I’m currently reading the Old Testament book of Jeremiah and was recently struck by a comment the prophet made about the so-called “prophets” of his day.

Jeremiah lived during a time when God’s people were in serious rebellion against the LORD. Due to that rebellion, the Jews were essentially inviting God’s discipline.

However, rather than issue an urgent warning, or urge repentance, these “prophets” gave a pleasant message, assuring the people of God’s kind and gentle ways.

Speaking of these prophets, though, Jeremiah wrote:

[Jeremiah 6:14] “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

But there is no peace. (He said the same thing in 8:11)

The men who held prophetic roles were telling the Jews of Jeremiah’s day that God would not hold His people accountable for their sin, would not bring discipline against His people.

Jeremiah begged to differ.

He said that a sweet, comforting message of “Peace, peace…” wasn’t doing the people any favors. He said that they healed the deep moral and spiritual wounds of God’s people “superficially.”

What a provocative way to put it.

The spokesmen for God in Jeremiah’s day were dealing with people whose lifestyles were putting their own lives in jeopardy.

Yet rather than throw them a hard-truth lifeline,  they kept things pleasant. Problems were grave, yet they brought a message of peace. They put  Band-Aids on the people’s cancer.

Not Jeremiah. He rebuked the superficial messaging of the prophets. For decades he told  God’s people bad news. He called the Jews to repentance. It was the loving thing to do.

Jeremiah would tell us, today, that bad news is sometimes the best news we can get or give.

The authors of the New Testament letters were Jeremiah-ish in their truth-telling ways. They told the Christians to whom they were writing what sounded like bad news but was really good news…if the readers would take it to heart.

For instance, Paul wrote:

• If you are angry with someone, and you hold on to that anger and you don’t let it go and you don’t deal with it before God and you just stay angry, you give the enemy of your soul a gateway into your life. (Ephesians 4).
• If you don’t practice the grace of forgiveness, Satan will have a field day with you. (2 Corinthians 2)
• The way you live here and now is heaping up an eternal reward in the presence of God…or not. (Galatians 6:7)

Jeremiah and Paul warn us with the sobering news that the practice of any sin is addictive and progressive. They would tell us that the longer we allow a sin to remain, to grow, and to fester in our lives, the more difficult putting that sin away becomes.

For that reason, they honestly called God’s people to repentance.

My reading in Jeremiah reminded me of a central benefit of genuine relating between Christians. As we “speak the truth” – the whole truth; even the hard truth – “in love” (Ephesians 4:15), we help each other navigate spiritual minefields on the way to growth in Jesus.

Here is how I’ve often seen the outworking of this idea.

You get to know someone through regular relating in an ABF or a Care Group or some other setting. As you do, you will notice if there are signs of spiritual slippage in your friend’s life.

Thanks to Jeremiah’s word picture, you have a choice about how to proceed.

On the one hand, you can give a “Peace, peace” message to your friend, ignore the danger signs, and pretend all is well. You keep things pleasant, but you have left your friend to wallow in and slide deeper into sin.

OR you can take the harder, more loving road. You can tell the truth. Issue a warning. Ask a probing question. Make a loving, blunt observation. Call to repentance. Offer to help your friend take their next step with Jesus. Give your friend a jeremiad.

Jeremiah’s comment about the “prophets” of his day sparks a vision for what interactions between us at Northwest might look like. Not superficial, but deep, meaningful, meaty.

Or, as the author of Hebrews puts it:

[Hebrews 3:12] Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. [13] But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin…

Yours…His,

Dave