Mark Driscoll’s “Corrupt Communication” What is the Biblical Response?

Dear Guests:

The discussion at the pseudo-fundamentalist blog Sharper Iron over the “corrupt communication” (Eph. 4:29) of Mark Driscoll has wound down. Passions ran high in a few cases. Men can disagree sharply and charitably. Unfortunately some men have lost or sacrificed this commendable way to interact on issues with men whom they disagree with.

We all agree the Bible is our final authority. What does the Bible say?

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers,” (Eph. 4:29).

“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks,” (Eph. 5:3-4).

“Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you,” (Titus 2:6-8).

Let the Bible say what it says without the trappings of logic or Driscoll’s attempts to twist it to cover his corrupt and profane speech with a veneer of Divine authority. The irreverent speech of Mark Driscoll irrefutably fails the test of Scripture! Dr. J. Vernon McGee wrote,

“Corrupt communication means filthy speech-that is rotten or putrid...The speech of the believer should be on the high plane of instructing and communicating encouragement to other believers. You can have fun and enjoy life, humor has its place, but our humor should not be filthy or dirty.”

There are far better choices to learn from and/or follow as an example (Phil. 3:17) than Mark Driscoll.

Mark Driscoll is a sincere brother in Christ, but his shock methods are misguided and in the opinion of many harmful to the cause of Christ. He listens to the counsel and admonitions of men like John Piper. Driscoll, however, still clings to his offensive speech, which he repeated at the Desiring God conference. Several noted that in his lecture he repeated his pattern of twisting the Scriptures to cover his corrupt and profane speech with a veneer of Divine authority. The same misuse of Scripture that Nathan Busenitz addresses in his critique of Driscoll’s Harsh Language.

The Bible mandates the course of action for unfortunate cases such as this one.

“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us...And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother,” (2 Thess. 3:6, 14-15).

Commentary on 2 Thess. 3

“The situation with which we are dealing…is a time when professing Christians are consistently violating a command on some point. Furthermore, having been confronted about that activity, they refuse to repent. The Scripture offers clear teaching on this point. Even then, the goal of separation is not only the purity of the church but also restoration of the brother. . . . Separation from disobedient brethren can involve personal separation (a brother refusing to forsake some form of worldliness) or ecclesiastical separation (refusing to forsake some form of false teaching or unscriptural practice). (Mark Sidwell, The Dividing Line: Understanding and Applying Biblical Separation, pp. 55-56.

Do not have fellowship with those who will not listen to the Word of God. Paul is claiming for his epistle that it is the Word of God and to be heeded as a command of God. Have your fellowship with those who are in obedience to the Word of God and who are living according to its standards. (John F. Walvoord, The Thessalonian Epistles, p. 156.)

Paul is telling the church members what action they should take, not asking for an opportunity of taking action himself. “Note that man” means more than simply “notice” him. It means “mark him out,”. . . . The treatment of such a person is withdrawal of fellowship. The treatment is primarily intended to bring him back to his rightful position. At the same time it is punishment. It is noteworthy that Paul puts the injunction not to treat him as an enemy before that to admonish him. He is eager to protect the brother's standing, and to see to it that what is done to him is from the best of motives, and that it secures the desired result. (The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, p. 258-259.)

Dr. Ernest Pickering in his classic book Biblical Separation (pp.221-222) wrote:

When our brethren do things that are wrong--caused by an incomplete knowledge of or deliberate disobedience to some teaching of Scripture--we should not merely continue fellowship with them as those who have done nothing wrong, but we should warn them, remonstrate with them and seek to recover them to a Biblical position. . . . If one should ask, Does 2 Thessalonians 3 teach secondary separation?--then the response would have to be given, It depends on what you mean by secondary separation. . . . It is the principle of refusing to condone, honor or utilize persons who continually and knowingly are following a course of action which is harmful to other believers and to the welfare of the churches.

LM

The “Corrupt Communication” of Mark Driscoll

Dear Guests:

I have been engaged in a serious and important discussion at the pseudo-fundamentalist Sharper Iron (SI). The subject has been in regard to Pastor Mark Driscoll, aka the *“Cussing” pastor.

You would find that most men at SI in the discussion thread are hostile toward raising an alarm about Driscoll’s sinful communication. I must caution you that Driscoll’s manner of speech in his lectures is highly offensive, lewd and irreverent. If you link to his lecture(s) you will likely be exposed to remarks by him you’d probably rather have never heard.

Following is one comment from the SI thread. It was written by Pastor Christian Markle. I appreciate very much what he wrote and would like to share it with you.

There is coming a time (and I suggest that it be soon) that we should set aside our “us vs. them” discussions and deal with the substance. There is plenty of time to attack the foulness of fundamentalism. Many electrons have been spent on this site doing such. Many of these threads are freely available.

I have personally participated in what felt like a lone and lengthy debate on this site regarding gracious speech with a staunch fundamentalist brother. I have sat in on off color remarks in fundamentalist preaching. A book has been written by one fundamentalist with some twisted teaching on sexuality and it was firmly decried here at SI. However, it will appear to some on the outside (and at least one long term member of SI) that we have simply exchanged loyalties. Some younger and older fundamentalists have denounced the leadership, preaching and philosophy of what they call extreme fundamentalist only to embrace the same in evangelicalism. Their man-centeredness has not really changed only shifted to a different focus. The new men at the center are other famous (and infamous) men on the other side of the evangelicalism.

Personally, I think we have spent too much time reading men and developing human loyalties and not enough time becoming truly loyal to our Savior. None of these men died on the cross for us. None of them are the long promised messiah. None of them can really show us the Father (John 14:8-9) no matter how many books they right about Him. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man, promised messiah, and redeemer of men. We are all to be striving until “we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” (Ephesians 4:13).

Lets stop playing games and call sin sin. Some sin is deplorable and must not be supported or ignored. Let us graciously with gospel-zeal be loyal to our Lord and love the brethren enough to warn them of the deplorable sin of others--as well as ourselves. After hearing Driscoll’s Desiring God session I come away wondering why anyone who heard it would be upset for calling sin sin -- Brother Driscoll specifically preached that this very thing should be done.

Brother Driscoll has said some horrible things and he has admitted to as much in his Desiring God session (listen/watch the whole lecture). He is not Christ and we have every right and for those who are leaders whose sheep may be impacted, responsibility to mark him where he is wrong. Certainly, we ought to do the same with our fundamentalist friends. Jesus firmly rebuked the Pharisees as well as his own apostle, Peter. In this way he was no respecter of persons and neither should we be.

I believe Driscoll’s communication is too often corrupt and too seldom edifying (**Ephesians 4:29). His defense (in the DG session) for this was at times biblically sound, but did not actually defend his behavior. His foul mouth accomplishes much more than what he defended. It is suggestive, apparently uncontrolled, and often indiscreet and unholy (See Titus 1:8) In his lecture his biblical examples at times were twisted beyond the text to fit his own behavior; instead of allowing the text to suggest the boundaries of our communication, he imported his own ideas into the text. Furthermore he ignored clear teaching (Ephesians 4:32, Philippians 4:8, 2 Timothy 2:24ff) to defend his actions with biblical examples. This is IMO poor hermeneutics.

His closing remarks almost redeemed the whole session. He may be on a journey towards Christlikness (as I am, with much ground to tread before I arrive), but I am unwilling to suggest that young/old sheep be influenced by this type of leadership or preaching. I praise the Lord for any progress Brother Driscoll has made on this journey, but the videos I watched today leave me very unconvinced of significant progress.

One last comment. I can appreciate the heart of John Piper and others who are mentoring this preacher, but that does not mean I have must have them or Mark Driscoll as my heroes with the assumption that they do no wrong. Ultimately, it does not matter what I think. The God of heaven knows my own wretchedness and I wonder why He is patient with me, but I fear testing that patience with any form of fleshly patience that leads to a lack of obedience in regard to sin.

For additional commentary on the irreverence of Mark Driscoll see the ***following discussions.

The Guardian of Grunge and Seattle-Sludge Here is an excerpt,

I am sorry ladies and gentlemen, but the kind of humor Driscoll offers that treats the Lord Jesus Christ as his punch-line in smutty terms is foreign to biblical Christianity and is not the leading of the Holy Spirit! How far will Mark be allowed to go before any of his faithful supporters will say “enough brother! You will not dishonor Jesus with your twisted humor and vulgar barbs anymore?” In the midst of his emerging circumlocutory - having his yes be yes and his no be no would be refreshing.

John Piper, Mark Driscoll and Harsh Language Excerpted,

Later Driscoll notes that, though God’s Word uses this type of language infrequently, ‘that doesn’t mean we never use perhaps even strong language, harsh tones, cutting remarks, biting sarcasm, devastating uses of humor and irony, cause God does.’ And so, contends Driscoll, pastors today not only can, but should, use provocative and offensive speech because that is how God’s spokesmen have communicated at times in the past. Driscoll’s argument ultimately comes up short unless he can demonstrate that the way in which the OT prophets, Christ, and the NT apostles used ‘harsh language’ (especially as it related to the cultures of their day) is directly parallel to his own penchant for lowbrow humor, coarse rhetoric, and sarcastic wit. But Driscoll’s track record hardly seems to fit the patterns established by these biblical examples.

Kind regards,


LM

Please continue to- Mark Driscoll’s “Corrupt Communication” What is the Biblical Response?

*See Christianity Today for the origin of Driscoll's title “Cussing Pastor.”

** “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers,” (Eph. 4:29).

***My linking to these additional sources must not be considered as support for, condoning or agreeing with any aspect of theology or practice of the men and the ministries they represent or the ministry of others that are presented within the articles. I share these links to further substantiate the disturbing speech habits of Mark Driscoll, nothing more.