Malachi: Before the SilenceSample

Church Leadership and the Truth

In the midst of God's silence — whether in Malachi's day or our own — the church has a significant role to play in defining truth. In an era of ever-shifting social norms and moral relativism, the church's responsibility to disseminate and affirm the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of God's Word is paramount!

Yet the church has not consistently taken up this charge. Holistic readings of Scripture — giving deference to both the Old and New Testaments — are frequently avoided to keep fickle congregants in attendance. Hard truths and moral absolutes are downplayed so as not to alienate nominal believers. In short, cultural mores too often trump Christian morals.

Malachi's rebuke of the religious establishment of his day is rather pointed in this regard:

"The words of a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge of God, and people should go to him for instruction, for the priest is the messenger of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. But you priests have left God’s paths. Your instructions have caused many to stumble into sin." (Malachi 2:7‭-‬8b)

This oracle is reinforced throughout the New Testament. The epistle of James, in particular, denotes the severity with which those who misrepresent the Word of God will be judged (James 3:1).

Many in church leadership today, however, have failed to grasp Malachi's (and other prophets') warning. When those claiming religious authority mislead God's people by not teaching the entirety of His Word, they pervert the Message and subvert the church's mission.

The Word of God is an all-or-nothing proposition (2 Timothy 3:16). Church leaders — then and now — cannot afford to equivocate on that fact. They do not have the luxury of cherry-picking verses (out of context, more often than not) to suit their own ends; they rightly ought not to expect to lead anyone down the path of righteousness when they are only taking the spiritual path of least resistance.