Encouragement

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers      1 Timothy 5:1 (NIV)

 

Does anyone agree with anyone today? I watch Democrats and Republicans reach what seems to be a permanent impasse. "I am right –totally right – and you are wrong."  Maybe so (I don't think so.) People who have deep values disagree. Since no one is perfect or sinless, everyone needs some wiggle room for being completely off-base. Civility not only respects the convictions of another, it does not guess at motives and it leaves open the possibility that the other may be correct.

 

In other words, civility is a form of love. Yet love moves even beyond civility to encouragement. We who call ourselves Christ are encouraged to encourage. Certainly, not to encourage what we believe is wrong thinking but encouraging the other person. Most of us have heard, "Hate the sin but love the sinner (which is not easy task.)" We may also add, "Rebuke falsehood while being an encourager to those with false beliefs."  And it corollary, "Be open to the fact that you could be wrong." I am willing to walk this tightrope Christ has set out. I will err and sin and have to ask for forgiveness but the world will be a Godlier place. Isn't that what God wants?

 

Lord, I get so riled up when I hear falsehood. Help me to realize that I render the truth a falsehood if I deliver it with a death blow to a sister or brother. Keep me humble in my fantasies that I know all truth. Hold me steadfast when I look to abandon the truth in order to be nice.