The Value of Correcting with Love

Last Saturday we held the first women’s meeting of our church. It was a very edifying time, for we were together in harmony, as Psalm 133:1 tells us, praying for everyone and everything, especially that God would provide for the construction of our church building.

I ask everyone who reads this to join us in this prayer.

Some sisters were absent. At our Sunday service, we testified to how blessed we had been at that gathering. As we were leaving, one sister explained to me that she had been unable to attend because she had gone out to evangelize.

My first impulse was to tell her that she could have done that another day, since it was the first time the women had gathered. But something kept me from speaking. I had a moment to think and told her, “I don’t know which is more important, saving lives or praying for them. I believe you were where God wanted you to be. If I had known, we could have adjusted the time and enjoyed your company.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she kissed my hand, but I truly felt it in my soul.

We Christians are surrounded by people who are constantly scrutinizing us and even criticizing us, all the more so if we give them reason to.

But the worst are not those on the outside; the worst is when those in our own backyard become our scourge. The word of God is full of warnings about this (Acts 20:28–31). Everyone thinks they hold the truth in their hands. It is true that we must correct others, but we must do so while thinking about what Christ would do in each situation. What would Christ do in this situation?

When we study the lives of the men whom God used powerfully, one thing that stands out is how different they were from one another. Yet they were valuable instruments in His hands, and thanks to their testimonies, we can know today what it means to live a life according to God’s will.

We do not have to be or act alike, nor are we used in the same way, nor does God deal with our lives in the same way. Beware lest, in trying to impose our own standards and points of view, we become a stumbling block to someone weak in the faith! Consider what happened to Job’s friends (Job 42:7), who tried to judge as God does, and He became angry with them.

Watch out for personal whims and opinions with no foundation in the word; remember that people judge God by our attitudes. When we fail to correct a brother or sister with love and on the basis of God’s word, we cause wounds that may not heal easily. Many wounded people wander the streets of this world, afraid to enter a church for fear of bleeding again, because someone’s bad attitude blocked their path to the only One who can heal them.

Whenever we reprove a brother or sister, let us bear these things in mind:

1. Correctly identify a bad attitude.

2. Correct in the right way (based on the word of God).

3. Set an example.

Let the Holy Spirit deal with each life. If we want to help, let us have a mind like Jesus’s and say, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they too may be sanctified in the truth” (John 17:19).