Encouragement. My pastor has been leading us in reflecting on it for a few weeks now. In my opinion, I don’t think we can reflect on it enough. This sermon series has easily been one of the more important series of messages I have heard in a while. Encouragement is essential to our lives, and essential to God.
We’ve mostly been sitting in Hebrews 3:13: “encourage each other daily.” We’ve been talking a lot about gossip, a lot about idle talk, and a lot about just building each other up rather than the opposite. This has all been meaningful and awesome, and I know that many of us in our community have continued to talk about it and keep each other accountable in playing it out in our own lives, but I think there are a couple more applications of this encouragement idea outside of our typical viewpoint.
One of them is rebuke. Ugh, rebuke. REBUKE. What a scary old word. Truthfully, I hate the word. A lot. Hearing it generally makes me cringe. I don’t hate it because of its meaning. I hate it because of its stigma. I think to myself “why do we continue to use this word that really only makes a ton of sense to us Christians? Especially one that is so scary-sounding? Isn’t there a better word we can use instead?”
Oh yeah, encouragement.
Isn’t that really all it is? Or at least all it should be? In my opinion, a rebuke should never come out of any emotion other than joy. Joy that you know you are showing someone that there is a better way. A better way with abundant life. A rebuke should be an encouragement to the person, an encouragement to turn around and look at the life they are missing because of whatever sin or attitude they are steeped in. A rebuke should never discourage someone. It should never leave the person feeling guilty. It should be an encouragement full of GRACE. Isn’t that how our Father does it?
This kind of leads to the other application I was talking about: evangelism.
How differently do you think this world would look at us Christians if our evangelism was nothing more than graceful encouragement? The same as I was talking before—an encouragement to open their eyes and see the abundant life they are missing.
What if the street preacher, instead of pointing out someone and telling them they are doomed, decided to gracefully let them know that there is a better way to live? A way of life that is full of abundance? I think we would start to see more and more true repentance, and less and less hate for the Gospel. It’s not forsaking the truth, it’s just taking the focus off of death, and moving it onto life.
So, I say lets keep—or start—encouraging. Lets start showing people that there’s more to LIFE than this.
7 Comments
I learned something from this blog. Thank Collin, keep em’ comin.
Thank you for this.
Yo…great post Collin. Agree it is a matter of heart…though i would guess Jesus left a bit of of emotion on the table when he cleared the temple and rebuked them. So…I would say there are times when we do rebuke with emotion, but it should never be outside the body. The street preacher is judging and rebuking the world…which God said he would judge…anyhow…just a thought. Still agree with the heart of your post though…rebuke should be viewed in a different light. Love ya man…we need to do dinner.
Thanks for the comments guys.
Mike, I see what you are saying but I don’t think Jesus’ rebuke was out of emotion necessarily, more out of “I gotta get through to these people”. That’s just how I view it though.
And are you saying God is using the street preacher to judge the world, or am I just reading that wrong? Because I disagree with that statement. God will judge the world, not a dude on a soapbox.
Thanks for making me think about it more! And yeah, we should do dinner sometime.
Excellent post, man!
I love the redesign of the blog, first of all. The post was well written, and thought provoking, and yes, I agree that there is the need for deliberate encouragement.
And maybe this is a generational thing… I sort of think it is… but your generation is doing itself a disservice in rejecting the concept of rebuke. Even icky, ugly rebuke. Here is why I think so:
Every generation has its handcrafted and favored lies it buys into. The goal of a positive affirming reaction as being not only necessary, but the only acceptable response is crippling.
“A rebuke should never discourage someone. It should never leave the person feeling guilty.”
Really ? Really? Are you very sure of that?
Because I see those who are mourning their innocence, mourning the ugliness of life they have stumbled into primarily because this ideal of “no guilt” communication left them defenseless in a world that is laced with real…actual… evil. Rebuke and guilt when properly understood are painful warnings that something is horribly askew.
The Bible says,”A quiet rebuke to a person of good sense does more than a whack on the head of a fool.”
I guess where I agree would be the spirit in which a rebuke is given. Too often rebuke arises from pride and desire to intimidate and dominate. Any type of correction is a type of rebuke, and sometimes it isn’t sweet or encouraging to one rebuked. But it can be, and that turns it around to the one receiving it.
I wish we could only give “graceful enticements” to living better or turning from doom. But not all circumstances or personal situations are given to that, that said, a soft graceful speech should be given first place.
Thanks for the thought inspiring post… even if I don’t fully agree with your conclusion I appreciate your process.
I appreciate your response, Ilona. I don’t want to come across as rejecting the idea of rebuking or correction. I think it’s a very important thing.
And you’re right, its not always sweet. But I think it should always be encouraging. I still believe that it shouldnt make a person feel guilty. It should make them realize what they are doing and turn from doing that, but guilt and realization are two different things. I see it more as an eye opener.
The bible verse you quoted sums it up perfectly in my opinion. Where is that from? A “quiet rebuke” to me says “grace” whereas “whack on the head” says “make someone feel bad about themselves.”
I believe God wants us to realize what we ARE and turn towards that, not what we’re NOT and focusing on that.
I appreciate the kind words, as well. Thank you!