We should never be surprised when our good intentions are misconstrued and cast in a negative light. We can also expect that in serving others, there will come moments of misunderstanding and unwarranted criticism. In teaching a course on Nehemiah, I was reminded of this very thing. Nehemiah was confronted by those opposed to God’s purposes for His people.
When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. One of the strategies of the opponents of God’s work is to discredit the leader. When I talk about leadership, I mean anyone God is using to direct and influence people in the right direction.
So, how do people try to discredit people? They often come to intimidate through false accusations. I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to i
ntimidate me so that I would sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me. What was true of Nehemiah was also true of Paul. We find an attack upon Paul, his character, his ministry, and his message. The issue is not whether people will attack those who serve others, but how we respond to the attack. We will discover in 2 Corinthians Paul’s response to the attack he experienced. We can also learn from that response so that when we feel misunderstood, or even worse, when others are discrediting us, we can biblically address the issue.
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