Wednesday I had to go to a meeting, but
I didn’t have a car to get home so I had to ride my bike. Unfortunately it was raining, and though I
had a raincoat to keep the upper part of my body dry, I didn’t find my rain
pants to protect my legs. After 10 km,
my jogging pants became saturated and the left pant leg began to drip quantities
of water into my shoe.
There was nothing I could do but press
on. It wasn’t comfortable when I had to
apply heavier pressure like when I needed to start after stopping, or due to
opposing wind. The water squishing up
around the top of my foot every time I pressed down was cold and felt awful. Still, I had to continue to get home and put
up with the discomfort.
Sometimes in life we have to
do the hard, uncomfortable things that we really don’t want to do. Parenting is like that far more than I’d like
it to be! You know, we have to apply
pressure even when it will make us unhappy/ the bad guy/ the mean mom etc.- and
when we get the cold shoulder for doing what we believe is right.
There are other things we need to do
that make us uncomfortable. One is
confront a brother or sister over being offended or them taking offence. First off, it is not our place to spread the
issue around to anyone else (Jm. 4:11), even by hinting. We must “Forgive each other” (Eph. 4:32) and take it to the Lord in prayer, then “speaking
the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15)
confront the person who offended or is offended. The person may not even know we are offended.
But if your brother shall trespass* against you, go
and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have
gained your brother. But if he will not hear you,
take one or two more with you, so that in the
mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall
neglect to hear them, tell it to the
church. Mt. 18:15-17 (*miss the mark, err, sin, offend)
It is important to approach a person in humility because often they may not know they’ve
hurt us. In the past, the people I’ve
approached (a thoroughly uncomfortable time) profusely apologized to me, none meant to hurt me, and forgiveness brought restoration for all. If it cannot be worked out, then one or two
more (wise and trustworthy) witnesses may be needed. If the shoe is on the other foot and the
person who acts offended around you won’t admit to a problem, you can bring in
witnesses to see that you are trying your best and the person is still denying
a problem.
Brothers, if a man is overtaken in a fault, you the
spiritual ones restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering
yourself, lest you also be tempted. Gal.
6:1
Another time,
there was a speaker who made a few Biblically untrue statements about the
Exodus story- I thought perhaps for effect.
Afterwards I wanted to tell him, but instead decided to write a letter,
yet in the end, I didn’t do anything. It
was too uncomfortable for me to confront him, and it wasn’t a doctrinal issue
anyway- so I told myself. But it is our
responsibility to correct others in Biblical err (always with love and
humility), for some day we might need similar correction ourselves. I would prefer someone correcting me over
teaching wrong things which later would embarrass me more.
All Scripture is
God-breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness… 2Tm. 3:16
(Jesus said) “You err, not knowing the Scriptures…” Mt. 22:29
We can all
err, from the new believer to the forty year veteran. Not one human knows the Bible perfectly or is
perfect in our attitudes and actions.
That is why the Word is needed for reproof and correction. Just because the Bible says, “love will cover
a multitude of sins*...” (1Pt. 4:8) doesn’t mean we just ignore the issue; sometimes we have to press through
the uncomfortable thing and get the job done (confront it), for love doesn’t
leave a brother in error or offence. We
need to step up and do the tough stuff because we are all on this journey
together and we are all the same body under the headship of Jesus Christ (Col.
1:18).
(*miss the mark, be mistaken, err, wander, go wrong, sin)