Subject: Guidelines on rebuking |
Bible Note: Look Leslie ... You cited 116 passages to substantiate what amounted to little more than a paragraph once you take all the references out. That was overkill. The note was barely intelligible with all the notations, and it took me several minutes to digest the simplicity of what you were trying to say because it was too hard to make a coherent sentence out what I consider little more than a mess. I looked up the passages you cited, and most of them had nothing to do with the topic at hand. Point of fact, most of them had nothing to do with what you were saying. You quoted scriptures that directly regard to the selecting of church elders, the admonishing of other Christians, the chastisement of other Christians, etc. The original question you were responding to was when to rebuke someone that is NOT a Christian, and the answer to that, when you are a relatively young Christian that doesn't have the knowledge to know the answer to that question, is never. Further, recognizing that the person asking was lacking knowledge, you shouldn't overload them. If I were a young Christian, that would have intimidated me. Then it would have confused me. God is not the author of confusion (I know that passage refers to something else, but the principle is appropriate). Now, consider what I said judgmental if you wish, but I considered it instruction. We will know a vine by its fruits. What I saw was an overkill of scripture, poorly quoted according to their contexts and applications, and this is indicative of someone that wants to impress other people. If your truest intention was to instruct with all thoroughness, then my mistake. I willingly own my error and apologize. If your intention was to impress with overkill, then my instruction was good and appropriate. Whichever the case may be, it was still overbearing, confusing, and potentially intimidating to a young Christian. Remember that less is more. We only need two or three witnesses to establish a matter. In this particular case, one set of scripture says virtually everything you said. See 1 Thess 5:12-26. In direct regard to "your work," all I saw was a bunch of quotations. When I compared them to one of my study bibles, the quotations were awful familiar in organization. I will not say you copied someone else's work, but I will say that it is suspicious to me. Take my words for what they are worth. My intentions are good. But I'm done with this conversation unless we have something nice to say to one another. I don't want strife, and I'm certain it's not wanted on this forum either. Theo-Minor |