Telling someone who has cancer that they merely have indigestion is not encouraging or edifying. It is simply cruel.

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Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. - Ephesians 4: 29 (NKJV)

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. - 1Thessalonians 5: 11 (ESV)

We get so much wrong in modern American Christianity. This is to be expected considering our propensity for wickedness and the fact that the Bible teaches us that few find the narrow gate that leads to eternal life. Few. Let that word sink into your spirit for a moment. We have churches claiming to save people by the thousands now. Churches performing spontaneous baptisms on thousands of people. Churches claiming tens of thousands of "decisions for Christ" every year. Yet the Bible plainly states that only a few will find the narrow gate that leads to heaven. Someone is mistaken and I am willing to bet it is not God; the Author of the Bible.

On top of this there are Christian buzzwords used throughout our faith to quell any true light being shone into the darkness that pervades the church today. People like what they like. They want to hear what they want to hear. The Bible teaches us that we will gather around us teachers who will tell us exactly what we want to hear. That this is our best life now. That we need to discover the champion inside of us. That God doesn't care about sin anymore and is never angry with us. That God is just waiting to throw open the windows of heaven and pour blessings down upon us until we figuratively drown in them. Two such misused buzzwords are edification and encouragement.

The Bible cannot be clearer about the reality of false teachings and false teachers. We are warned over and over again throughout the Gospels and the New Testament. It is clear they are a poison to the body of Christ. It is made plain that they lure people away from Christ and will result in the eternal damnation of many. It is clear we are to openly and publicly rebuke them, lest people continue to fall for their lies. Yet despite these glaring Scriptural facts, it seems so many well intended and even solid preachers/teachers will jump to the defense of what is false. They will sell out the sheep for the one pretending to be a shepherd. As a discernment ministry writer, I often receive these criticisms from good brothers and those who are just seeking to protect what they want to hear. These criticisms will eventually utilize the buzzwords edification and/or encouragement. They claim the work of exposing what is false is somehow not edifying and that the writing should be of more encouragement. I believe in what Paul Washer once preached - the person who loves you the most is the one willing to tell you the most truth. If you see someone driving their car off a cliff it is not encouraging to hold their hand on the way down and tell them everything is going to be OK. That is just cruel. Let us take a closer look at edification and encouragement as God intended these words to be used. The key verses are two often employed to discourage people from truth telling within the body. The first verse deals with edification but let's look at the entire context:

Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. "Be angry, and do not sin":do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. - Ephesians 4: 25-29 (NKJV)

To edify means to build up. It does not infer goodness one way or the other yet it has been hijacked in modern Christianity to mean that anything critical is not edifying. That is pure nonsense. The entire context reveals what Paul was trying to express. What do we see when we consider the entire context?

1) We are to put away lying.

2) Everyone is responsible to speak the truth with everyone else.

3) We are part of one body.

4) We are to turn from sinful behavior towards righteousness.

So when we see the key verse we have a much better perspective as to what God is trying to teach us here. The "corrupt words" that are not to proceed out of our mouths are the same "lying" we are to put away. When we see the term "what is good for necessary edification" we now know refers to truth-telling. It is the truth which is edifying for a believer. This notion that edification must be a glowing positive statement is born out of the word faith heresy. Word faith teaches the law of attraction where our positive words attract positivity into our lives and negative words attract negativity. That sounds great from a worldly, carnal perspective but it is unbiblical. No beloved. What draws negativity into our live as believers is untruth. That is one reason why we are to put away lying. Falseness does not edify a believer. It tears a believer down. If I see a brother in sin and I just tell them to speak positive words over their life I have imparted nothing edifying to them at all. If I see a false teacher leading hundreds of thousands of people astray and I choose to not expose him for the worker of iniquity that he is, I have not edified anyone. That is because we are all responsible for telling the truth, no matter how much it hurts, for the betterment and maturity of the whole body of Christ. After all, we are part of one body. When we turn a blind eye and a mute tongue towards what is poisoning the body of Christ that is not "edifying." Only the truth is edifying beloved. Only the truth. Still unsure? Let us turn to Scripture where all of our questions are answered.

The Galatian church had been infiltrated by a group known as the Judaizers. This group was trying to mix the requirements of the law, such as circumcision, back into their new found grace through Jesus Christ. The equivalent today would be a preacher who is preaching something just as false. Maybe the notion that God wants you rich. Maybe the notion that if you give $100 to the preacher, God will give you back a thousand. Maybe the notion that God is never angry with you. That sin doesn't matter anymore. That the Ten Commandments are obsolete. That saying a three sentence prayer means you are saved. That our words have the power of creation. That we are little gods. That clairvoyance is prophecy. That false signs and wonders are real. All of these things are just like the Judaizers in the Church of Galatia. They are all mixing in what is false with what is true. They are all poisoning the body of Christ. What did Paul say to the Galatian Church? Did he hold their hand, sing Kumbaya, and tell them everything was going to be OK? No, he most certainly did not:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. - Galatians 3: 1 (ESV)

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 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 accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. - Galatians 1: 6-10 (ESV)

Foolish Galatians? Who has bewitched you? I am astonished that you have deserted Christ? If anyone lies, that is preaches a different gospel, let them be accursed? According to many people today Paul was not being very edifying here. It sounds like he was tearing down the believers at Galatia doesn't it? By carnal understanding he may have been but spiritually he was being completely edifying. The truth is always edifying. Paul was showing them what they were doing and believing was wrong and they needed to change now. He was saying this is not their best life now. He was saying the Ten Commandments still means something for believers. He was saying no to the prosperity hucksters. No to the greasy grace preachers. No to the word faith little gods heretics. Edifying? Absolutely!

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. - Romans 16: 17-18 (ESV)

Take a good look at these verses. It is not those that point out falseness who are causing division in the body of Christ. It is the false doctrine the causes the division. Joel Osteen causes the division in the body. Joseph Prince causes the division. You can line em all up here and the same will apply. Why? Because their doctrine is false. It does not agree with the Bible. It leads people astray from the narrow path. It poisons the body. It does not take any love whatsoever to allow someone to remain deceived. It takes pure selfishness and that is never edifying. The Bible makes clear that edification is done only through the truth.

The same goes for encouragement. This is an even more popular Christianese buzzword. We have abandoned what encouragement really means and exchanged it for positivity. For hearing what we want to hear. It is real easy to say something "encouraging" as the world sees it. I can make a post on Facebook that simply says - "God loves you" and it would generate 100 "amens" and "likes." The truth however is that God loves us so much He refused to leave us sitting in our sin and heading to hell so He sacrificed His only Son to take our punishment and die in our place. That he loves us so much that He requires us to die to self, pick up our cross daily and turn from our sins. Post that and it will be greeted with "you need to be more encouraging." The other key verse today does in fact say that we ought to encourage one another but once again, let us look at the context:

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. - 1Thessalonians 5: 1-11 (ESV)

This is another example of poor interpretation. It is too easy to pick verse 11 and simply say we ought to encourage one another without reading the true meaning of what God is trying to convey to us. This section specifically deals with the second coming of Christ and the judgment that will follow. What is interesting is what God says the unsaved are saying leading up to this day - "There is peace and security." How carnally encouraging! One look around this land and we see this mantra playing out. Unbelievers are convinced that either there is no God or that everyone is going to heaven. They have settled the matter in their hearts that there is indeed peace and security when the harsh reality is they have neither. Unfortunately we see the same in many apostate churches today as well. Churches that have abandoned the true Gospel and have begun to chase after myths. Churches that lead the sheep astray with promises of a god that does not exist. A god who cannot save anyone. There is only one Gospel by which we are saved. Yet they preach peace and security. They sell peace and security. Just like the leaders of old in Israel:

Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, "Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us." - Micah 3: 9-11 (ESV)

Remember beloved that on that fateful last day many will stand before Christ and say "Lord Lord" only to hear - "I never knew you." Encouragement is not a warm, fuzzy, feel good message. It is the truth. In the context from Thessalonians we see that we are to encourage ourselves with the Gospel! Not mere words of human wisdom.

Now I would remind you, brothers,of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. - 1Corinthians 15: 1-2 (ESV)

We must realize today that these verses clearly mean that there will be some, many in fact, who will have believed in vain. People who will have spent their lives thinking they were serving God only to discover on the last day that He never knew them. People who said a quick prayer but never repented of anything. People who believed the lies being sold to them by charlatans who make merchandise of the things of God. If you are thinking that is not encouraging then you have missed the point. If someone who was living a lie comes to the knowledge of the truth and passes from the kingdom of darkness into the light - how encouraging is that! The Gospel is encouraging because it provides a means to overcome this world. To those however who refuse to see the truth, it is a damnable message. A message that consigns them to the eternal fires of hell. I understand why that would seem less than edifying. Less than encouraging.

Beloved, if you went to a doctor and he discovered you had cancer but he decided to be more encouraging and tell you that it was merely indigestion; how would that make you feel? Telling someone they have cancer is possibly the most discouraging thing I could imagine. It certainly is not edifying. But here is the thing - it is the truth. Perhaps something can be done before the cancer spreads. Perhaps there is a treatment that could help overcome it. This is the situation we are in regarding the church and the Gospel. People who are not saved have been diagnosed with cancer. They are dying and they do not even know it. There is no earthly cure for it. There is however a way to overcome it eternally. There is a way to beat it for all of eternity. In order to get there however, you must tell them they have it. You must tell them the truth. It may not seem overly edifying or encouraging but there is nothing more edifying and encouraging than the truth.

What would you do then if you knew there were doctors who were refusing to tell people that they had cancer? They were refusing to tell them the truth. Instead they said it was merely something they ate, charged them money, and told them everything was going to be OK. Would that make you angry? Would you want to grab that false doctor and expose him to the world for what he was? A snake oil salesman. A huckster and charlatan. Someone preying off of innocent victims for his own gain. Even if you discovered that the lying doctor did not even know he was lying. That he believes that cancer is nothing more than indigestion. That he genuinely cares about people but just happens to be horribly wrong when it comes to cancer. Telling him the truth does not amount to anything because he believes he is right. Would that matter to you at all? Isn't the issue the fact that the patient has cancer and needs to know? It is time to stop coddling false doctors, regardless of whether they even know they are false. It is time to be concerned with those who are dying and need the cure that only Jesus can provide. That only the true Gospel can provide. It is time to encourage and edify them with the only thing that matters - the truth.

Reverend Anthony Wade - September 19, 2014

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.