Parable of the Big Game Hunter

Parable of the Big Game Hunter

Joe Spooner loved to hunt wild game. He traveled the world hunting big game. He loved to regale his friends with tales of his exploits. He boasted of lions and bears that he had bagged. Their heads he mounted on his wall.

Joe's brother Bill, also had the hunter's instinct, but his interest followed a different course. He decided to be a preacher. He went to school to train for his vocation. He loved the images of the Christian warrior (I Tim. 6:12). He liked to think of his Bible as his weapon. He relished the idea of spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:11-12). However, there was a serious flaw in Bill's training. He never learned just who was the enemy he was to fight.

When Bill began his work as a preacher, he spent his time and energy searching for fellow preachers whom he felt to be imperfect servants of Christ. Finding one, he would pursue him with the zeal of a hunter pursuing his prey. Scores of his fiery shafts were launched against the victim in hopes of bringing him down. Like his brother, Bill often boasted of those dangerous preachers he had bagged. There were schismatics and a liberal or two. He was able to finish several whom Satan had already wounded who were trying to escape to safety. There were a half-dozen who were good men serving Christ well. But Bill mistook them for enemies and finished their usefulness. His biggest trophies were those preachers of greater attainments and skills than his own. Those who had more success, influence and reputation. To justify his actions, Bill tended to magnify their every fault and failure and diminish their virtues. He seasoned his stories about their teaching and practice with verses of scripture about factious men and false teachers. He spoke of how dangerous they were to the church. At least he justified himself and satisfied his own conscience that he was really a faithful soldier of Christ rather than a villain.

Unfortunately, the Head of the church did not appreciate Bill's efforts. The King's message was, "If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" (Gal. 5:15). It also said, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7).

One day another big game hunter set his sights on Bill. Like his own victims, Bill was brought down. He was bitter than no one seemed to care for his misfortune and sorrow. Poor Bill learned the hard way that "judgement is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy" (Jas. 2:13).

Sincerely,

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