with each sin there is an effect. someone or something is affected because of what happened earlier. because of achan his whole family was stoned to death. because of the act that david took with bathsheba, their baby had to die. it is amazing to me to realize how far someone has to take their sin in order to deal with it.
achan buried his silver and the coat. he had to have this stuff, that he disobeyed God, in order that he could bury it underneath the tent. someone would have realized that he had taken it. so because of this he hid his plunder. he obviously knew it was wrong since he buried it. but when it was found his whole family was affected.
david's cover up was pretty harsh as well. he tried bringing uriah home from the war, but he wouldnt sleep with bathsheba. so then david sent him back to the front lines and had him killed. it continued to escalade until the baby that he had with bathsheba died. luckily for david he had a friend named nathan. nathan came to tell him about his sin with a story about a farmer stealing the lone sheep of this poor guy.
wake up calls are awesome and very prompt. i like them better then alarm clocks. every time i go to a hotel i love calling the front desk for a wake up call. nathan was david's wake up call. i always wonder how far david's sin would have gone if it wasnt for nathan. nathan was a true friend to call him on his sin.
today however we do not have many people like this. today if i approached someone about a sin in their life, they would reply "you cant judge me, you dont know the situation." and they are right, i do not. i do not know how many times they were tempted before they fell. or "i am no able to change who i am." and they are right a lot of people have storied past and have grown up in some horrible situations. or "i do not believe in mistake, i only believe in learning from my experiences." now this part i have to differ with them because if we minimize our sins to a learning experience then it is not good enough. granted i think when we do fall we have to learn from them and take with us to make us become who God wants us to be.
but when we minimize the sin to just a learning experience is there a sign of repentance? and as i have learned many times, with out my repentance there can be no forgiveness. and i think without the forgiveness there can be no idea of change and moving on from the situation.
with david and achan, someone approached and confronted them with their sin. i wonder how long they would have held onto their sin if they hadnt been confronted. i think we as Christians need to learn how to confront people with their sin, not as an act of judgment, but as an act to get things right between them and God.
so how do we do this? how do we set this example?
3 comments:
Oh boy Nathan! Great issue... my hunch is this sort of confrontation only happens in true Christian community... and my second hunch is that such a community is seldom larger than 40 people, usually far less.
To attempt to answer your question: "In loving humility, using Matthew 18 as a guide."
Yup yup, Nate. Interesting point at the end about how long David, for example, would've held onto his sin had he not been confronted. Our conclusion? God indeed does discipline the ones He loves. God making us face our sin is nothing short of absolute grace. Good stuff!
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