Q: In Matthew 16:3-4, Jesus calls some religious leaders hypocrites, wicked, and adulterous. Isnt this inappropriate language from the ever-so-kind Jesus?
A: Jesus was kind enough to speak the truth. When soft appeals would be ineffective, He did not avoid jolting people to attention. Also, Jesus does not specifically point His finger at anyone when he says wicked and adulterous; he thus refers to a generation and leaves it to each individual to discern whether or not Jesus is describing the whole nation, or a group of religious leaders, or simply delivering a proverbial phrase, letting it fall on those who knew it should fall on them and letting it miss those who knew it should miss them.
Also, the term hypocrites here doesn't have a denigrating edge; it's part of Jesus' observation that the people were being inconsistent by paying attention to the weather-signs but not the "signs of the times."
(There's a subtle insinuation here, I think, that if the people did not heed the signs of the times, and the evidence already given to them, a sign from heaven wouldn't satisfy them either.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: Jesus was kind enough to speak the truth. When soft appeals would be ineffective, He did not avoid jolting people to attention. Also, Jesus does not specifically point His finger at anyone when he says wicked and adulterous; he thus refers to a generation and leaves it to each individual to discern whether or not Jesus is describing the whole nation, or a group of religious leaders, or simply delivering a proverbial phrase, letting it fall on those who knew it should fall on them and letting it miss those who knew it should miss them.
Also, the term hypocrites here doesn't have a denigrating edge; it's part of Jesus' observation that the people were being inconsistent by paying attention to the weather-signs but not the "signs of the times."
(There's a subtle insinuation here, I think, that if the people did not heed the signs of the times, and the evidence already given to them, a sign from heaven wouldn't satisfy them either.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
