Who Said We Shouldn’t Be “Reactionary”?

More and more I am hearing true Christians say we shouldn’t be reactionary in our teaching. I could agree with that if they meant our teaching shouldn’t be 100% reactionary. But to me this is the old “we shouldn’t teach anything negative” philosophy, just in a different garb. Of course we should use both positive and negative elements in our gospel teaching – isn’t God both positive and negative (Rom 11:22)?

For sure too much of just about anything can end up being bad, but there is no doubt some of our teaching should be reactionary. Wasn’t Peter, Paul, and James’ teaching in Acts 15 a reaction to the teaching of the Judaizing teachers saying Gentiles had to be circumcised to be saved (1,5)? Isn’t much of the book of Galatians a continuation of that truth – reacting to those who were trying to sill bind that old law (5:1-4), reacting to those who were teaching a different gospel (1:6-9), reacting to Peter and crew reverting back to showing partiality against the Gentiles (2:11-18)? Was John wrong for reacting so negatively to Diotrephes’ bullying ways in III John 9-11?

Isn’t the book of Corinthians the same way – an inspired Paul’s reaction to division in chapters 1-4, reacting to a man having his father’s wife in chapter 5, reactive teaching against saints taking brethren to law in chapter 6, reaction to marriage questions in chapter 8, reaction to brethren trodding on the consciences of others in chapters 8-10, reacting to an improper way of partaking of the communion in the latter half of chapter 11, reacting to multiple different incorrect practices/concepts about spiritual gifts in chapters 12-14, and a strong reaction to false teaching on the resurrection in chapter 15?

Didn’t our Lord and saviour Himself do quite a bit of reacting to the false teaching and hypocrisy of the Pharisees all throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? Do you think Jesus would have been so mega “reactionary” if that was such a bad thing?

With all that evidence before us, we can be certain this “we shouldn’t be reactionary” mantra has been made up by men (did they become a little too big for their britches knowing better than God?), and is something we shouldn’t pay attention to. We must keep on teaching all of the gospel, both in a positive way, and also answering false teaching and practice wherever we see it (Acts 20:20,26-27,31).

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