Why the Bible Discourages Novices from Leading in the Church
He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. – 1 Timothy 3:6
Kanye was recently recorded saying he has a problem with Jesus because he prayed about some issues he’d experienced and Jesus did not show up. Thus, he had to take the situation into his own hands. He tried to balance it out by saying that Christians depend on Jesus so much that we won’t put the work in for ourselves.
Some of what he said was okay like don’t just tell people you will pray for them when you can take action. However, the slight to praying and saying that praying isn’t working and God did not get him out of the threats he endured but himself is not okay.
It’s giving pride. Just like the scripture above warned against warning that the novice may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. We know Satan’s major sin was pride. He exalted himself and left from giving God the just glory due to his name.
Similarly, Kanye is doing the same thing not realizing that God gave him the wisdom and resilience to get through whatever he had to make it through. I am glad this conversation is coming up because Kanye is not the only one to have this issue.
Many turn their hearts against the Lord when they go through difficulty not realizing that God uses difficulty in the believer’s life to work for our good. It builds up our faith and causes us to see the power of God personally in our lives.
It isn’t wrong for Kanye to feel some type of way but he should share how he feels with the Lord and the mentorship that he should be submitting to. The Holy Spirit will teach him and guide him through whatever he is going through.
For example, Cain in the Bible had an issue. He was jealous of his brother Able. God saw that there was something evil in his heart. God decided to use the offering to draw it out so that Cain could deal with it. Therefore, God rejected Cain’s offering.
It was Biblical for God to reject Cain’s offering for having an issue with his brother that was left unaddressed. God says in the New Testament if you have a problem with your brother—don’t bring an offering to the Lord but make things right with your brother—then come back and bring your offering.
God warned Cain that something evil was in his heart but he had to rule over it. In other words, God was saying he needed to work through something and overcome it. Then, his offering would be accepted.
Instead of working through the evil in his heart with the Lord—he decided to take what he was feeling into his own hands. He did what was right in his own eyes killing his brother. Kanye did not go to that extent of course.
The point is Kanye decided to not work in communion or conjunction with the Lord as God was inviting Cain to do. Instead, he worked according to his understanding. This garnered him a result where he seems to be content to continue to leave God out and promote dependence on self instead of Christ.
This is extremely dangerous. As believers, we depend on Christ. We have to do work but the work we do is while consistently acknowledging and fearing the Lord. Fearing, meaning to respect what God says about the matter. In doing so, we consider the Lord in all of our decisions.
There is bad teaching in the church where some Christians are taught to ignore difficulty as faith. Ignoring the difficulty excuses our invitation to work together with God on whatever is ailing us. Both this idea and Kanye’s idea of self-reliance are wrong.
Christianity is not just going around saying Jesus is king or good things about God. Sometimes, as believers, we pump up an influential person who gives their life to Christ to become a minister of the gospel without having been tested to the point of developing maturity.
Kanye West lacks maturity. Nothing that he says about God or Christianity should be taken as gospel. It’s better to be humble as a novice than to be prideful resulting in others being misled.
Tupac is sometimes compared to Kanye, but Tupac was different in the way he shared his faith. Tupac shared again and again, that he doesn’t want to be a role model or minister because he doesn’t know how. He was very self-aware of the fact that he was figuring it out.
He made a lot of mistakes and he was humble about that. Yet, he still believed. You could hear various questions he had toward God in his music but it always came from a place of reverence and respect. In fact, he was recorded sharing that despite the difficulty he’s experienced—he still believes in God and will always believe in God because God was there for him when things were well. This is the type of heart God looks for when we have issues with God, a heart of humility.
There is even a parable in the Bible about a religious person with a prideful heart and a humble man who feared the Lord. See below story:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” – Luke 10:18
One of the men relied on himself, the Pharisee. The other relied on the goodness of God, the tax collector. The tax collector is the one that was seen as justified by God. Sidenote: This parable isn’t an excuse to continue in sin. What God will do is empower us to obey him and become free from sin. When he does—he doesn’t want us to steal his glory. This can apply to whatever we are dealing with in life such as Kanye’s situation.
God doesn’t expect us to understand everything, but he wants us to come to him in humility and respect. God is so good that he will reveal himself to us through our trials of life. He will walk with us and send others to do the same.
