God Speaks Through Others

God uses brothers and sisters to speak his truth into our lives.

God uses others to call us to do the right thing.

We see this in the story of Esther…

Esther 4:13–14 CSB

Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”

Mordecai called on Esther to do what was right and with his encouragement, she did.

We looked at this story in our small groups at church Sunday morning and there was a quote in our lesson that I loved...

The family of God is healthiest when we are committed not only to Jesus but also to one another.

God uses others to call us out when we’ve done the wrong thing.

Nathan speaks to David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba.

2 Samuel 12:1–7 CSB

So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him: There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very large flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up with him and with his children. From his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest. David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.” Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from Saul.

And because of God showing David grace and kindness through Nathan, he turns from his sin back to the Lord.

2 Samuel 12:13 CSB

David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Then Nathan replied to David, “And the Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die.

We need to clarify something before moving on from this point because there’s a lie that Satan has brought into the church that so many people believe. People are prideful and we don’t like to be told we are wrong or we’ve done the wrong thing.

But if we have done the wrong thing, it’s good for us to be told that so we can get it right! But a lot of times when one person tells another they’re doing something wrong, they will respond with a phrase that actually comes from the Bible. Anyone know what I’m talking about?

Matthew 7:1 CSB

“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged.

But Jesus goes on from there to say this...

Matthew 7:5 CSB

Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.

So Jesus is not telling us we should never judge someone’s behavior, but that we must look first at ourselves and then we must judge rightly. Jesus says this in…

John 7:24 CSB

Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”

Christians are called to lovingly hold each other accountable to the commands God has given us in Scripture. We let God judge through what He has revealed to us in Scripture and we point to that in love! In love! Not in pride or to tear someone down, but to hopefully get them on track.

We want these voices in our lives, and that’s why it’s so important that we are around other Christians regularly. The Lord made a plan for this for us!

Jesus established the church for God’s people to speak truth to one another.

There are nearly 30 “one another” commands in the New Testament. Most of them to love one another, some others…

One of the most important ways to love someone is by sharing truth with them, and God’s Word is truth!

It’s hard to do these things if we’re never with one another! We need to be active in a local body of believers, in a church!

Hebrews 10:24–25 CSB

And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.