2 Timothy 2:24 (Amplified Bible)
And the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome (fighting and contending). Instead, he must be kindly to everyone and mild-tempered [preserving the bond of peace]; he must be a skilled and suitable teacher, patient and forbearing and willing to suffer wrong.
In my home town of Detroit, Michigan every Saturday night there was a radio show that featured a man who, before he went blind, totally blind, had memorized the Old and New Testament. When I used to listen to this show I was not saved and would tune in to him quote scriptures as he boldly pronounced that everybody but him and his co-host where going straight to hell. What I found so amusing (at the time) was how he seemed so happy about this fact.
I heard a message in church one day and the speaker quoted somebody I had never heard of before. So after the service was over I did some research on the person and found out that they where a very popular Pastor and author. I did some further searching around on the Internet and found one of their messages online. I was only able to listen to a few minutes of the message before I had to turn it off. I had to turn it off because I didn’t want was in him to get on me…in the same way as I shouldn’t expose my heart to pornography or cussing, I’m not going to let myself be defiled by an angry preacher.
I was serving in a ministry as an assistant Pastor a few years ago and a decision was made to allow somebody to serve in the church who was living an un-godly lifestyle. I knew what the Bible had to say on the matter and the person who made the decision knew what the Bible had to say on the matter. I sat there during the meeting when I found out about it and I could feel my so-called righteous indignation begin to raise, when I heard that small still voice in my heart say “I’ll handle it”. So I sat there and kept my big mouth shut. He handled it without my help, because within a few weeks that person was gone. I could have spoken and had the letter of the law on my side, but my motive would have been anger.
Matthew 22:37-39 (New Living Translation)
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
1 John 2:9-11 (New Living Translation)
9 If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is still living in darkness. 10 Anyone who loves another brother or sister is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. 11 But anyone who hates another brother or sister is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.
I constantly have to judge myself before I correct my children that I do it with the right motives. If I can’t “speak the truth in love” I need to go sit down someplace until I can. God knows (and He does by the way) how much foolishness is going on inside some Church walls. But the last time I checked my first name isn’t Jesus and my last name isn’t Christ, so running the Church is not my responsibility…I am in fact not Lord and in the heavenly org chart everybody indeed does not have to answer to me for their actions.
Colossians 3:12-13 (New Living Translation)
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
I believe our Biblical mandate is to pray for people, not talk about them. Once we have placed our concerns into the Father’s able hands we need to exercise some old-fashioned Christian longsuffering. Once you have a revelation of the goodness of God and see your own human frailty in the light of that reality it then becomes easier to give other folks a little slack.
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