Skip to main content

Confront...Don't Gossip

Matthew 18:15 "If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

 This is probably one of the most disregarded teachings of Jesus among believers. When someone has sinned, our first inclination is to go public. We talk about them instead of to them. What good does gossiping about the sins of another person really do?

As we have all experienced....talking about a person's sin instead of talking to them usually brings only hurt and alienation. We rationalize not going to the person for many reasons: we don't go and address a sin issue with the person because we say they won't listen anyway or we stop short of addressing a sin issue because we don't feel as if we have the right since we have made our own share of mistakes. Sometimes we don't go because the sin they have committed is against us and we would rather sulk about it and complain to everyone else.

 Some people harbor resentment for months and years....choosing to grow bitter and selfishly make another's struggle more about their hurt instead of the redemptive work God might do if we would go in obedience to a brother or sister in love and confront them! How many issues get resolved if we just trust Jesus at His Word?

 This application ought to be obvious....just not easy! Think of someone you have recently gossiped about. Did you go to them one on one first and point out their fault or did you just tell someone else? Pick up the phone or meet that person today.....just between the two of you. First, apologize for not coming to them sooner and choosing the easy way out through ignoring the issue or gossiping about it to others. Now that you have confronted your own sin, confront their sin in a loving and respectful way. This is the right way to honor God, to help one another grow to be more like Christ, and live in true Christian community together! 


Heavenly Father, when someone begins to stray, help me to go to them and speak the truth in love. Help me to talk to them instead of talking about them. We need the help and godly counsel of others as we travel this journey. To do anything different is simply to create drama that is destructive. Amen. Thanks to Pastor Jerry Sweat

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building Trust When Faith Wavers

  Mark 9:21-24 21 And He asked his father, How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, From childhood. 22 It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" 23 And Jesus said to him, `If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." 24 Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, I do believe; help my unbelief." Since faith is the core of our Christian experience, the consequences of wavering faith are far-reaching. Vacillating trust can lead us to make wrong decisions. Sometimes, after praying for direction, we might receive an answer that leads us to think, I can’t do that. So, instead of asking God to strengthen our faith, we make excuses. We may choose to postpone our obedience—even indefinitely—in order...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Now Believe God Loves Me

 1 JOHN 4:16  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  Although I have endeavored to walk with the Lord for awhile, only in recent times have I started to really believe God loves me. My problem was that I kept focusing on myself, instead of God. I saw myself in my immaturity with all my faults and failures. I was not looking at Jesus the perfect sacrifice, but focused on myself and my shortcomings.  Even though I spread messages on the love of God, I never had confidence that God truly loved me just as I was. Instead I thought more in terms of God tolerating me, but not being too happy with me. I was trying my best to do what I thought God wanted, not really realizing that I could never earn God's love.  Now I am realizing that God's love is not dependent on me, but is entirely dependent on God alone. He does not love me because I am lovable, b...
Post a Comment
Read more

welcome to my blog

Oh the waterfall of cleansing Grace! Welcome to my Grace blog.  I hope to both share and start a dialogue about Jesus Christ and how his life, relationships and teaching have a practical working value in our everyday lives. To go beyond our belief of Jesus... and into our belief in Jesus. I hope we can learn more about how the finished work of Christ on the cross empowers his work in us in our daily lives. I hope we can grow in His Grace and Wisdom! The name came from a Joseph Prince story in his book  "Destined to Reign"...here's the story: Prince tells the story of a young boy who found a rock out in the woods. Though it looked rough at first, he rinsed it in the small waterfall of a nearby stream. Turns out, the rock was marbly, smooth, and full of color. Not wanting to lose the rock, and afraid someone would take it from him if he took it home, he buried it back in the dirt in a tucked away place before he went home for the night. There, he left it. The ne...
5 comments
Read more