The Value and Danger of Red Flags

I don’t go to beaches very often, and I swim at them even less. One thing I have managed to become aware of though is the flag warning system used by public beaches. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a system in which different color flags signal different water conditions relative to swimmers. A red flag denotes a high level of potential hazard to swimmers because of high surf and/or strong currents. At some beaches, two red flags mean the beach ought to be considered closed; ignoring a double red flag in some places may bring you a fine even if you manage to escape a swim with your life. A red flag is a symbol of warning.

Warning is an important (albeit increasingly unpopular) part of faith. Paul said that the Old Testament was “written for our admonition,” that is, to provide negative instruction and warning (1 Corinthians 10:11). Fathers are to bring up their children in “the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Paul said that in the church people who are “full of goodness” and “filled with all knowledge” ought to be “able also to admonish one another” (Romans 15:14). Newer versions shy away from the words “admonition” and “admonish” in translation, but these words accurately convey the original language and remind us that our “instruction” (the preferred translation these days) sometimes needs to be negative in nature. The word of God warns us and calls us to warn others. Paul for example summed up his ministry among the Ephesians, saying, “For three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31).

Warning is not always about what has already happened. Often, it centers around what is ultimately a probable but not necessarily an inevitable outcome. When the inspired father of Proverbs 1-9 told his son about a conversation he witnessed from his window between a foolish young man and an adulterous woman, it’s difficult to say what details he knew and what details he inferred from what he saw (Proverbs 7:1-27). At the very least, it’s pretty clear that he hadn’t seen the outcome, but still he said, “Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, He did not know it would cost his life” (Proverbs 7:22-23). Though he had not seen the end, he had seen enough 1) to know the likely outcome and 2) to use it as a teaching moment and warn his son. It may not have turned out the way the father imagined, but wisdom teaches us to follow after rules rather than chasing exceptions.

Sometimes, we need to issue warnings about people. Paul warned Timothy about Hymenaeus and Philetus whose teachings “spread like cancer” and would “overthrow the faith of some,” as well as about “Alexander the coppersmith” who had done Paul “much harm” (2 Timothy 2:17-18; 2 Timothy 4:14). Paul told the Roman church to keep their scopes set on (skopeo – Greek; “mark” – KJV; “note” – NKJV; “watch out” – ESV; “keep your eye on” – NASB) people “who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them” (Romans 16:17). Some people have so thoroughly proven themselves to be heretical and therefore harmful in teaching and/or behavior (cf. Titus 3:10-11) that they ought to have a warning label.

Sometimes of course a warning has no substance. Living in Alaska, I typically drive for 7-8 months on varying degrees of snow and ice. However, growing up in Georgia, I remember any number of occasions where some meteorologist would whisper, “snow,” and bring all governmental services to a halt. As a kid who attended public school, I really appreciated these so-called snow days, but I can imagine they would have been a nightmare for many working parents (not to mention the doomsday preppers who used these meteorological divinations to buy irrational amounts of bread and milk).

Can a spiritual warning lacking substance ever be a bad thing? There was once a time when God chose to reveal Himself by speaking through the elders of Israel. Many of them “never did so again,” but two of them, Eldad and Medad, “prophesied in the camp” after the other elders stopped (Numbers 11:25-26). After a young man came and told Moses what was happening, Moses’ assistant Joshua “answered and said, ‘Moses my lord, forbid them!’” (Numbers 11:27-28). Joshua may have thought that because this was not normal, it must not be right. Moses responded, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29). Joshua’s red flags clearly went up for the wrong reasons.

Sometimes, the red flags within our mind go up when we like Joshua hear a preacher say something we haven’t heard before, sing a song we have never sung, or in some other way experience something that’s religiously out of the norm. While it’s truly important to not be guilty of embracing another Gospel in belief, word, or deed (cf. Galatians 1:6-9), the Gospel itself tells us not to potentially “quench the Spirit” by despising something we haven’t heard before (1 Thessalonians 5:19-20). Instead, we are told, “Test all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). If testing things by the Word of God reveals that something is good, Paul says to “hold [it] fast,” even if we haven’t heard/believed/done/experienced it before; if it is bad, we are to “abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22).

Sometimes even people can send up red flags for wrong reasons. John once told Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us” (Mark 9:38). Jesus responded, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is on our side” (Mark 9:39-40). Later, some would-be Jewish exorcists would prove that even in a period of miraculous gifting, no one could simply invoke the name of Jesus and overpower a demon (Acts 19:13-16). Since it was Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit who “gave… power and authority over all demons” (Luke 9:1), to borrow a phrase from Jesus Himself, the man John encountered “could have no power at all… unless it had been given… from above” (cf. John 19:11). The man sent up red flags because he was not a usual member of the group that personally followed Jesus, but that did not mean that he was not a follower of Jesus.  

Interestingly but importantly, John would later write by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). It is important to test teachers for their faithfulness before we trust them. Yet, rather than assume a person is guilty until proven innocent, love as always would have us bear, believe, hope, and endure “all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). Instead of writing off a brother because of a school he’s attended, or because of a person he’s connected to on social media, or simply because he’s not in our typical circle of acquaintances, we should try to get to know him. Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). He did not say to know them by their roots, that is, by what we perceive to be their motives, or by their grove, that is, by their past or present surroundings. Caution would see us inspect fruit before eating it, not reject it outright because of some prejudice against a tree.

Red flags are truly important spiritually speaking! Used incorrectly though, they have a lot of potential to do harm. Let’s learn to use red flags in a way that protects both us and others from sin and spiritual danger but not in a way that actually sees us oppose God or our fellow laborers in the kingdom.

-Patrick Swayne  
patrick@tftw.org