Better is an open reprimand [of loving correction] Than love that is hidden. Proverbs 27:5 AMP
One of the biggest dangers of this present generation is hypocrisy. We have mastered the art of deception, whereby we say one thing with our lips but our lives say something completely different. We give out good vibes because we know what men want, but our hearts are full of dead bones. The greatest challenge is that we can succeed at it for a while, where we successfully deceive men about the quality of our convictions and the strength of our principles, but there is something about God that needs to be laid out here: God cannot be deceived.
We assume that God is like man, able to entice with visible activity. We forget that the creator of the heart knows all its schemes. Today's extract is a good case in point. We are sometimes afraid to step on toes; refusing to correct wrong because we do not want to offend. We let things slide, sometimes, we even by our actions validate the wrong actions and present them as right when we do not challenge them. How do I strike the right balance between love and discipline, affection and correction?
If indeed I love someone, I can't open my eyes and see the person going into a ditch. The call of love on my heart moves me to do something, either to cover the ditch, or to shout out a warning. Silence here is neither golden or the best option. What is love, if not the visible, outward expression of inner affection. I can't claim to love anyone who I cannot speak to in love, and anyone who rejects the right correction cannot be said to operate out of love. Is what I have love, or just lips confession?
Open rebuke shows I love you and do not want you to perish. I love enough to warn about the dangers of any action that is not rooted in Christ. The motive for my speaking or acting isn't a feeling of superiority but that if you succeed and do well, I have also done well. Of what use is love that is always silent and inactive, no matter what you do? Jesus loved us enough to die for our sins, and till now, He is still speaking, asking that we accept His love and come to Him. An I going to respond to Him? Remember, you cannot show out what you do not first have in you. If I will show love the way God would have it, I must have the God-kind of love inside of me. Nothing else will work. His time of favour is here.
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