Proverbs 28:23 ¶ He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find
more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.
Previous Proverbs have said;
Proverbs 27:5 Open rebuke is better than
secret love.
Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy
are deceitful.
Proverbs 9:8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and
he will love thee.
It is far better for the benefit of a friend to
correct his or her errors than it is to flatter them. Although flattery at
first will be received gratefully, eventually it will be turned to
disappointment when they realize you didn’t do anything to keep them off a self-destructive
path. Although rebuke might not be taken well at the outset, if it is done with
the right intention, to help, to direct, and to guide then in time it will be
viewed gratefully.
No one likes to hear bad things about their
behavior and certainly, if it’s done self-righteously or arrogantly, it won’t
be received well. When advice is based on experience or on a clear
understanding of God’s words, His admonitions, and His instruction, even when
it is rebuke it will help. A true friend is less concerned with someone’s
immediate approval of their comments as they are with that person’s long-term
benefit. Rebuke, if done in love, is far better than flattery, which is merely
a shameless attempt to gain approval.
A preacher’s efforts to skin the hide off of his
congregation to keep them from wallowing in their self-destructive impulses are
far better and will be appreciated more in the long run than one who soft soaps
everyone and tells them how wonderful they are. We’re humans. We’re not
wonderful. Our primary instinct that we inherited from our first ancestors,
Adam and Eve (Y-Chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve for you compromisers
with the current fashion fad of science), is to sin against God. And even if
that did not end up in a burning lake of fire for eternity, sin by itself would
still burst out into flames and destroy us in this life, given enough time.
Tell the truth; rebuke, exhort, plead if you have to, but stir people up to
seek the better way of God’s way.
It is much easier to appease the egos of people sitting in
the pews than it is to convict them of gossip, lying, dissimulation,
fornication in thought, a desire for revenge, covetousness, cruelty, pride, self-righteousness,
and not staying immersed in God’s written word and prayer. But, in the long
run, as lives are changed and train wrecks of lives are avoided people will be
grateful.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth:
thy word is truth.
Proverbs 28:24 ¶ Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and
saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer.
Jesus made a similar statement with regard to
withholding help from your parents for so called religious reasons.
Mark 7:10 For Moses said, Honour thy father
and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11
But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is
to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be
free. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13
Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have
delivered: and many such like things do ye.
(Corban is a gift dedicated to God.) The
person in this Proverb steals from his parents and justifies it with his mouth
as well. This could easily be applied to caring for children as some Christian
cults have had people charged under our secular law for allowing their children
to die from starvation while having dedicated money they could have fed the
child with to their church. This is, of course, wicked and twisted, having no
value for good in God’s sight as the Bible in both Testaments makes clear.
Modern Christian churches will borrow money for
additions to the building in which the church meets or to increase the size of
the parking lot or for some audio-visual aid for the enhancement of services
while there are poor church members, often elderly and infirm, who can’t eat a
proper diet or even pay their heating bills. Since the modern church has thrown
their poor onto the state in defiance of what the mandate was for churches as
exemplified in the New Testament this is similar to the complaints made by God
against self-righteous religious people.
The person who takes money that should help
parents or family, or should be used to help the poor in their midst and
declares that the reason they can’t do what God has told them to do is because
they have dedicated the money to God is associated with “a destroyer.” The
destroyer was the angel of death whom God sent to waste the Egyptian firstborn
while sparing the Hebrews who had the blood sprinkled on their door lintels in
the Passover.
Exodus 12:23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the
Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side
posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to
come in unto your houses to smite you.
The implication here is that you cannot use God
as an excuse to not give proper time and resources to aid your family by saying
that that time and those resources are dedicated to Him and can’t be used for
their need. God will not accept that. Don’t use church as an excuse not to be a
dutiful parent or child, a faithful friend, employee, or an honest broker in
all you do representing Christ in the world. As Bob Jones, Sr. is reported to
have said, “Duties never conflict.” The person who does not take care of his
family has denied the faith and is worse than in an infidel as per 1 Timothy
5:8. The church body that does the same is no New Testament church but a modern
parasite on society that deserves the contempt the unbelieving world lays on
it, no matter how often they street preach at “gay pride rallies” or picket
abortion clinics (sarcasm.)
The point is that God doesn’t want you to use
Him as an excuse not to act as He has defined clearly how a Christian is
supposed to act.
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