Here’s a two-pronged command of Jesus at which it is easy to fail miserably on both counts: “‘If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.'”<\/b> (Luke 17:3) Our human nature would have us do something else. If our brother sins, talk about him behind his back and he if repents, hold a holier-than-thou grudge against him.<\/p>\n
Confronting sin is tough. We often don’t know how to face the person and we may not be very good at conflict. We chide ourselves; “judge not least you be judged” figuring that trumps the other scriptural admonition.<\/p>\n
But remember, it says if your brother<\/b><\/i> sins. Family relationships based on love make it possible for one sibling to confront another when someone is making a big mistake. You can say hard things because your motive is love and the other person usually instinctively knows that. Well, aren’t we brothers and sisters in Christ?<\/p>\n
Therefore love may be the key to fulfilling this command. Make sure you have a heart full of it for the one who is gone astray. Make sure you feel about that person like a brother. Brothers usually have a shared history and know each other’s weaknesses. They know they are really no better than the other; next time it might just as easily be them on the receiving end.<\/p>\n
Since that is the case, don’t forget about the forgiveness part either. You’ll appreciate it the most when it’s your<\/i> turn to be rebuked and forgiven.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here’s a two-pronged command of Jesus at which it is easy to fail miserably on both counts: “‘If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.’” (Luke 17:3) Our human nature would have us do something else. If our brother sins, talk about him behind his back and he if repents, hold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n