(Leviticus 19:16-17) “You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people... but you shall reason frankly with your neighbour, lest you incur sin because of him.”
I am constantly fascinated how God uses scripture to rebuke and teach me; It is not the context of the text that surprises me, God is perfect in wisdom and therefore I expect to be taught from His Word, however it is the way in which I am often taught that intrigues me. Let me use the case in point; I have been rather hard-pressed of late and have looked for answers from God’s word on how to react to a certain issue I need to deal with. The word is full of knowledge but I am carnal, sold under sin, simply put, my heart looks to justify itself so that I may excuse myself. This means that I can get a distorted view on scripture if I am not careful. This is why contextual unpacking of scripture verses is essential. God the Holy Spirit mesmerizes me with His ingenious insight through application in showing me truths by using different means to highlight a reality. I am not referring to any spiritual reference made by some wannabe prophet, someone has a word and speaks into my life and I have no way of testing what has been said to me. That in itself is folly; we must examine every word that proceeds from the mouths of others and it must always be examined by scripture. If I am told that someone had a vision I must sell everything and move to the Hollywood and God will bless me. To even consider such a though would be ludicrous. Why? Well, let’s use scripture to explain; (Hebrews 1:1-2) “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”
So, yes in the Old Testament a lot of reference is made to God speaking in this way. But now that Christ has come and paid the price for sin and has told us while He hung on the cross, “it is finished”, we need now only receive instruction from Him. He has always loved righteousness and hated iniquity. He has also been touched by the weakness of our infirmities and therefore understands the weakness of the flesh. He was a man and experience life as a man, so how does he speak? Well, He is the Word and so He verbalizes through the pages of the bible. He will never permit the words of the bible to speak against His Father that will be impossible as it would mean that He would deny Himself making Him a liar, which is impossible. (Hebrews 6:18) “So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie...” That is why we must always examine what people say by using the bible to find out whether what they say it is true or not. If someone tells me to read a particular scripture as they feel it may have some bearing on a decision in my life and it may help me make an accurate assessment, then by all means, I must welcome it, but I must always remember to contextualise!
Yesterday I had to consider how I should go about addressing a pressing matter. I finished blogging and then read C.H.Spurgeon’s daily blog; this is why I tell you I am amazed at God’s brilliance and the way God the Holy Spirit, rebukes when needed, and in love realigned my thinking.
He used Spurgeon’s blog. Firstly, think about when it was written, it was around 1855 and that someone else chose to use this day to associate the message from his blog with the 29th of November 2010. I happened to stagger upon his message, or did I stagger, I think not! God uses these types of means to help direct our paths.
This is what the blog had to say; “Tale-bearing emits a threefold poison; for it injures the teller, the hearer, and the person concerning whom the tale is told. Whether the report be true or false, we are by this precept of God’s Word forbidden to spread it. The reputations of the Lord’s people should be very precious in our sight, and we should count it shame to help the devil to dishonour the Church and the name of the Lord. Some tongues need a bridle rather than a spur. Many glory in pulling down their brethren, as if thereby they raised themselves. Noah’s wise sons cast a mantle over their father, and he who exposed him earned a fearful curse. We may ourselves one of these dark days need forbearance and silence from our brethren, let us render it cheerfully to those who require it now. Be this our family rule, and our personal bond-SPEAK EVIL OF NO MAN.”
“The Holy Spirit, however, permits us to censure sin, and prescribes the way in which we are to do it. It must be done by rebuking our brother to his face, not by railing behind his back. This course is manly, brotherly, Christlike, and under God’s blessing will be useful. Does the flesh shrink from it? Then we must lay the greater stress upon our conscience, and keep ourselves to the work, lest by suffering sin upon our friend we become ourselves partakers of it. Hundreds have been saved from gross sins by the timely, wise, affectionate warnings of faithful ministers and brethren. Our Lord Jesus has set us a gracious example of how to deal with erring friends in his warning given to Peter, the prayer with which he preceded it, and the gentle way in which he bore with Peter’s boastful denial that he needed such a caution.”
We must never sweep pressing matters under the carpet, but we must always attend to then using God instruction through His Word on how they should be addressed.
May we find grace and the courage in love in address any pressing matter that we have neglected for so long? Be bold and brave in and through our victorious Saviour remembering that the victory is His and it is finished.
Signing off
Tyrone
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