A Free Pass for the Anointed?

What happened?

A man has been a church leader for more than 50 years. His followers call him “anointed.” He was in a fight with another man. He spoke about that man’s mother with rude and dirty words. She had nothing to do with the fight. She was not there. She could not answer. This was not the first time he spoke about people like this.

This page does not name anyone. It does not repeat the words he said. It does not say who was right in the fight. It does not say whether he is a Christian.

His followers give five reasons to defend him:

1. He is anointed. We must respect him.
2. The Bible says: “Don’t touch my anointed ones!”
3. He has served God for 50 years. That shows he is good.
4. The prophets, and even Jesus, used hard words.
5. We must not judge a man of God. God will deal with him.

Seven points

1. “Don’t touch my anointed” was said to kings. It means: do not hurt them. It does not mean: never say they are wrong.
2. In the Bible, chosen leaders were told when they were wrong. Even King David. Even the apostle Peter.
3. Every Christian is anointed. So the man and his mother may be “anointed” too.
4. The Bible’s rules about speaking are for everyone. There is no special rule for leaders.
5. Leaders must be even more careful. The Bible says teachers will be judged more strictly.
6. Doing God’s work for many years is not the same as having a good heart. Love, kindness and self-control show what a person is like.
7. The early church corrected leaders who hurt people.

“Don’t touch my anointed”

This verse is in Psalm 105. Read the verses around it:

When they were but few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it. They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes, “Don’t touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!”

Psalm 105:12–15 · World English Bible

In simple words: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were a small family living in foreign lands. God told the kings of those lands: do not hurt them.

So the “anointed” were a weak family. The people who were warned were powerful kings. “Touch” means to hurt. Today some people use this verse the other way round: to protect a powerful man from a weak woman.

The Bible also shows chosen leaders being corrected:

• David and Saul. David would not kill King Saul. But he told Saul, in front of his soldiers, that Saul was doing wrong (1 Samuel 24).
• Nathan and David. When King David sinned, the prophet Nathan told him: “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7).
• Paul and Peter. Paul told the apostle Peter, in front of everyone, that he was wrong (Galatians 2:11–14).

You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

1 John 2:20 · World English Bible

In simple words: Every Christian has received the Holy Spirit. Every Christian is “anointed.”

The rules for speaking are for everyone

Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:29 · World English Bible

In simple words: Do not say rotten, dirty things. Say things that help people.

Paul wrote this to a whole church, not only to some people. The Bible has many verses like this about how Christians speak. None of them says: “except leaders.”

Paul even says that a Christian who keeps insulting people must be corrected by the church (1 Corinthians 5:11).

Leaders must be more careful, not less

Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.

James 3:1 · World English Bible

In simple words: God judges teachers more strictly than other people.

Paul says a church leader must not be violent or quarrelsome. He must be gentle (1 Timothy 3:2–3). He must show other Christians how to speak (1 Timothy 4:12).

Think about Moses. He led God’s people for 40 years. He was the most humble man on earth (Numbers 12:3). But one day the people made him angry, and he spoke words he should not have said (Psalm 106:33). Because of this, God did not let him enter the promised land (Numbers 20:12).

What about the hard words in the Bible?

It is true. The prophets used shocking pictures. Jesus called some religious leaders “snakes.” Paul used rough words about false teachers. And Martin Luther, a famous church leader, wrote very rude things.

But ask four questions about each one:

• Who was it about? In the Bible: false gods, false teaching, and people leading others away from God. Not someone who had nothing to do with it.
• Why was it said? To bring people back to God. Not to make someone feel small.
• Was it about someone’s family? No. Never about an enemy’s mother.
• Did the speaker say “no one can correct me”? No. Once Paul spoke angrily to a leader. Then he said sorry in front of everyone (Acts 23:5).

And the churches that follow Luther today have said publicly that his worst words were wrong. Even Luther did not get a free pass.

Fifty years is not the same as good fruit

God can work through people who are not good. In the Bible, a man named Balaam spoke true words from God, but he loved money (2 Peter 2:15). King Saul spoke God’s words while he was trying to kill David (1 Samuel 19:23). Jesus said that some people who did great things in his name will hear him say, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:22–23).

The Bible says the “fruit of the Spirit” is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23).

The mother who was not in the fight

Don’t rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father; the younger men as brothers; the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all purity.

1 Timothy 5:1–2 · World English Bible

In simple words: Paul told a young church leader: treat older women like your own mother. Treat younger women like your sisters. Keep your words and actions clean.

God’s commandments say: honour your father and mother. Do not say false things about your neighbour. Martin Luther explained this: we should defend other people, speak well of them, and understand what they do in the kindest way.

Even the law in India says that words meant to insult a woman’s modesty are a crime. This page does not say that any person broke the law. It only shows that even ordinary law sees this as a serious wrong.

How Jesus answered people who insulted him

Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.

1 Peter 2:23 · World English Bible

In simple words: When people insulted Jesus, he did not insult them back. He trusted God to judge.

But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”

Jude 9 · World English Bible

In simple words: Even a great angel did not insult the devil. He left it to God.

“We must not judge a man of God”

The Bible gives the church a way to correct leaders. If a leader keeps doing wrong, and two or three people saw it, he should be corrected in front of the church (1 Timothy 5:19–20).

But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned.

Galatians 2:11 · World English Bible

In simple words: Paul told Peter, face to face, that he was wrong.

The early church did this too. About 1,600 years ago, church rules said: if a church leader hits people, he must stop being a leader. If a church leader makes fun of people who are blind, deaf or disabled, he must be put out of the church.

But the early church also said: if a leader sins, the baptisms he did are still real. God’s gifts do not depend on how good the leader is.

Questions to ask

You can ask these questions about any church leader, even your own:

• When he disagrees with someone, does he talk about the idea, or does he insult the person and their family?
• Does he speak in the way Ephesians 4:29 says?
• Can anyone in his church tell him when he is wrong?
• When he is wrong, does he say sorry?
• When people defend him, do they use the Bible, or do they only say “he is anointed”?

Jesus said: “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:16).

Read it yourself

• Read Psalm 105:8–15. Who were God’s “anointed”? Who was warned?
• Read 2 Samuel 12:1–13. What did Nathan say to King David?
• Read James 3:1–12. What does James say about the tongue?
• Read 1 Peter 2:21–23. What did Jesus do when people insulted him?

Bible verses in boxes on this page come from the World English Bible, a modern translation that is free for everyone to use. Some other verses are given in simple words. The full dossier quotes all the verses from the Authorised (King James) Version.