Tears When You Rebuke Someone

 July 17, 2024

Wednesday

Unfortunately, my responsibility as a minister has involved firing people from their jobs at churches. I still remember the first time I had to perform this unpleasant task. I prayed for a different solution. I hurt within my heart as I told the person that she was no longer employed at the church. I prayed that God would never let me do something like this again without the same hurt that I felt that first time. Though I haven't terminated people often, I have felt that pain each time. I am glad for it. I believe the person who brags about such an act is far from the heart of God. No matter what, this is a person that Jesus died for. That person is precious. Who am I to treat one of God's children with callousness?

The scribes, Pharisees and priests reasoned that Jesus needed to die so that they would not lose their positions and that the Jews would not lose their privileges among the Romans. The Jewish people were allowed to call only Yahweh God. They were tolerated by the Romans. The Romans could seek to eliminate the Jews. They decided it was better that Jesus died than the whole nation be lost. Their callousness was their downfall. They saw Jesus as someone in their way. He had no value for them and they did not consider His value to God.

Sometimes it seems like that spirit prevails among some Christians. Of course, we need to point out those who will lead Christians astray, but we should not treat them with callousness. If they are enemies, we are called to love and pray for them. While we should point out their errors, we cannot callously call them worthless. We cannot brag about dismissing them. We should pray for them.

I haven't seen much of this. I see people pointing out the errors of the false teachers without a word of praying for these people. I see them dismissing these false teachers without any tears. If these false teachers were able to gather such crowds with lies, what could they do with the truth?

I certainly don't want to be like the people who had Jesus crucified. I believe their attitude was never to converse with Jesus to know Him. They simply wanted Him to comply with who they were. Their attitudes were the reason that Jesus opposed them.

Honestly, we have trouble hating the sin while loving the sinner. We would like to keep them at a distance. We would like to forget about them. We would like to point out errors without saying even one prayer for them. But if we act this way, are we truly on the side of Jesus?

John 11:47–50 (NASB 2020) ⁴⁷ Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council meeting, and they were saying, “What are we doing in regard to the fact that this man is performing many signs? ⁴⁸ If we let Him go on like this, all the people will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take over both our place and our nation.” ⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, ⁵⁰ nor are you taking into account that it is in your best interest that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish instead.”