Often our
concern for others is misunderstood and we get labeled as judgmental, hypocrite
and being religiously superiority. I’ve never known how to defend my thoughts
and actions once the other person has placed me in the category of being holier-than-thou.
However, I stumbled onto Paul’s detailed description as he boasts of the
suffering he endured — shipwrecks, flogging, being stoned, etc. “Besides
everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the
churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led
into sin, and I do not inwardly burn” (2 Cor 11:28-29 NIV)? It occurs to me
that we too feel the pressure of concern when someone in the church is weak and
when someone is led into sin. As mature believers we should not let others
equate our concern with judging, hypocrisy or superiority.
1 comment:
Gail;
-----God is true. All men are false. To me, there never seemed a better starting line for sorting out troubles than that. In it are the two truths about everyone. No man is so bereft of good that he is completely evil. No man is so free of evil that he is entirely righteous. Every accusation has some point of contact with reality strong enough to bear up either a defense or an apology. The truth will always show at that point, for truth and reality coexist like a light and its reflection.
-----So the first importance of discernment is whether the truth about that point needs either a defense, an offered apology, or a mixture of both (usually.) Many who are the stronger ones of the Lord’s body do not ponder gentleness and kindness enough. Morality and doctrines are given more regard in their conversation than is the simple, fundamental aspect of behavior in the Lord: build up; always build up -always. So when something does need torn down -some destructive, defeating habit or behavior- whether it is in yourself or others, that dismantling requires careful attention to the details of the people and situations involved. Gentleness and kindness must be thought of as surgical skills, for the evil which intertwines us most often intertwines good. When bad vines are grabbed and yanked, many good vines of the soul are damaged too. It’s the principle of the tares sewn by the enemy into the field, not so much that the tares must be ignored, but that uprooting them carelessly ruins much wheat.
-----God didn’t write a manual describing the proper handling of every situation of life for a bunch of dummies. That would have filled the world’s libraries. He wrote a manual describing every fundamental aspect of the righteous soul for discerning what's right in each situation by childlike wisdom. We need to read situations by the Bible’s full language, finding proper responses to simple points of contact in the light of the Word shined through honor and respect, since we are all alike false.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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