Don’t Kill the Messenger

I have been reading discussions where Christians have been questioning certain life styles.   In an attempt to stop the mouths of the Christians and their message, the world has used scriptures.  These scriptures are:

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. (Matthew 7:1-6 KJV)

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.  (John 8:7 KJV)

The idea behind the expression, “Don’t kill the Messenger” was probably first expressed in Antigone by Sophocles which says “no man delights in the bearer of bad news”.  There also stories of rulers killing messengers that have brought bad news.  There is one case recorded by Plutarch in his “The Life of Lucullus” that states “Since the first messenger who told Tigranes that Lucullus was coming had his head cut off for his pains, no one else would tell him anything, and so he sat in ignorance while the fires of war were already blazing around him”.  

In recent months I have noticed that one of the attacks against Christians is the “he without sin let him cast the first stone,” or check the “mote” in your own eye before judging me.  God has given the Christian a message for the world, a world that is at enmity with God.  If the World and Christians a like feels judged by the Word of God, it is rightly so, it is not the messenger doing the judging but the Word of God.  Christian are Ambassadors for Christ.  An Ambassador is not to speak his or her own words but only the words of their leader or master.   We as Ambassadors for Christ, we must be very in tune with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we are not the judge, that is Jesus Christ, the Word of God, both through the Holy Bible and on His triumphant return.

The Message of the Gospels remains the same, the messenger is not the Message.  The messenger’s job is to get the message to the recipient, even if the world is trying to kill the messenger and the message.  It is the Message of the Gospel that judges, has the power to change and has the power of life and death.  We, the messenger, Christian, have too precious a Message to allow fear of the world or even death like the messengers of Tigranes to deter from our duty.

Craig Gunhouse