“I DARE YOU”

Neal Pollard

He was James West.  He was Pappy Boyington.  When I was a little boy, he was my ideal image of what it meant to be a macho, tough guy.  Then came the coolest commercial.  In the late 1970s, Robert Conrad was a spokesman for Eveready batteries.  Some of you will remember it well (http://youtu.be/lr-oLQgvcuk). He put that battery on his shoulder, and the trademark line was, “Come on.  I dare you!”

That “double-dog-dare-ya” philosophy might work well when boys are playing cowboys and Indians, or watching Jim and Artemus beat up the bad guys, but it is not the way Christ modeled for us or wanted His people to interact.  It is the world’s solution to conflict and disagreement, not the Lord’s.  In personal disagreements and disputes, He urged “turning the other cheek” and many similar admonitions (Mat. 5:38-47).  When offended, He urged direct confrontation (Mat. 18:15-17).  But, given the overall tone of Christ’s teaching about such matters, one must twist and distort scripture to draw the picture of an angry, insulting, blistering confronter.  Instead, is it not more like the instructions given by Paul in Galatians 6:1-2?  When dealing with false teachers and false teaching, He gives us these guidelines:  “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Tim. 2:24-26).

One will not find a pattern in scripture for an all-too-common mode of operation.  Specifically, where there do we find brethren baiting brethren, “setting them up,” offering veiled threats, puffing their chests, and putting the chip on the shoulder daring another to knock it off?  Undoubtedly, at the present hour, the inspiration and authority of scripture, pattern theology, and the long-understood, logical hermeneutic of command, example, and inference are all facing unprecedented attacks by brethren.  As we fight false ideas and combat error with truth, let us not absorb worldly tactics in dealing with brethren.  We must display the spirit and love God demands of His children, regardless of the “opponent.”  The power remains in the Word of God rather than strong-arm, worldly tactics.  We forget that to our own peril!