| HOW TO REACT AND DISCIPLINE There are 2 reasons why we never need to respond defensively to the world's critical, negative evaluation about you. First, if you are wrong, you do not HAVE a defence. For any defensiveness on your part would be rationalization at best and a lie at worst. You simply respond, "you're right; I am wrong." Second, if you are right, you do not NEED a defence. For the Righteous Judge, who knows you are and what you have done, will exonerate you. If you can learn not to be defensive when someone exposes your character defects or attacks your performance, you may have the opportunity to turn the situation around and minister to that person. The world's system for determining your value as a person is not what determine your value. Apostle Paul wrote, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness." Your allegiance is Christ the Lord, not to the world. He continued, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." (Colossians 2: 6 - 8). There is a world system out there and it is influential. But you do not need to respond to that system because you are not of it. You are in the world but you are not of the world (John 17: 14 - 16). You are in Christ. If you find yourself responding defensively, let it remind you to focus your attention on those things which will build up and establish your faith. Rejection is a 2-way street: You can receive it and you can give it. So, now look at how to respond to the temptation to level others with criticism or rejection. Romans 14: 4 reads: "Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand." This verse is talking about judging another person's character. Before God, each of us is responsible for your own character. Philippians 2: 3 - 4 reads: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. Each of you should not only look to your own interests, but to the interests of others." This verse is talking about needs. Before God, each of you is responsible for meeting each other's needs. You should be devoting yourself to develop your own character and meet other's needs and not yield to Satan's prodding to criticise one another's character and selfishly meet our own needs. We will only encourage each other to growth and maturity if we practice the former. Another way Satan has deceived us in our interpersonal relationships is by tempting us to focus on our rights instead of our responsibilities. In God's system, our focus is to be fulfilling our responsibilities, not insisting on our rights. Being a member of the Body of Christ is an incredible privilege, not a right. This privilege comes with the awesome responsibility to behave as God's children and become a lover of people. When we stand before Christ, He will not ask us if we received everything we had coming to us. But He will reward us for how well we fulfilled our responsibilities. There are times when we need to discipline each other on matters of behaviour. for we are required by God to confront and restore those who have clearly violated the boundaries of Scripture. Jesus instructed that we should discipline each other in Matthew 18: 15 - 16. But let me alert you to an important distinction in this area: Discipline is an issue of confronting observed behaviour - that which you have personally witnessed (Galatians 6: 1); judgement is an issue of character (Matthew 7: 1; Romans 14: 13) We are instructed to confront others concerning sin we have observed, but we are not allowed to judge their character. Discipline behaviour is our job; judging character is God's job. Example: If you caught someone telling a lie and you said that he is a liar, that's judgement, an attack of his character. But if you said that "You have just told a lie." That's discipline. You are holding him accountable for an observed behaviour. When you discipline someone it must be based on something you have seen or heard personally, and not on hearsay. If you are the only witness, confront him alone and leave it at that. Following Christ involves both veritcal and horizontal - loving God and loving people. It is important to know that God works in our lives through committed relationships. Where better to learn patience, kindness, forgiveness, team spirit, ..etc than in the close quarters of working relationships? Committed relationships can be extremely difficult unless we accept our responsibility to grow and love others. But you can make that commitment. Remember: No one determines who you are but you and God; and your response to Him. Anybody can find character defects and performance flaws in another Christian. But it takes the grace of God to look beyond Saul the persecutor to see in him Paul the apostle. So as you live day-to-day with people who are sometimes less than saintly in their behaviour - and who see you the same way - may I simply say: "Grace and peace be multiplied to you." (2 Peter 1: 2) - derived from the book "Victory over darkness" by Neil T. Anderson |
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| To Inspirational: |
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| Judge not and you will not be judged. |