Is it proper to grieve over someone who is deluded by false teachers?
Question:
It's been some time since I've written. I'm the fellow whose wife joined a charismatic group and said that God told her to divorce me and this was supported by her Christian friends because I was not Christ-like and had an issue with the charismatic stuff. Although I've given up any hope of ever reconciling, there is that small part of me that seems to hope for it.
The point of this letter is to address something I'm sure you've heard of it. It is a site where modern prophets (and I say that lightly) tell of the things that God will be doing on a daily basis.
There appears to be an uproar going on around it lately; one of their top prophets and healers has divorced his wife after an affair and the others, including a man named Rick Joyner, are all just trying to sweep this "prophet's" sin under the rug. In my opinion, these people and those that blindly follow them are misleading people, taking their donations, living opulently and preaching heresies from the pulpit.
A very strong sadness came over me this week concerning my ex-wife and just how strong this delusion (if that's what it is) is. I know the things it says in Matthew 7, and other places in the Bible, but these people believe blindly even when things like this happen. With such noted names as Swaggart, Baker, Bynum, Meyer, and Dollar in the news over some type of atrocity. Am I wrong to hold such a position as this? And is the sadness in my heart over my ex-wife and what I think is a delusion justifiable?
Answer:
Of course, it is proper to feel sorrow over the lost state of someone you love. "I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises" (Romans 9:1-3). Paul not only wept over his kinsmen, but he also felt sorrow for those who opposed him. "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame--who set their mind on earthly things" (Philippians 3:13-14). No one should desire the destruction of another. Like our Lord, it ought to be our heart's desire to see all men everywhere saved.
