We have a huge problem in our culture where many people cannot figure out how to be direct when interacting with others. I call it the wimpifying of society because people are afraid of judgement, rejection or being personally attacked for being direct and honest. Yes, we are to speak truth in love according to the Bible. The big part of speaking truth requires people to open their mouths and be direct with others. If you know that the truth is one thing, but you say something different to avoid conflict then you are being a liar. You are not being kind, loving or whatever pathetic excuse of passiveness you can come up with. Being passive and avoiding conversation is worse than doing nothing at all.
Being direct does not require you to be intimidating or mean to the other person. Being direct simply means that you get to the point in truth and in love. Like I have talked about many times before, love in this situation is not the squishy, snuggly, happy form of love. It is blunt, it is direct, and it makes the point without beating around the bush. You may have been fed the lie that Jesus is this passive wimp. That is not the Jesus of the Bible, but that is a created and nonexistent Jesus. To get to my point and be direct, let me give you a very clear example of Jesus being direct.
If you look at the passages found in Matthew and Mark, it is quite obvious that Jesus was a direct person who did not avoid conflict. By Jesus being direct, it created conflict from the chief priest’s and scribes because they refused to accept Jesus’s authority and the words he used to describe them. We need to be just like Jesus when dealing with conflict. Jesus had a loving heart and spoke truth. Just because the truth was too direct for some people does not mean that Jesus was out of line. When you are not direct with people, often they will not get the point. You have to make your point in a way that captures the attention and ear of the person that you are communicating with. This can be as simple as making a statement and asking the other person to repeat back to you what you just told them.
Matthew 21:12-13 New American Standard Bible 1995
Cleansing the Temple
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. 13 And He *said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”
Mark 11:15-18 New American Standard Bible 1995
Jesus Drives Money Changers from the Temple
15 Then they *came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; 16 and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. 17 And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.” 18 The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.
Being direct is only offensive if someone doesn’t want to hear the truth.
Most modern-day churches do an amazing job of using kids gloves when talking to their congregation. They use a tone of voice and words as to not offend people. Sometimes the sermon might as well be a children’s show because everything is happy and there is never any boldness or meat in the message. I am not saying that you need to intentionally offend people on purpose. What I am talking about is how many churches avoid certain verses in the Bible because they deem them too offensive to share. That shady behavior is intentionally ignoring the word of God in a passivist way, knowing full well that they are doing it to not offend. Every part of the Bible is in there for a reason. I get so sick and tired of the repetitive drum beat of love thy neighbor. Many churches find the most non-confrontational scripture to repeat over and over and over again.
I honestly can’t remember ever hearing a sermon about Jesus flipping the tables of money changers over in the temple. I have yet to hear a sermon on righteous anger from God. I rarely hear the word hell mentioned from any pulpit. Why? Because these verses are convenient to leave out because they would require the speaker to offend people, challenge people or make them squirm a little in their seat. The dumbing down of the Bible has directly paralleled the dumbing down of our civilization. We now live in the invisible bubble generation where people are constantly trying to put up protections from things that they find offensive.
Most everyone is easily offended by something. We are drowning in a world by slobbering fools who feel violated, oppressed, and outraged by something every time they turn around. The church has exacerbated the issue by doing their part to coddle the feelings of the offended by offering them continual empathy. Except the feeling of empathy isn’t a Biblical word and the church goes right along with the societal shift of being non-confrontational and understanding. It is time for the church to wake up and be more like Jesus. Be direct, boldly proclaim the Gospel, speak in truth of who Jesus is and all of the characterizes that he encompasses even if it will offend people. I want to see more leaders act like Jesus by speaking the truth.