The apostle Paul had a terrible time maintaining relationships. And we, in our therapeutic age, would tend to think it was his problem, saying that he must have been what is called a “strong colleague.”
“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica”(2 Tim. 4:10).
“But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus” (Acts 15:38-39)
“This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain” (2 Tim. 1:15-16).
Now of course we acknowledge there are imperious and autocratic pastors, who have a series of failed relationships behind them, and it has more than a little bit to do with the fact that their ecclesiology resembles that of Yertle the Turtle. He is the kind of person who gets consistently bad service in every restaurant he ever goes to, and at some point you might want to hazard a guess that “it’s not the restaurants, champ.”
But this is just another way of saying that some basketball players are bulldozers, and foul their way to their favorite spot under the basket. Half of their moves are thrown elbows. This being the undoubted truth, to wit, that some guys are like that, it took outclassed basketball players about five minutes, when confronted with a non-fouling talent, to figure out that it might be a good idea to flop in front of the ref when nobody had so much as touched him.
What is necessary here is to have refs who understand that both things happen. But therapeutic refs acknowledge just one possibility. If the apostle, or any of his heirs, dare to sink five three pointers in a row, they might find themselves ejected from the game for being insufficiently sensitive. And, if those are the rules, I dare say they are.