Thursday June 4, 2020

Your Daily Dose of Inspiration:

One of the most common errors in this regard is in correction. Someone posts someone that is incorrect, and we feel that we must provide correction. We may feel that it is our duty to correct, and there is some merit in that. But rather than approaching the issue with gentleness and love, we express frustration, condescension, and belittlement. Instead of healing in the correction, we compound the confusion with anger and offense.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, (25) correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, (26) and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

If you feel that you must correct a person, it is almost always a mistake to do so publicly. It is far better do so privately and gently with love. Correcting a person publicly make it an issue of reputation and competition, but in private it becomes a matter of care and friendship. It is not good that the world sees the people of God tearing each other down. We should be building each other up, but because of the divisions in the Church, we instead take every opportunity to tear down our brothers and sisters in Christ hoping to elevate ourselves at their expense. This does nothing to draw people to Christ, and much to drive them away.

-Jared Freeman, “Sharp Tongues“