I was reading through Luke 17 today and came across verse 3 and something struck me when Jesus said,
“So watch yourselves! If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive.” (NLT)
The word ‘believer’ jumped all in my face. I checked a couple other versions and saw that they used ‘brother’ and ‘friend.’ I have read this many times in different versions, but for some reason today I had to stop and ponder it. I realized that Jesus was only talking about rebuking other believers, but not non-believers. This teaching is not something hard for me, but it reminded me of something that really bugs me sometimes.
I find that many times Christians get a bad rap because of other Christians. A while back I was inspired to not refer to myself as a Christian, but as a follower of Jesus because of the connotation that comes with the word, ‘Christian.’ On a regular basis, I witness Christians getting confrontational and will rebuke non-believers for their behavior and actions in an attempt to somehow turn them or convince them to believe in Jesus.
In all of my experience dealing with non-believers, this never seems to get very far except to increase tempers and blood pressures. It also makes the previously established relationship uncomfortable. The non-believer seems to get further away from my belief and it makes it harder for the next person to try to share Jesus with them. A non-believer is going to operate under a different set of rules than a believer will and it makes it very hard to argue with them.
Jesus wants us to rebuke those who already believe for their sins and reconcile with them. Most importantly the verse teaches us to forgive each other.
As for dealing with non-believers in the correct fashion I believe that we should always do our best to model the grace that Jesus extends to those who are far from him.
Related posts:
- The Fair Weather Christian [Picture by fpharpua2002] The Bengals lost their opener to the...
- My Story Part 1 I was inspired a while back by my friend Joseph...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.