PREFACE
If you’ve been misunderstood and judged by others, remember they haven’t walked in your shoes. If you’ve misunderstood and judged others, remember you haven’t walked in their shoes.
I’ve always taught my children, “If you encounter a mean-spirited, rude person, always remember there must be something going on in their lives that you don’t know about. People aren’t mean for no reason.”
Thank the Lord Jesus that we have Him to handle people and things for us. His solution is always perfect, and it’s His responsibility to expose people’s sins. Ours is to love and speak faith-filled words of encouragement.
1
STOP THEM (OR ME?)
Maybe this isn’t news to you, but we aren’t perfect. We sin, and so do those around us. It’s something we certainly hate to see in others, and more often than not we recognize it in them before we recognize it in ourselves. It’s that old “speck in your eye and log in mine” thing in Matthew 7:3. Still, there are certainly times when we do witness our family, friends, and even acquaintances and business associates and allies make terrible life choices that we know they will suffer for. In our human nature, we want to do something about it, hopefully out of compassion and not out of revenge.
If you’ve been misunderstood and judged by others, remember they haven’t walked in your shoes. If you’ve misunderstood and judged others, remember you haven’t walked in their shoes.
I’ve always taught my children, “If you encounter a mean-spirited, rude person, always remember there must be something going on in their lives that you don’t know about. People aren’t mean for no reason.”
Thank the Lord Jesus that we have Him to handle people and things for us. His solution is always perfect, and it’s His responsibility to expose people’s sins. Ours is to love and speak faith-filled words of encouragement.
1
STOP THEM (OR ME?)
Maybe this isn’t news to you, but we aren’t perfect. We sin, and so do those around us. It’s something we certainly hate to see in others, and more often than not we recognize it in them before we recognize it in ourselves. It’s that old “speck in your eye and log in mine” thing in Matthew 7:3. Still, there are certainly times when we do witness our family, friends, and even acquaintances and business associates and allies make terrible life choices that we know they will suffer for. In our human nature, we want to do something about it, hopefully out of compassion and not out of revenge.
PREFACE
If you’ve been misunderstood and judged by others, remember they haven’t walked in your shoes. If you’ve misunderstood and judged others, remember you haven’t walked in their shoes.
I’ve always taught my children, “If you encounter a mean-spirited, rude person, always remember there must be something going on in their lives that you don’t know about. People aren’t mean for no reason.”
Thank the Lord Jesus that we have Him to handle people and things for us. His solution is always perfect, and it’s His responsibility to expose people’s sins. Ours is to love and speak faith-filled words of encouragement.
1
STOP THEM (OR ME?)
Maybe this isn’t news to you, but we aren’t perfect. We sin, and so do those around us. It’s something we certainly hate to see in others, and more often than not we recognize it in them before we recognize it in ourselves. It’s that old “speck in your eye and log in mine” thing in Matthew 7:3. Still, there are certainly times when we do witness our family, friends, and even acquaintances and business associates and allies make terrible life choices that we know they will suffer for. In our human nature, we want to do something about it, hopefully out of compassion and not out of revenge.
As Christians, we know that on the grand scale of things, sin, and bad decisions by others will only hurt them. We’re tempted to judge, prompted to confront, and all too often impelled to gossip (and that’s another whole message). However, as redundant as this may sound, the best course of action is always to pray.
Our prayer focus should be that the Lord Himself be the one to expose sin in others’ lives to them directly through the Holy Spirit’s conviction and pray that when we are tempted (and we will be) to take on His job of doing it ourselves by broadcasting it to everyone we know, He stops us in our tracks.
It’s hard sometimes, but it is certainly possible for us to maintain strength and integrity not to gossip and expose sin in someone else’s life ourselves. After all, most of the time we don’t have all the facts anyway.
Don’t take this out of context, though. We’re not talking about illegal issues, crime, abuse, bullying, or situations that put others in danger. Those things must be reported to the appropriate authority. We’re also not talking about the decisions a pastor may need to make in selecting, leading, and mentoring his ministry team. The Lord’s guidelines on those issues are clear. Here we’re talking about the everyday things we witness in people’s lives that are against God’s Word that could affect their relationship with Him.
If we love people, then we should want their sins exposed to them by God directly and their eyes opened so they can correct it, repent, and accept God’s grace and mercy, enabling them to turn from it back onto the path of God’s perfect will for their lives.
Yet, instead of telling them about the mercy and grace available to them, many times we judge them, become talebearers, and take it upon ourselves to expose people, mostly so we can feel some sense of superiority because we “would never do that!”
Yes, here we are so often acting like God can’t handle correcting and exposing sin Himself, causing repentance and restoring people. Like he needs our help! But Proverbs 20:27 says, “The LORD's searchlight penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive.” The LORD’s searchlight, not ours. Remember, “There, but by the grace of God, go I.”
If we just remember some of the things we’ve done in our own lives where God protected us by his mercy, or where he covered us in our mistakes, then we will certainly be able to realize that He will do it for them, because He does NOT play favorites. We are no better than the worst of sinners. We just have to walk in the forgiveness that He freely gave us, and we will then be able to give that mercy freely to others.
2
THE BEGINNING OF STUPIDITY
Adam and Eve’s nakedness is a good example of sin exposed. In Genesis 3, Eve was convinced that the serpent was telling her the truth and that if she ate the fruit, it would bring her wisdom, knowing good and evil. She ate it and then gave some to Adam. In verse 7, we see that “At that very moment their eyes were opened, and suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So, they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”
You see before they ate the fruit, they were already naked. They just weren’t ashamed of it. It wasn’t a factor. I suppose the serpent (Satan), who is the father of lies, told just enough of the truth to make the complete lie sound like the truth. As a result, Eve allowed herself to become convinced to disobey God, and after she ate the fruit of the tree and shared it with Adam, they both recognized the difference between the goodness of God and the evil of disobedience.
This is how we are tripped up sometimes too though. Satan will plant thoughts in our minds that it would be “smarter” to do something we know God isn’t pleased with. He tries to get us to analyze and reason our way into sin. However, it’s always revealed as disobedience, although not always right away – but eventually.
The sin that Adam and Eve committed by eating the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden – the one God said NOT to eat – is what exposed them and caused them shame. They were exposed to the act of disobedience and sin against God.
I can just picture this. All of a sudden, they realized they were naked. Can you take a moment to just imagine that? Say you’re in the mall and all of a sudden you look down and realize you’re totally naked. I don’t know about you, but I’d start grabbing the first thing I could get my hands on to cover up! Even for us in this day and age, it is natural to try and cover up our shame and our nakedness. All because Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Imagine how shamed, foolish, and downright stupid they felt!
3
WHAT A BRIGHT IDEA!
Adam and Eve were in the garden still and probably were trying to hide behind the fig tree, so they got this bright idea to cover themselves with leaves from it. Every fig leaf I’ve ever seen was only about five to ten inches in diameter at the most. So, unless these fig trees were super-sized, it must have taken a hundred of them to cover Adam and Eve’s bodies. Maybe someone has an argument about the size of the trees and the dimensions of the leaves, but this is my imagination and my own experience as to the size of the leaves, so regardless of the size, it was a lot.
I remember as a child eating fresh figs right off a fig tree in my aunt’s yard. I’d reach in to grab one from the branches on the inside of the tree because for some reason those “inside” ones were always sweeter and plumper. I can recall that those were not the smoothest leaves – they were coarse and itchy.
So, Adam and Eve sewed the fig leaves together (and I’m still wondering what they sewed them with) and tried to cover themselves. Then they put them on their naked bodies. This was certainly not clothing that could be compared to a soft, comfy cashmere sweater!
Now if that custom-designed fig-leaf attire had worked very well they wouldn’t have still been hiding because of nakedness when they heard God walking in the garden that evening. But they were hiding because they were ashamed. Genesis 3:-10 says, “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So, they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you? He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” It’s important to note that they were afraid. They feared God’s displeasure and punishment that they knew was coming. They were exposed.
4
POINTING BACK
Picture yourself in a dark room – minding your own business even if it was your own sin and shame that might have driven you there. Suddenly someone comes into the room with a flashlight and shines it right in your face. You’re exposed. But you become defensive because of the light in your face, so you pull out your own bright flashlight and shine it on the person who’s shining it on you. Now you have them exposed, but neither of you can see and probably can’t think very clearly either.
But what if you are the person who’s entering the dark room and you’re seeking out the other person? Remember, their light will shine back on you. It’s like the saying, “When you point your finger, you have three pointing back at you.” So, unless you want to be exposed yourself, you’d be better off letting God take care of shining His light on others Himself.
My brother-in-law was a police officer in Houston for many years. He told me once of a time when he was younger working on patrol at night. He and his partner got a call to check out a possible burglary in progress at a warehouse. As the two officers entered the warehouse, they split up and went in different directions.
My brother-in-law drew his gun and started looking around. Very carefully, he slipped around a corner, and to his surprise, he was faced with the burglar, whose gun was drawn as well. So, there they both stood, face to face with loaded guns pointed at each other! Each of them was exposed to the other.
Fortunately, in this case, everything turned out fine. It could have been a disaster because it looked like someone was about to die! But the burglar ended up dropping his weapon, surrendering, and going to jail. Ultimately, he backed down to authority, and the law prevailed.
The lesson in this is to catch yourself. If you find yourself in a situation where you’ve started trying to expose someone – you’re shining your light on them, then drop your weapon! End it before someone gets hurt.
5
SAY CHEESE!
There is a woman I heard about who decided to make it her business to expose what she thought was wrong or rather what she thought was a sin in someone else’s life. She took it upon herself to get her camera out and start taking pictures of someone coming and going from a house where she did not think they should be.
There was no crime involved here, but the problem is that she didn’t have the complete facts or enough information to make a judgment, and the information she did have was incorrect because she’d listened to gossip. She probably thought she was doing the right thing, Her imagination must have run away with her and she took on God’s job of trying to expose.
This picture-taking event upset the person who was being photographed and with good reason. So they went into their house, got their own camera, and started taking pictures of the person taking their picture. I can just see this: two grown people standing in their yards taking pictures of each other!
It reminds me of one of those pictures you see that look like it’s taken in a mirror and the image just keeps repeating itself, chronicling the image over and over again. It’s like it never ends and you never really get a clear image of the real subject.
Are you getting the picture here? (No pun intended.) Have you ever tried to expose someone like this? Maybe not in actual photographs, but in other ways? Maybe through gossip? And listen, all gossip really amounts to is telling something to a third party that you want the first party to hear because maybe you don’t like something about them or what they’ve done, but you’re too afraid to talk to them directly.
The problem is, when we do this to others, not only is it totally against God’s Word, but we are also opening ourselves up to having the same thing happen right back to us, and neither of us has enough information. We’ll run up the ladder and jump off the top before we have all the facts.
Remember, when photographs are perfectly exposed, they are a beauty to behold. The colors are perfect, they are clear, and they capture the true image. Only God can perfectly expose sin in someone’s life through hearing the Word, through the Holy Spirit, through teaching, preaching, or from you.
6
CLIMB DOWN NOW…
I know that in the past I’ve found myself at the top of the ladder about to fly off, and there are times that I’ve actually taken the leap. But what we must train ourselves to do is climb back down a few rungs and start over until we have all of the right information. Then confront only IF it is our business or our responsibility. If it’s not, as hard as it is in our self-righteous natures, we have to leave it to God and use His Holy Spirit’s conviction to deal with people and just love them ourselves.
What’s the real goal that we want to achieve anyway? What’s the outcome we desire? If we are true Christ followers, praying, reading our Bibles, listening to God, and staying tuned in to the Holy Spirit, then our goal will be to restore, not to destroy. If we are drawn to destroying, we have become part of the problem if not THE problem, and things will most certainly escalate and become worse.
If we truly desire to see restoration in people’s lives as God does, then we must move in the direction of allowing God to use us to restore them. Then, and only then, can we be part of the solution.
After all, our responsibility as Christ Followers is to live our lives as students of the gospel and use our knowledge of Jesus by offering words that will cause people to become hungry and thirsty to know more about Him. We must first BE disciples and then MAKE disciples. As Christians, it’s our responsibility to give grace and mercy, as we have been given grace and mercy.
These people who need the Lord’s help will not want any part of listening to God’s Word or anything about what Jesus did for us to make a way for them to live overcoming lives if we display ourselves as controlling and as gossiping, temperamental, tale-bearing, jealous Christians who act as if we are judge, jury, and executioner. Nobody is going to hunger and thirst after bad, judgmental attitudes that display a lack of faith or belief in Biblical solutions to problems.
Just calm down, climb down, and look up to Jesus! He will give you His love and His compassion. That’s where we find relaxation and peace.
7
THE COST
Unfortunately, even though God loved Adam and Eve and He still provided and cared for them, there were many consequences to their act of sin. Yet still, the facts of Adam and Eve’s fall tell us that God, in His love for us, will cover us with a better covering than we could ever come up with on our own.
Even after their disobedience, and after He had given notice to them of the consequences of what they had done, God provided and made animal skin clothes for them, which were much, much more comfortable. The animal had to die though, and Adam and Eve still had to pay some high prices for their disobedience. They were banished from the garden, women were cursed to suffer in childbearing and men had to work to provide for their families, just to name a few. (Genesis 3:14-24).
This is still the way God deals with us. It’s not our job to make sure people pay their dues – it’s His. It’s our responsibility to love them, guide them, and help cover them to repair, rebuild, and restore them to Him.
Let’s look at a situation that took place with Noah in Genesis 9:20: “After the Flood, Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. One day he became drunk on some wine he had made and lay naked in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, walked backward into the tent, and covered their father's naked body. As they did this, they looked the other way so they wouldn't see him naked. When Noah woke up from his drunken stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. Then he cursed the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham: "A curse on the Canaanites! May they be the lowest of servants to the descendants of Shem and Japheth." Then Noah said, "May Shem be blessed by the LORD my God; and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge the territory of Japheth, and may he share the prosperity of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant."
Noah’s son, Ham, ran his mouth. His other sons, Shem, and Japheth, covered Noah, not only physically but spiritually. Ham was cursed, and the other two were blessed. If we can remember this when we are presented with the opportunity to run our own mouths, we’d probably choose to cover over others’ sins, not expose them ourselves.
If someone has done us wrong, being mean-spirited, gossiped about us (true or not), or “exposed” us in any way, the good news is….we don’t have to worry about it. Even though we love to talk about it so people will jump on our side, we must remember that God knows all the motives and details. He is our vindicator, and he will take care of things. He always does. We don’t have to. Proverbs 20:22 “Don't say, "I will get even for this wrong." Wait for the LORD to handle the matter.” I know this from experience and have witnessed God’s law of others reaping what was sown many, many times. It’s a promise as written in Psalm 135:14 “For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.”
Actually, I’ve gotten to where I feel compassion for the other person because most of the time the offenders have been actual Christians themselves! I’ve learned to remember that because they are believers, the Holy Spirit will bring conviction, and that is a really uncomfortable and costly place for them to be. It also helps me to remember, that the same will happen to me if I take on God’s job.
8
THE SOLUTION
So, what if WE are the ones who have done something to hurt someone else? What if we are the ones who have displayed jealousy, gossiped, slandered, bullied, or just been plain mean? In that case, the first step is to stop it before it goes any further. Just go to that person, ask for forgiveness, take responsibility, and then quit talking about it. Doing this may be hard and go against our flesh, but it is so relieving. Either way, it’s a must to cease any rehearsing of our own or other people’s mistakes, errors, and poor judgments, and look only to the solution.
We have to stop and ask ourselves where we really want the situation to end up. In most cases, we desire to eliminate any discord and just get along and find a solution. Determine that, and then take a step away from the problem, grab the hand of the one you’ve offended (or the one who’s offended you), and lead them onto the road that God has paved toward the solution. If we don’t handle situations in this manner, then God’s vindication may be against us.
The “God way” to handle things, whether we’re parents, family, friends, church leaders, laymen, or businesspeople, is to pray and speak the Word. Jesus and the Holy Spirit, through the power of God’s Word, are the only persons who have ever or will ever have the authority to cause truth to be revealed and permanent change made in us as well as other people.
Hebrews Chapter 4:12-16 says it all….for all of us: “For the Word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done. That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.” The King James version states that the Word is “quick and powerful”. So, you see, this discord does not have to linger on. It can be settled quickly if we just do what the Word says.
So, what if they don’t accept our white flag of truce? Well, that’s not your responsibility. We’ve done the right thing in God’s eyes, and we must keep the same forgiving, merciful attitude in our hearts if we want peace.
9
MOCKING GOD HIS WAY
Guess What? The Truth alone is not what sets you free. Jesus said to the people who believed in Him in John 8:31-32 “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” We must first believe and then keep obeying – moment after moment, day after day, month after month, and year after year. If we commit to doing that, THEN we will know the truth and then the truth will set us free.
So, let’s pray that the Lord first reveals the Truth to us personally about how to handle things God’s way, and then to those that we are so concerned with.
In the publishing business, printers sometimes make a “mock” copy of a magazine or newsletter – a sample of what the finished product will look like. If we try to expose others, we’ll be taking God’s place. We will be literally “mocking” God. The Word says it all: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7 NIV) He is the finished product, not us. He has all the answers, not us. He has the perfect solution, not us.
The fact is, there is a Biblical law of sowing and reaping that works both ways. We will reap what we sow. When we sow evil, we will reap evil. If we sow good, we will reap good. If we are Christians, and especially if we are leaders in any area of our lives, whether church, ministry, business, or our family, our witness of Jesus’ love, the Holy Spirit’s ability to lead, and God’s power to provide is completely blown if we are reaping the consequences of mocking God.
Church leaders should never repeat or reveal other people’s sins to others. Not in the name of a “prayer chain”, and not in the name of “being concerned”. Not at the altar around a host of elders and not during prayer requests. Take it to God.
The only kind of “mocking” God that He is pleased with is when we strive to live our lives in the manner His Son, Jesus, lived. The Word is the only way to handle things, and Jesus’ command is to love God, and love others. Love always wins. Everything else loses, amplifies the problem, and makes things much worse. We can only help ourselves or others by knowing and living the Word and walking out the love of Christ in our own lives first.
People do a lot of things “in the name of the Lord”, but without His authority and power, we will only be beaten naked by the enemy, and exposed ourselves. It WILL backfire. We see this in Acts 19:13-16 where “A team of Jews who were traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus. The incantation they used was this: "I command you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!" Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. But when they tried it on a man possessed by an evil spirit, the spirit replied, "I know Jesus, and I know Paul. But who are you?" And he leaped on them and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and badly injured.” I believe this is what happened to the woman with the camera. Her self-righteous attitude backfired and made her look foolish to not only her subject but to everyone else. It certainly did not bear God’s love or any fruits of the Spirit, unfortunately. Had she handled the situation Biblically, she may have been able to help the other person. Instead, it fueled the fire.
10
LEARN AND LIVE
We may be saying, “It makes me so mad to see the devil win over people!” Well, he’s winning over us by handling it in either judgmental self-righteousness or anger, and anger never will be able to win. We will never be able to control others with anger. Our flying off the handle will never fix the problem, it will only cause more. Why? Because God is not in it, and people – even the ones we are so cleverly trying to change – know that.
Sorry to say that I’ve learned this the hard way, but self-pity and harbored hurt and bitterness won’t change things either, so playing the “poor, poor pitiful me – I’m a victim” card or pridefully hanging on to grudges doesn’t work except to enhance hurt in ourselves.
People who have problems with things like alcohol, drugs, pornography, anger, bitterness, gossiping, or whatever other self-destructive issue they battle, almost always have something else going on in their lives that we know nothing about. Think about it. We never know what may be going on in a person’s life that may make them whip out the camera and start shooting photographs of YOU. They may be bitter, resentful, and hold grudges for something that you have nothing to do with.
Only faith so strong that it grows into trust, and seeking out God’s Word and wisdom will get us all to the goal of change we are looking for, which is peace and victory.
The truth is, it’s not the sin in individual lives we should pray are exposed, it’s an evil spirit that is creating the problem. That’s why defining the exact cause and praying to the Lord to expose and rebuke that spirit is where the victory begins.
I cannot ask the Lord on my children’s behalf to forgive them for their sins. That’s something they have to do on their own. But I can ask the Lord to convict them, change them, reveal himself to them, draw them to His Word, and give me ways to help them with love.
You may be thinking, “How in the world do we do that – especially without putting on our judgmental, religious, finger-pointing mask?” Here’s how: By loving, by praying, and by clinging to the Word of God – the Bible. Read it. Study it. Explore it. Learn it. Trust it. Live it.
They say, “Live and Learn.” I say, “Learn and Live” and above all, Love.
Authorizations
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. Scripture quotations marked (KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
EXPOSED
Copyright © 2012 by Linda King Wilson
Copyright © 2024 by Linda King Wilson
Revised 2024
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1478193234
ISBN-10: 1478193239
Life’s Path Publishing
Carthage, TX
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Please direct your inquiries to [email protected]
If you’ve been misunderstood and judged by others, remember they haven’t walked in your shoes. If you’ve misunderstood and judged others, remember you haven’t walked in their shoes.
I’ve always taught my children, “If you encounter a mean-spirited, rude person, always remember there must be something going on in their lives that you don’t know about. People aren’t mean for no reason.”
Thank the Lord Jesus that we have Him to handle people and things for us. His solution is always perfect, and it’s His responsibility to expose people’s sins. Ours is to love and speak faith-filled words of encouragement.
1
STOP THEM (OR ME?)
Maybe this isn’t news to you, but we aren’t perfect. We sin, and so do those around us. It’s something we certainly hate to see in others, and more often than not we recognize it in them before we recognize it in ourselves. It’s that old “speck in your eye and log in mine” thing in Matthew 7:3. Still, there are certainly times when we do witness our family, friends, and even acquaintances and business associates and allies make terrible life choices that we know they will suffer for. In our human nature, we want to do something about it, hopefully out of compassion and not out of revenge.
As Christians, we know that on the grand scale of things, sin, and bad decisions by others will only hurt them. We’re tempted to judge, prompted to confront, and all too often impelled to gossip (and that’s another whole message). However, as redundant as this may sound, the best course of action is always to pray.
Our prayer focus should be that the Lord Himself be the one to expose sin in others’ lives to them directly through the Holy Spirit’s conviction and pray that when we are tempted (and we will be) to take on His job of doing it ourselves by broadcasting it to everyone we know, He stops us in our tracks.
It’s hard sometimes, but it is certainly possible for us to maintain strength and integrity not to gossip and expose sin in someone else’s life ourselves. After all, most of the time we don’t have all the facts anyway.
Don’t take this out of context, though. We’re not talking about illegal issues, crime, abuse, bullying, or situations that put others in danger. Those things must be reported to the appropriate authority. We’re also not talking about the decisions a pastor may need to make in selecting, leading, and mentoring his ministry team. The Lord’s guidelines on those issues are clear. Here we’re talking about the everyday things we witness in people’s lives that are against God’s Word that could affect their relationship with Him.
If we love people, then we should want their sins exposed to them by God directly and their eyes opened so they can correct it, repent, and accept God’s grace and mercy, enabling them to turn from it back onto the path of God’s perfect will for their lives.
Yet, instead of telling them about the mercy and grace available to them, many times we judge them, become talebearers, and take it upon ourselves to expose people, mostly so we can feel some sense of superiority because we “would never do that!”
Yes, here we are so often acting like God can’t handle correcting and exposing sin Himself, causing repentance and restoring people. Like he needs our help! But Proverbs 20:27 says, “The LORD's searchlight penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive.” The LORD’s searchlight, not ours. Remember, “There, but by the grace of God, go I.”
If we just remember some of the things we’ve done in our own lives where God protected us by his mercy, or where he covered us in our mistakes, then we will certainly be able to realize that He will do it for them, because He does NOT play favorites. We are no better than the worst of sinners. We just have to walk in the forgiveness that He freely gave us, and we will then be able to give that mercy freely to others.
2
THE BEGINNING OF STUPIDITY
Adam and Eve’s nakedness is a good example of sin exposed. In Genesis 3, Eve was convinced that the serpent was telling her the truth and that if she ate the fruit, it would bring her wisdom, knowing good and evil. She ate it and then gave some to Adam. In verse 7, we see that “At that very moment their eyes were opened, and suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So, they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”
You see before they ate the fruit, they were already naked. They just weren’t ashamed of it. It wasn’t a factor. I suppose the serpent (Satan), who is the father of lies, told just enough of the truth to make the complete lie sound like the truth. As a result, Eve allowed herself to become convinced to disobey God, and after she ate the fruit of the tree and shared it with Adam, they both recognized the difference between the goodness of God and the evil of disobedience.
This is how we are tripped up sometimes too though. Satan will plant thoughts in our minds that it would be “smarter” to do something we know God isn’t pleased with. He tries to get us to analyze and reason our way into sin. However, it’s always revealed as disobedience, although not always right away – but eventually.
The sin that Adam and Eve committed by eating the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden – the one God said NOT to eat – is what exposed them and caused them shame. They were exposed to the act of disobedience and sin against God.
I can just picture this. All of a sudden, they realized they were naked. Can you take a moment to just imagine that? Say you’re in the mall and all of a sudden you look down and realize you’re totally naked. I don’t know about you, but I’d start grabbing the first thing I could get my hands on to cover up! Even for us in this day and age, it is natural to try and cover up our shame and our nakedness. All because Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Imagine how shamed, foolish, and downright stupid they felt!
3
WHAT A BRIGHT IDEA!
Adam and Eve were in the garden still and probably were trying to hide behind the fig tree, so they got this bright idea to cover themselves with leaves from it. Every fig leaf I’ve ever seen was only about five to ten inches in diameter at the most. So, unless these fig trees were super-sized, it must have taken a hundred of them to cover Adam and Eve’s bodies. Maybe someone has an argument about the size of the trees and the dimensions of the leaves, but this is my imagination and my own experience as to the size of the leaves, so regardless of the size, it was a lot.
I remember as a child eating fresh figs right off a fig tree in my aunt’s yard. I’d reach in to grab one from the branches on the inside of the tree because for some reason those “inside” ones were always sweeter and plumper. I can recall that those were not the smoothest leaves – they were coarse and itchy.
So, Adam and Eve sewed the fig leaves together (and I’m still wondering what they sewed them with) and tried to cover themselves. Then they put them on their naked bodies. This was certainly not clothing that could be compared to a soft, comfy cashmere sweater!
Now if that custom-designed fig-leaf attire had worked very well they wouldn’t have still been hiding because of nakedness when they heard God walking in the garden that evening. But they were hiding because they were ashamed. Genesis 3:-10 says, “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So, they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you? He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” It’s important to note that they were afraid. They feared God’s displeasure and punishment that they knew was coming. They were exposed.
4
POINTING BACK
Picture yourself in a dark room – minding your own business even if it was your own sin and shame that might have driven you there. Suddenly someone comes into the room with a flashlight and shines it right in your face. You’re exposed. But you become defensive because of the light in your face, so you pull out your own bright flashlight and shine it on the person who’s shining it on you. Now you have them exposed, but neither of you can see and probably can’t think very clearly either.
But what if you are the person who’s entering the dark room and you’re seeking out the other person? Remember, their light will shine back on you. It’s like the saying, “When you point your finger, you have three pointing back at you.” So, unless you want to be exposed yourself, you’d be better off letting God take care of shining His light on others Himself.
My brother-in-law was a police officer in Houston for many years. He told me once of a time when he was younger working on patrol at night. He and his partner got a call to check out a possible burglary in progress at a warehouse. As the two officers entered the warehouse, they split up and went in different directions.
My brother-in-law drew his gun and started looking around. Very carefully, he slipped around a corner, and to his surprise, he was faced with the burglar, whose gun was drawn as well. So, there they both stood, face to face with loaded guns pointed at each other! Each of them was exposed to the other.
Fortunately, in this case, everything turned out fine. It could have been a disaster because it looked like someone was about to die! But the burglar ended up dropping his weapon, surrendering, and going to jail. Ultimately, he backed down to authority, and the law prevailed.
The lesson in this is to catch yourself. If you find yourself in a situation where you’ve started trying to expose someone – you’re shining your light on them, then drop your weapon! End it before someone gets hurt.
5
SAY CHEESE!
There is a woman I heard about who decided to make it her business to expose what she thought was wrong or rather what she thought was a sin in someone else’s life. She took it upon herself to get her camera out and start taking pictures of someone coming and going from a house where she did not think they should be.
There was no crime involved here, but the problem is that she didn’t have the complete facts or enough information to make a judgment, and the information she did have was incorrect because she’d listened to gossip. She probably thought she was doing the right thing, Her imagination must have run away with her and she took on God’s job of trying to expose.
This picture-taking event upset the person who was being photographed and with good reason. So they went into their house, got their own camera, and started taking pictures of the person taking their picture. I can just see this: two grown people standing in their yards taking pictures of each other!
It reminds me of one of those pictures you see that look like it’s taken in a mirror and the image just keeps repeating itself, chronicling the image over and over again. It’s like it never ends and you never really get a clear image of the real subject.
Are you getting the picture here? (No pun intended.) Have you ever tried to expose someone like this? Maybe not in actual photographs, but in other ways? Maybe through gossip? And listen, all gossip really amounts to is telling something to a third party that you want the first party to hear because maybe you don’t like something about them or what they’ve done, but you’re too afraid to talk to them directly.
The problem is, when we do this to others, not only is it totally against God’s Word, but we are also opening ourselves up to having the same thing happen right back to us, and neither of us has enough information. We’ll run up the ladder and jump off the top before we have all the facts.
Remember, when photographs are perfectly exposed, they are a beauty to behold. The colors are perfect, they are clear, and they capture the true image. Only God can perfectly expose sin in someone’s life through hearing the Word, through the Holy Spirit, through teaching, preaching, or from you.
6
CLIMB DOWN NOW…
I know that in the past I’ve found myself at the top of the ladder about to fly off, and there are times that I’ve actually taken the leap. But what we must train ourselves to do is climb back down a few rungs and start over until we have all of the right information. Then confront only IF it is our business or our responsibility. If it’s not, as hard as it is in our self-righteous natures, we have to leave it to God and use His Holy Spirit’s conviction to deal with people and just love them ourselves.
What’s the real goal that we want to achieve anyway? What’s the outcome we desire? If we are true Christ followers, praying, reading our Bibles, listening to God, and staying tuned in to the Holy Spirit, then our goal will be to restore, not to destroy. If we are drawn to destroying, we have become part of the problem if not THE problem, and things will most certainly escalate and become worse.
If we truly desire to see restoration in people’s lives as God does, then we must move in the direction of allowing God to use us to restore them. Then, and only then, can we be part of the solution.
After all, our responsibility as Christ Followers is to live our lives as students of the gospel and use our knowledge of Jesus by offering words that will cause people to become hungry and thirsty to know more about Him. We must first BE disciples and then MAKE disciples. As Christians, it’s our responsibility to give grace and mercy, as we have been given grace and mercy.
These people who need the Lord’s help will not want any part of listening to God’s Word or anything about what Jesus did for us to make a way for them to live overcoming lives if we display ourselves as controlling and as gossiping, temperamental, tale-bearing, jealous Christians who act as if we are judge, jury, and executioner. Nobody is going to hunger and thirst after bad, judgmental attitudes that display a lack of faith or belief in Biblical solutions to problems.
Just calm down, climb down, and look up to Jesus! He will give you His love and His compassion. That’s where we find relaxation and peace.
7
THE COST
Unfortunately, even though God loved Adam and Eve and He still provided and cared for them, there were many consequences to their act of sin. Yet still, the facts of Adam and Eve’s fall tell us that God, in His love for us, will cover us with a better covering than we could ever come up with on our own.
Even after their disobedience, and after He had given notice to them of the consequences of what they had done, God provided and made animal skin clothes for them, which were much, much more comfortable. The animal had to die though, and Adam and Eve still had to pay some high prices for their disobedience. They were banished from the garden, women were cursed to suffer in childbearing and men had to work to provide for their families, just to name a few. (Genesis 3:14-24).
This is still the way God deals with us. It’s not our job to make sure people pay their dues – it’s His. It’s our responsibility to love them, guide them, and help cover them to repair, rebuild, and restore them to Him.
Let’s look at a situation that took place with Noah in Genesis 9:20: “After the Flood, Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. One day he became drunk on some wine he had made and lay naked in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, walked backward into the tent, and covered their father's naked body. As they did this, they looked the other way so they wouldn't see him naked. When Noah woke up from his drunken stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. Then he cursed the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham: "A curse on the Canaanites! May they be the lowest of servants to the descendants of Shem and Japheth." Then Noah said, "May Shem be blessed by the LORD my God; and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge the territory of Japheth, and may he share the prosperity of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant."
Noah’s son, Ham, ran his mouth. His other sons, Shem, and Japheth, covered Noah, not only physically but spiritually. Ham was cursed, and the other two were blessed. If we can remember this when we are presented with the opportunity to run our own mouths, we’d probably choose to cover over others’ sins, not expose them ourselves.
If someone has done us wrong, being mean-spirited, gossiped about us (true or not), or “exposed” us in any way, the good news is….we don’t have to worry about it. Even though we love to talk about it so people will jump on our side, we must remember that God knows all the motives and details. He is our vindicator, and he will take care of things. He always does. We don’t have to. Proverbs 20:22 “Don't say, "I will get even for this wrong." Wait for the LORD to handle the matter.” I know this from experience and have witnessed God’s law of others reaping what was sown many, many times. It’s a promise as written in Psalm 135:14 “For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.”
Actually, I’ve gotten to where I feel compassion for the other person because most of the time the offenders have been actual Christians themselves! I’ve learned to remember that because they are believers, the Holy Spirit will bring conviction, and that is a really uncomfortable and costly place for them to be. It also helps me to remember, that the same will happen to me if I take on God’s job.
8
THE SOLUTION
So, what if WE are the ones who have done something to hurt someone else? What if we are the ones who have displayed jealousy, gossiped, slandered, bullied, or just been plain mean? In that case, the first step is to stop it before it goes any further. Just go to that person, ask for forgiveness, take responsibility, and then quit talking about it. Doing this may be hard and go against our flesh, but it is so relieving. Either way, it’s a must to cease any rehearsing of our own or other people’s mistakes, errors, and poor judgments, and look only to the solution.
We have to stop and ask ourselves where we really want the situation to end up. In most cases, we desire to eliminate any discord and just get along and find a solution. Determine that, and then take a step away from the problem, grab the hand of the one you’ve offended (or the one who’s offended you), and lead them onto the road that God has paved toward the solution. If we don’t handle situations in this manner, then God’s vindication may be against us.
The “God way” to handle things, whether we’re parents, family, friends, church leaders, laymen, or businesspeople, is to pray and speak the Word. Jesus and the Holy Spirit, through the power of God’s Word, are the only persons who have ever or will ever have the authority to cause truth to be revealed and permanent change made in us as well as other people.
Hebrews Chapter 4:12-16 says it all….for all of us: “For the Word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done. That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.” The King James version states that the Word is “quick and powerful”. So, you see, this discord does not have to linger on. It can be settled quickly if we just do what the Word says.
So, what if they don’t accept our white flag of truce? Well, that’s not your responsibility. We’ve done the right thing in God’s eyes, and we must keep the same forgiving, merciful attitude in our hearts if we want peace.
9
MOCKING GOD HIS WAY
Guess What? The Truth alone is not what sets you free. Jesus said to the people who believed in Him in John 8:31-32 “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” We must first believe and then keep obeying – moment after moment, day after day, month after month, and year after year. If we commit to doing that, THEN we will know the truth and then the truth will set us free.
So, let’s pray that the Lord first reveals the Truth to us personally about how to handle things God’s way, and then to those that we are so concerned with.
In the publishing business, printers sometimes make a “mock” copy of a magazine or newsletter – a sample of what the finished product will look like. If we try to expose others, we’ll be taking God’s place. We will be literally “mocking” God. The Word says it all: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7 NIV) He is the finished product, not us. He has all the answers, not us. He has the perfect solution, not us.
The fact is, there is a Biblical law of sowing and reaping that works both ways. We will reap what we sow. When we sow evil, we will reap evil. If we sow good, we will reap good. If we are Christians, and especially if we are leaders in any area of our lives, whether church, ministry, business, or our family, our witness of Jesus’ love, the Holy Spirit’s ability to lead, and God’s power to provide is completely blown if we are reaping the consequences of mocking God.
Church leaders should never repeat or reveal other people’s sins to others. Not in the name of a “prayer chain”, and not in the name of “being concerned”. Not at the altar around a host of elders and not during prayer requests. Take it to God.
The only kind of “mocking” God that He is pleased with is when we strive to live our lives in the manner His Son, Jesus, lived. The Word is the only way to handle things, and Jesus’ command is to love God, and love others. Love always wins. Everything else loses, amplifies the problem, and makes things much worse. We can only help ourselves or others by knowing and living the Word and walking out the love of Christ in our own lives first.
People do a lot of things “in the name of the Lord”, but without His authority and power, we will only be beaten naked by the enemy, and exposed ourselves. It WILL backfire. We see this in Acts 19:13-16 where “A team of Jews who were traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus. The incantation they used was this: "I command you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!" Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. But when they tried it on a man possessed by an evil spirit, the spirit replied, "I know Jesus, and I know Paul. But who are you?" And he leaped on them and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and badly injured.” I believe this is what happened to the woman with the camera. Her self-righteous attitude backfired and made her look foolish to not only her subject but to everyone else. It certainly did not bear God’s love or any fruits of the Spirit, unfortunately. Had she handled the situation Biblically, she may have been able to help the other person. Instead, it fueled the fire.
10
LEARN AND LIVE
We may be saying, “It makes me so mad to see the devil win over people!” Well, he’s winning over us by handling it in either judgmental self-righteousness or anger, and anger never will be able to win. We will never be able to control others with anger. Our flying off the handle will never fix the problem, it will only cause more. Why? Because God is not in it, and people – even the ones we are so cleverly trying to change – know that.
Sorry to say that I’ve learned this the hard way, but self-pity and harbored hurt and bitterness won’t change things either, so playing the “poor, poor pitiful me – I’m a victim” card or pridefully hanging on to grudges doesn’t work except to enhance hurt in ourselves.
People who have problems with things like alcohol, drugs, pornography, anger, bitterness, gossiping, or whatever other self-destructive issue they battle, almost always have something else going on in their lives that we know nothing about. Think about it. We never know what may be going on in a person’s life that may make them whip out the camera and start shooting photographs of YOU. They may be bitter, resentful, and hold grudges for something that you have nothing to do with.
Only faith so strong that it grows into trust, and seeking out God’s Word and wisdom will get us all to the goal of change we are looking for, which is peace and victory.
The truth is, it’s not the sin in individual lives we should pray are exposed, it’s an evil spirit that is creating the problem. That’s why defining the exact cause and praying to the Lord to expose and rebuke that spirit is where the victory begins.
I cannot ask the Lord on my children’s behalf to forgive them for their sins. That’s something they have to do on their own. But I can ask the Lord to convict them, change them, reveal himself to them, draw them to His Word, and give me ways to help them with love.
You may be thinking, “How in the world do we do that – especially without putting on our judgmental, religious, finger-pointing mask?” Here’s how: By loving, by praying, and by clinging to the Word of God – the Bible. Read it. Study it. Explore it. Learn it. Trust it. Live it.
They say, “Live and Learn.” I say, “Learn and Live” and above all, Love.
Authorizations
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. Scripture quotations marked (KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
EXPOSED
Copyright © 2012 by Linda King Wilson
Copyright © 2024 by Linda King Wilson
Revised 2024
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1478193234
ISBN-10: 1478193239
Life’s Path Publishing
Carthage, TX
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Please direct your inquiries to [email protected]
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