Ezekiel 3:10-21

And he said to me, “Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you. Go now to your countrymen in exile and speak to them. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says,’ whether they listen or fail to listen.”

Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound—May the glory of the LORD be praised in his dwelling place!- the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound. The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD upon me. I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Abib near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days-overwhelmed.

At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

Luke 4:5-8 (King James Version):

4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

4:7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

4:8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

The Bible also records, in the Matthew and Mark gospels, how Jesus rebuked Peter with the same words at his suggestion that Jesus would not be raised from the dead.

Matthew 16:23. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Mark 8:33. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

When we read these scriptures, we can see that Jesus called Peter “Satan” because he was not following the will of God and was both tempting Jesus and denying God’s plan. Jesus did not say, “Believe what you will, Peter, but I’m pretty sure that you’re wrong on this one.” He said, “You ARE wrong and are being sinful in acting this way. Stop it.” (My paraphrase of course).

I believe that gentility is right and good, but Jesus did not come to unite us, but to divide families, friends, and neighbors. You can’t apologize for God’s laws and you can’t censor what He says for the simple fact that it might offend a sinner. If you don’t know something is wrong, how will you change it?

We can also remove sinn in a much deeper way than telling people that this is truth or you have to obey as we share oour own sin in an open, vulnerable way. As we work relationally with the sins of others we can share our emotions about or sin. If we just talk about truth and obedience we can drive the sinfullness of those that are strugging underground and tighten the noose of sin in our lives. We need to be a sancturies for the lost and hurting while simultanously working to remove sin.