire month (hey, why not a whole year) to just those things, without any snark, without any sarcasm, and without any trolling of other Christians.”
DeYoung takes issue that Wilson is (as Ligon Duncan said) throwing grenades at the unbelieving world. He (DeYoung) points out that we’re mere sojourners and have no lasting city and quotes Hebrews 13:14 on this point. To be fair, though, Wilson is an unabashed post-millennial and that eschatological view informs and directs his focus insofar as culture is concerned. A post-millennial is going to see the Great Commission a tad bit different than a dispensationalist. That’s a bit of the issue here. DeYoung says:
“As we’ve seen, the mood is often irreverent, rebellious, and full of devil-may-care playground taunts. That doesn’t make us better Christians…Pugnacity and jocularity are not the occasional and unfortunate by-products of the brand; they are the brand.”
Okay. That’s the gist of it. Pastors like DeYoung and Duncan don’t very much appreciate Mr. Wilson’s feisty lampooning of the modern Woke left. They’re also unappreciative of his badgering of the rest of the evangelical world. Wilson sees a world at war and acts accordingly. I would personally like to think that he (Wilson) is trying to encourage the saints in a time when they’re prone to depression considering the cultural chaos around them. I would like to think that in light of our Lord’s commandment to love my neighbor. To that end, we also note that Wilson’s YouTube channel and all that are, in fact, “extra-church” ministries. His blog and videos are meant, it would seem, to educate believers, besieged as they are by the Woke culture and assaults on the truth, and blast holes in the enemy’s strongholds. This is in the spirit of 2 Corinthians 10:4-6. That Wilson takes this seriously – that is, to use the “divine weapon of truth to literally destroy sophisticated arguments and every proud thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God…and being ready to punish every act of disobedience. This is war…a war of ideas. And we’re clearly called to contend for the truth (Jude 1:3). Most certainly we’re to do this in a Christlike manner. Absolutely. Wilson’s sarcasm may not be our cup of tea, so to speak, but in my estimation I haven’t seen him sin in his ideological combat. It’s easy to sit in the stands and critique the fighter in the ring. I’m not certain I know exactly where that line is between contending for the truth or doing more harm than good. I admit that I don’t have that kind of wisdom. But, as Lincoln once said of Grant when asked why he put such an uncouth character in charge of the Army, “this man fights.”
And, yes, Wilson fights.
It’s the Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton divide. Wilson is, in this case, of course, a man who’s convinced that the battle is joined. He’s Patton. He sees the transgender movement that’s responsible for teenage children having life altering surgeries and he’s aghast. He rightly sees the Woke left as evil and he abhors it. The Eisenhower party of the church understands that there’s a battle but doesn’t want Patton running around and waging war willy-nilly, perhaps starting battles by accident. Mr. DeYoung believes that we win the war with the gospel and so does Wilson. But Wilson sees part of that war effort as tearing down the stronghold of the Woke ideology over against Christianity. In short, Wilson attempts to increase morale of the troops by assailing the modern enemy that is Woke-Marxism. Wilson thinks that the beleaguered troops need encouragement and to see someone in the church standing up to the bullies in the culture…someone not afraid to speak the truth and mock the insanity of the ideas that have swept over our land like a putrid tsunami.
But DeYoung, like Ligon Duncan, are concerned that Wilson’s no-holds-barred rhetoric will alienate the world. Wilson, we assume, would reply that exposing the folly of egregious sin requires talking about the crazy nature of that sin. He claims, to be fair, that the insane horror of sin and what it’s doing – and will do – requires that brave Christian soldiers answer back.
Mr. DeYoung and Mr. Duncan are quite correct in worrying that a warrior spirit in a Christian leader might lead to friendly fire problems. They’re correct in wondering if Wilson’s No Quarter attitude toward the radical Woke left might lead to uncharitable behavior on the part of the church. Where they err is in accusing Wilson (as Ligon Duncan did in his podcast remarks) of slander. Mockery and sarcasm may be tactics that our more gentle brothers and sisters are uncomfortable with. But they aren’t sins in and of themselves. Slander is always a sin, though, in that it’s knowingly lying about someone else. I’m unaware of Wilson slandering anyone (according to that definition) and for that reason, the charge is inappropriate and should be openly retracted. Past that, we don’t see clear and egregious sin by either party so much as we observe a difference of God-given talents, offices, and personality. But, alas, we must always keep in mind that differences in personality and culture are not sin. Sin is sin and only God defines that. Doug Wilson is a fighter who is gifted by God with, amongst other talents, to truly abhor the lies of the Marxist-fueled age. That passion must be tempered by Christian truth and the love of Christ. The “Moscow Mood” is, therefore, a great and true abhorrence of the day’s evil ideas.
Courage and love for truth can lead a man to battle; but a love of battle can lead a man to be self-destructive. Likewise, patience and love for the lost can lead a man to extend grace even in the face of great persecution; but a love for peace can sometimes overcome our love of truth and we can become a coward during a crisis. We all must beware lest we fall. We all must depend on the Lord. And we must all be patient with one another just as He’s patient with us. Each of us is a member of the body of Christ…some of us are blessed with the talent of soothing and encouraging, and some are called to the war of ideas. But we all meet at the cross. Daily. We must. It’s unwise to call all pastors to be ideological warriors just as it is to call the Wilsons to be more like Alistair Begg. (Incidentally, the good Mr. Begg recently stepped in it in the other direction with his remarks on attending a gay wedding and bringing a gift. His conscience told him to go and celebrate the union…you see? This is a fallen world and we’re going to have these dust-ups. What we must pray for is the wisdom and love and patience to deal with each other amidst these areas).
We can easily say that we don’t like the manner in which a church or brother goes about their business. All this talk about the mood rather than a specific issue is avoided if we adhere strictly to Matthew 18 and the entirety of Romans 12-14. The church is the Lord’s and not its own. He equips us and dispenses gifts and in this we rejoice. Thus it is that we need both the Wilsons and the DeYoungs. It’s not wrong to be either but it is to insist that the one be exactly like the other. That’s the Lord’s business, not mine. Nor yours. If your personality leans more to the non-confrontational side you must resist the temptation to call it sin in a brother who has a gift of contending for the faith. Often, such a Christian will get angry at another Christian and fight them in the same foxhole due to their desire to avoid confrontation. It’s a real issue and one that should be addressed in sober reflection and prayer. Likewise, the bold Christian must resist the temptation to label all others as wimps and cowards. Both sides are needed and can, in humility and love before the Lord, help each other to glorify Him and reach the lost with the gospel.
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