Encouraging or Opposing?
Keeping Balance in Our Christianity • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsLooking at balancing giving positive encouragement and negative correction
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Encouraging and Opposing Brethren
Encouraging and Opposing Brethren
Intro: We conclude our series on Keeping Balance in Our Christianity with perhaps the most difficult lesson in this series. How do we deal with those who are not living as they should? Do we try to be positive and encouraging, or be negative and correcting? When do we use the carrot, and when do we use the stick?
I) Positive
I) Positive
The strong must support the weak – ; ;
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
That is based on our spirituality –
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Spirituality is thinking in a spiritual manner – ;
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
The root motivation in a local church is to edify one another – ; ;
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
We must strengthen the weak –
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
We must never think of another as an enemy –
Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
II) Negative
II) Negative
Those living astray must be corrected – , ,
Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
Removing the wicked (which is demonstrated in behavior, not whether we like them or not) is necessary – ,
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
This is for the good of the church –
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Discipline is necessary because of our love –
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
Jesus taught this for local groups even before He established the church –
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
III) Understanding the balance
III) Understanding the balance
What is easiest depends on our own personality, some find it hard to confront someone – ; – while others find it hard to be patient with someone who doesn’t immediately repent
For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
These passages reflect the wisdom of God, not suggestions that we can overlook or explain away
Restoring the fallen is not making sure we mention their name in an announcement or we stick our signature on a card prepared by another
Marking someone, or having no fellowship with someone is not set aside by thinking that the action of another local church does not apply to me – ,
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’
And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’
We must never allow our assumption of the reaction of the weak person keep us from doing what God expects of us
Concl: It is difficult to know how to react to one who is slipping away from God. There are reasons why we should be encouraging to them, but also reasons why we need to use tough love. These passages give us the principles to apply to choose which is needed.