Confrontation: One of the Bold Realities of Loving God…

Thank you for joining me these past few months through our journey on love.  I hope the posts have offered new revelations on God’s love, or served as a needed reminder.  This will be the last post examining love.  It’s a little prickly, so hang in there!

Next time we meet, Thanksgiving will be here and Christmas will be right around the corner.  Hoping to finish our year together asking God to give us eyes to see and ears to hear what He has in mind for us.  The holiday season can be the most hectic time of the year.  Hoping to offer you a few nuggets of truth from the Christmas Story.  Praying God will use these nuggets to help you sit and savor Him.

I’m guessing most of us just want to live peaceful, God-fearing lives.  We don’t want to argue, fuss or fight.  We want to go about our business speaking life and living out love.  And if we’re honest, we’ll admit we’ve made Jesus a pretty neutered God.  One that does a lot of loving and forgiving but not a lot of confronting or fighting.

On the one hand, we are right.  Jesus was(is) love.  He offered(s) forgiveness for all who accept Him.  But He also demonstrated a lot of confrontation and fought for His Kingdom.  He fought for us.  Fought for every opportunity possible for us to come home.

That meant He confronted a lot of people, a lot of sin and a lot of hard-hearts.  He confronted them all in love but with zeal.  …zeal for God’s house consumed him. Ps. 69:9

I’m sure He made quite a name for Himself when He went into the temple and overturned tables and scattered coins.  All-the-while yelling…Get these out of here! with whip in hand.   John 2

I’m guessing it didn’t feel very peaceful.

I’m wondering if they thought He was gentle, loving, gracious or forgiving when He called the Pharisee’s hypocrites (Matt. 15:7), told the Jews their father was the devil (John 8:44) or looked at Peter and said to him Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.  (Matthew 16:23)

Confrontation and zeal for God’s house did not die on the cross.  It continued in God’s people and His church.  Paul confronted sin in the church and told the members to kick the man out who was sexually involved with his father’s wife.  (1 Corn. 5) Paul  further instructed the church in how to confront and discipline those persistent in sin.

And don’t forget Peter and John in Acts 4.  They found themselves brought before the Sanhedrin after healing a man in Jesus’ name. Peter got awfully sassy with the Sanhedrin after he was filled with the Holy Spirit.  Peter proceeded to mouth-off to the Sanhedrin that it was in the name of Jesus–the same Jesus they crucified–that this man was healed.  And despite the Sanhedrin’s repeated threats, they would not stop teaching and healing in Jesus’ name.  Pretty sassy considering these men (Sanhedrin) had already crucified one Man.

So, what’s the point??

The point is…sometimes we are going to be called to confront sin.  We are going to be called to fight for the Kingdom.  Fight for every opportunity possible for the sinner to come home.  It will require us to confront lies with truth and not back down.

This should be Spirit-led.  For me this usually means, when I want to mouth-off and tell someone what I really think about them–I remain quiet.  The flesh is at work.

But sometimes, when the gospel is being attacked or an obvious lie is in play something starts stirring deep in my spirit.  All I can think is…just be quiet, don’t pick a fight.  Slink away.  They will be offended.    But the spirit keeps rising and before I know it, I must speak.  Even though speaking is the last thing I want to do.

Most of the time, confronting sin or lies is reserved for my inner circle.  Those I’m in close spiritual fellowship with.  Occasionally, it’s with a non-believer who specifically engages me about a sin. Very rarely it is with those in spiritual authority over me asking me to submit to something (best-I-can-tell) does not align with scriptures.

I think it is important to remember our role…to speak the truth in love.  Confront sin or deception through scripture. But recognize it might come with a lot of passion or zeal.

Our role is not to convict, condemn, coerce or force repentance.  It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to turn hearts towards Christ.  Once we have spoken the truth in love, rooted in scripture, we need to do as Jesus did.  Either welcome the sinner home, our brother/sister back into fellowhsip or if they are non-receptive … shake the dust off our feet…(Matt.10:14). The point being we have fulfilled our responsibility, we leave them with God.

I know this is the hard part of love.  It’s an aspect of love we will be called to utilize but we should always tempered it with grace.

Thank you Lord for the truth of Your Word.  Thank you that You and Your Kingdom are worth fighting for.  Help me to wisely balance the tension found within the gospel.  Help me to gently nudge tender-hearts to the cross. Help me to boldly confront hard-hearts with the Truth of Your Word.  Give me wisdom to know the difference.  Give me the courage to fight as hard for them as You did for me.

Thank you Lord for loving me.  Teach me how to love You.