Correcting, Rebuking and Encouraging!!
Verse of the Day: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, gives the above instructions. Notice the priority of preaching the Word. And then we see some idea of what this means. Paul says to correct, rebuke and encourage. It is important for us to understand the meaning of each of these words if we are to be balanced in the approach of our teaching and preaching ministries, which are all based on the Word of God, God's unchanging truth. To correct, which is also translated reprove, means to bring back in alignment. Specifically this dealt with false doctrines that were abounding in the early church. Like, Jesus was not really God, He was just a really good prophet. Paul knew that these untruths needed to be corrected right away to maintain the purity of the Gospel.
The next word is rebuke. This dealt with specific behavior that was unbecoming of a believer and had an adverse effect on the early church's witness to the world that was looking on to see if Christians were really any different than people in the world. A lot of Paul's letters dealt with rebuking the young churches and certain behaviors that were a cancer to the early church. In Corinth, there was sexual immorality being practiced. In Galatia, the church was returning to legalism through requiring new Gentile men believers to be circumcised. In those situations a rebuke was needed to curb those behaviors immediately. Notice Paul adds to do it with great patience and instruction as these matters needed to be handled with gentleness.
Finally, Paul says to preach an encouraging word. Sometimes false doctrine needed to be pointed out. Sometimes a specific behavior needed to be rebuked, but we should not forget the word of encouragement we all need to hear often. I like the word en-courage as if to mean to inspire courage from within. A good sermon inspires us to respond to God's grace in Jesus, and live on the edge taking risks because of who we are in Christ.
Do you see the balance here of correcting, rebuking, and encouraging? We need all three to have healthy churches centered on the Word. Notice it is the Word that separates false doctrine from right doctrine. It is the Word that judges our behaviors. This isn't about being self righteous or judgmental but leaders standing by the Word and needing at times themselves to be corrected, rebuked and encouraged by the Word. And the Word is Jesus who corrects, rebukes and encourages through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God!!
Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, gives the above instructions. Notice the priority of preaching the Word. And then we see some idea of what this means. Paul says to correct, rebuke and encourage. It is important for us to understand the meaning of each of these words if we are to be balanced in the approach of our teaching and preaching ministries, which are all based on the Word of God, God's unchanging truth. To correct, which is also translated reprove, means to bring back in alignment. Specifically this dealt with false doctrines that were abounding in the early church. Like, Jesus was not really God, He was just a really good prophet. Paul knew that these untruths needed to be corrected right away to maintain the purity of the Gospel.
The next word is rebuke. This dealt with specific behavior that was unbecoming of a believer and had an adverse effect on the early church's witness to the world that was looking on to see if Christians were really any different than people in the world. A lot of Paul's letters dealt with rebuking the young churches and certain behaviors that were a cancer to the early church. In Corinth, there was sexual immorality being practiced. In Galatia, the church was returning to legalism through requiring new Gentile men believers to be circumcised. In those situations a rebuke was needed to curb those behaviors immediately. Notice Paul adds to do it with great patience and instruction as these matters needed to be handled with gentleness.
Finally, Paul says to preach an encouraging word. Sometimes false doctrine needed to be pointed out. Sometimes a specific behavior needed to be rebuked, but we should not forget the word of encouragement we all need to hear often. I like the word en-courage as if to mean to inspire courage from within. A good sermon inspires us to respond to God's grace in Jesus, and live on the edge taking risks because of who we are in Christ.
Do you see the balance here of correcting, rebuking, and encouraging? We need all three to have healthy churches centered on the Word. Notice it is the Word that separates false doctrine from right doctrine. It is the Word that judges our behaviors. This isn't about being self righteous or judgmental but leaders standing by the Word and needing at times themselves to be corrected, rebuked and encouraged by the Word. And the Word is Jesus who corrects, rebukes and encourages through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God!!
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