Faithful, hopeful, loving rebuke

[banzai]

Better is open rebuke
    than hidden love.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
    profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

-Proverbs 27:5-6

barlow_girl and I were rebuked yesterday, absolutely rightly. The amount of courage it must have taken our friend to pull us aside and call us out is stunning, the kind that may only (and in this case, almost certainly did

Comments

Wow

[christianlady]

Not much to add but that I am glad your friend could come to you honestly and though you write how you didn't respond well at first, you did come around.

I have recently learned from a situation where I can look "in the right" for my actions that being thankful for rebuke...even when it's coming hard and fast...is right.

Re: Wow

[banzai]

I used to try to get around how judgmental I am by trying to cut more benefit of the doubt-that while I may think I'm right, I may not have the whole picture. That perspective addressed part of the problem (and still does), but the real trick is that, if that's as far as I go, once I am (convinced I'm) right, my judgment comes back with a vengeance.

So in addition to everything I wrote about in this entry, there's the simple, functional question of what rights do I believe "being right" gives me. Apparently, I've taken that as a license to all sorts of sin against others, both out loud and in my heart. But the truth is, being right affords me no rights whatsoever. Only who I am in Jesus gives me any rights or responsibilities-my being right has never been worth much, and I'm a fool to think otherwise, especially to the detriment of others and disobedience to God's law of love.

Hit it head on

[christianlady]

You just hit it head on really. Pride kills, even when we're right...

As I was reading your response, I thought of a verse I have heard recently. "Love covers a multitude of sins." Indeed. Reminds me how I am nothing.

[unblinkable]

Oh, man... I was rebuked back in 1999 or so... and it was the hardest thing I'd ever had happen. But I got to the point where I sat down and wrote thank you letters to the two men who talked with me (church leaders). What a purifying process.

[thinhorizon]

Just wanted to say thanks for the reminder