Missionaries of Hell - Matt 23:15

In my Scripture reading this morning I came across an interesting passage that doesn't usually figure largely into our theology of missions:  "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves." (Matt 23:15)

These are extremely strong words from the Lord about "missions" that demonstrate that not all missionary activity is pleasing to Him.  In fact, in the preceding verse, Jesus accuses these same missionaries of "shut[ing] the kingdom of heaven in people's faces"!!

What kind of missionary activity is Jesus describing here??  Here are a few reflections:

1) Missionaries who preach works righteousness.  The Pharisees were proclaiming a false message of works- righteousness that misunderstood the role of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants in God's redemptive plan.  Like many religious people today, the Pharisees wrongly believed that people are made right with God by obeying laws and traditions, rather than by faith alone in Israel's Messiah!  Paul clearly tells us that the role of the law is to convict of sin, not to demonstrate our own righteousness:  "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.  For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." (Rom 3:19-20) Any presentation of the gospel that makes salvation depend on obedience to laws or traditions is missionary activity that God rejects as damnable.

2) Missionaries who herald a heretical/ false gospel.  There are no shortage of false teachers today who have an intense missionary zeal that is combined with a lethal dose of heresy.  Jesus warns us about these missionaries of hell: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves." (Matt 7:15)  The apostle Paul warns us about those who herald a false gospel in the strongest possible language which he repeats twice for emphasis:  "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be anathama" (Gal 1:9). 

3) Missionaries who promote themselves or their organization rather than Christ.  One very subtle, but lethal temptation for many missionaries (Evangelicals included) is to use the gospel as an instrument of self-promotion and power politics rather than as a spiritual weapon that we use to demolish the strongholds that keep people enslaved to sin and false religious systems.  The ultimate aim of the gospel is the glory of God and the promotion of Christ crucified and resurrected, not the promotion of a person or an organization:  "For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake."  (2 Cor 4:5)  Mission endeavors that are motivated by pride and self-promotion are offensive to God as are missionaries who feel the need to 'compete' with other denominations or organizations that are also centred on the gospel once for all delivered to the saints.

4)  Missionaries who use pragmatic gimmicks that cheapen the gospel.  This is another very serious danger for Christians (often well meaning) who promote the gospel as though it were some kind of cheap trinket on a late night infomercial instead of the "power of God for salvation for all who believe".  There are many false 'gospels' today being promoted in this cast:  The gospel of self-esteem, the prosperity gospel, the gospel that is so fixated on meeting 'felt needs' that it fails to deal adequately with the root issue of sin and our need for redemption.  If we feel that the gospel is a commodity that needs to be marketed, propped up and supplimented with gimmicks in order to reach a new postmodern generation, we must take Paul's words to heart:  "But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.  We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word." (2 Cor 4:2)   "We are not like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ." (2 Cor 2:17)  Creativity and innovation are good and are to be commended generally speaking, but let us never forget that the power of the gospel does not depend on our elaborate strategies and methods, but in the Spirit of God alone, who is able to regenerate the sinner and to "deliver us from the dominion of darkness and transfer us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." (Col 1:13)