Here's an odd challenge, if you dare:
Carefully check out the two verses below, and see if they aren't backwards when compared to the way many of us operate today:
"Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs" (Prov. 10:12 ).
So when someone wrongs you, and you cover his wrongs, that shows what?
But when someone wrongs you, and you stir others up against him, that shows what?
"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault . . . (Jesus, in Mat 18:15 ).
So when someone wrongs you, and you talk to him about it, you're obeying who?
But when someone wrongs you, and you don't talk to him about it, you're disobeying who?
What I mean is this:
Do you talk directly to the person who sins against, disappoints, or otherwise fails you?
Do you talk about that persons sin, disappointing, failing to others?
If you're like me, there is a great temptation to do precisely the opposite of what those verses say. I suspect that we don't talk directly to the one who sins, disappoints, or otherwise fails, is because we are afraid. Afraid of getting into an argument. Afraid of being confronted ourselves. Afraid of having to "remove the log from our own eye." Afraid of . . .?
Father, only you know the extent to which we've gone in stirring up dissension instead of love. Only you know how often we've handled our discontents with others in the backwards fashion. Help us to become people who handle rightly the things that we share with others, and the things we keep to ourselves. Help us promote love, even when we feel slighted.
Posted via email from We've Encountered a Terrifying Grace
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