07/27/2026
What do we do when we recognize that we have been wrong in a biblical practice or belief? Perhaps we find that we have made a liturgical practice out of something we have considered to be the Word of God that was actually of man, and not of God after all. What should we do? How should we face this and admit our failure or address something we find to be a material heresy? Are we brave enough to face our mistake before God and man or are we doomed to a life of spiritual suffering in false worship? Friends, in such cases we must gather bravely in contrition as a church and pray for God’s forgiveness.
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:12-14 ESV
Throughout the history of the Church, leaders have attempted to cure the ills of society through the application of something they attributed to God. Some of these cures were biblical, and some were not. Some fostered new behaviors within the Church such as the horrific practice of burning someone at the stake, simply not wearing a certain color, or other such outward signs of adherence, while others were commemorated in celebrations of faith through festivals on the streets. However, many of these were actually founded on the Word of God, but were conceived by men to solve a problem perceived and performed by mankind.
“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.”
Romans 16:17-18 ESV
There have been many reasons to use faith in God and Jesus Christ, and to use our wholesome fear of God as we seek Him, and to steer us one way or the other, but it is wrong to assign to faith those things that are secular in nature. When we do this it diminishes our faith, and gives unrepentant men reasons to falsely despise the Church. So, what do we do, and how do we admit, address, and overcome it? Brethren, when we recognize our faults as men, or a Church, we need to go to our knees, make a profession of our wrong, seek God in contrition, ask both man and God for forgiveness, and then go and sin no more. In other words, we apply the same relief for the sins of the Church as we do our own... and accept the grace we have received through Jesus Christ.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
1 John 1:9-10 ESV
It is hard for a person to admit wrong, and harder yet for a church. We are one body in Christ and in the Church, and as such we gain great strength and encouragement, but when we wrongly attribute our thoughts or actions to God when it is not of Him, then the same sense of purpose that encourages us to kneel personally in contrition should apply equally to us as a church body. What convicts us in our behavior individually should convict us equally in our common ills and wrongs. Quite often we see this as a reluctance to change, but it goes deeper than that when we have wrongly applied or interpreted God’s Word.
A reluctance within the Church to undo something it has wrongly done by not coming to God in contrition and asking for His forgiveness has caused splits in the body today, and throughout history, but worse, it has driven many souls away from faith and belief in God and Jesus Christ altogether, and thus damned them individually, and us altogether, as a result... the responsibility for this haunts the Church and calls it to repent. Good people seeking God that couldn’t find a way around these ills in the Church, have fallen to the wayside... victims of he who is in the earth. For this cowardice and lack of repentance the Church suffers, and for this Christ weeps.
In society today there is much manmade discord, and we witness it as a fertile breeding ground in which Satan thrives. The Church is not immune to these influences, and in Satan’s wooing of men to change biblical doctrine within the Church in favor of man’s desires and whims is its undoing, in this way Satan causes the very foundations of faith to quake. Let’s not be deceived, and adhere always to God’s Word which was, is now, and will forever be truth. If we hold firm to the Word of God, then the sins of man and Church will be forgiven, and the good news of Jesus Christ and true nature of God will prosper as they should.
“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”
Acts 9:31 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Holy Word, and I thank you for the one body of Christ which is the Church. I pray Holy Father that your hand remains on each of us, on the Church as a whole, and that you defend us equally against the deceptions of Satan. Stand before us Father, and wield your sword of truth. Pare out the false doctrine, and reluctance towards contrition that you find within us. Dress us in the full armor of faith, and place the truth of your Word in our hearts and hands as we go forth. Forgive us Merciful Father for those times and ways in which we have abused your Word, and made it a tool of man. Hear the wail of sorrow in our voices, and see the tears of desperation on our cheeks as we kneel before you in remorse and contrition. Restore us by your grace, and lift us up as one people, and one Church, as we pray and worship forever within your will. In this way Lord you will be glorified, and in this way we will praise and worship you in all truth and power. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who was, and is, and is to come. Hold us and forgive us of our sins once more, made righteous in the palm of your hand, and pleasing in your sight.
“so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Ephesians 4:14-16 ESV
Amen, Amen, Amen!
Rich Forbes