What I’ve done is set a rule that I will quit working for my clients at six or seven at night and I won’t work from them on weekends. That leaves evenings and weekends open for family, friends, and non-client writers asking for help. If I didn’t have that rule, I could conceivably be working nonstop for my clients, because there is always work to do–I’m never caught up with nothing left to be done.

But, to answer your question–I think we should always be as open-handed as we can be. God is open-handed with us–he’s so hugely generous. And if we are helping others in their ministry we are furthering the kingdom and looking out not only for our own interests, but for the interests of others. Frankly, I sometimes am bothered by the “stewardship” argument, because I’ve seen it used, at times, as an excuse to be selfish. But I try to remember that we all tend to tip towards one error or an other. We have a hard time walking the knife’s edge of perfect belief and practice. I lean too far toward the “flower-power, cruise along and take what God gives you” side of things so I try not to judge too harshly my “planning ten years into the future and refusing to bend” brothers.

I agree with you and Kristine. The influence of the occult and Eastern mysticism is very much in evidence, even in people in my church, and my denomination has long been one of the most conservative, Bible-believing churches around.

Once we ease up on teaching the Bible, consistently and systematically, and on insisting that Christians ought to read and memorize the Bible, the culture creeps in.

Standing with your back to the sea and an enemy bearing down on you is never a comfortable place to be, but God does put us in those places, for his own glory.

I often think of Paul and Silas singing in prison, too. When I end up in any kind of prison, I’m immediately trying to ascertain why. I’m sifting back through the days and decisions and trying to figure out if I had heard wrong, or if I’d been too slow to obey, or if I’d outright disobeyed.

Usually I don’t come up with clear answers. Usually I have to admit that my motives weren’t pure or that I wasn’t really looking at God as closely as I should have. But none of that matters for long. I can’t even judge my own heart very well. I think God wants us to press on. I have tried to learn to be more like Paul, who sang praises to God and witnessed to his cellmates when he landed in jail, and didn’t waste a lot of time weeping over his circumstances or second-guessing himself.

I’d not heard of your upheaval, but I’m glad to hear your testimony in this post and to be encouraged to sit tight without murmuring and complaining and fear. For God who hath delivered, doth deliver, and will yet deliver.

You each gave me a lot more to think through. I totally agree that all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, correction, etc. Emphasis on scripture, though. Is it necessary for us to point it out to each other? Is it more effective to let scripture speak for itself? Maybe that answer relies, in part, on the personality and relationship at hand.

Maybe the Colossians reference requires us to admonish and teach each other…which effectively requires us to receive teaching and correction from each other. (I tend to think we could spend a lifetime just trying to live out the first 15 verses of that chapter.) A different translation, though, says, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

So teaching and admonishing should be done through song? Now THAT would be tough to take offense at, wouldn’t it?! Just imagine. Henceforth, I would like to require ALL my earthly correction be delivered in four-part harmony. Ha!

Rebecca – I’m also in complete agreement with those in authority having the responsibility to correct. This post was more about how we, as “peers” of each other, handle it when a wrong is done by a fellow believer and it affects us personally. I’m still noodling over the Paul reference to handing someone over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit is saved. You’ve got me runnin’ to my reference books and chattin’ with God – both fantastic things to have motivated, so thanks!!

Exactly. His outcome is always best. Often we have to take that on faith because we can't see it here and now.

Great post.

Here’s why:

Colossians 3:16 says: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Teaching and admonishing are both corrective.

As we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly as we teach and admonish one another, it is clear that the word is the corrective agent. So your point about God correcting you is a good one. He corrects you by his word.

This fits with 2 Timothy 3:16 & 17 which says: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (I take that to mean all scripture, even the scripture that God wrote through tired apostles.)

If we are not elder/under-shepherds, we don’t have a special calling to exercise authority over other sheep, but we are all commanded to submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21), which means, at the least, that we are to yield to the authority of scripture, when our brother presents it to us.

This is why brothers are so important. One time I’m weak and blind to my sin and I need someone to love me enough to show me from scripture that I’m sinning. The next week I am strong and my brother is weak. We are all sinners and we all have blind spots that we need others to point out.

To effectively bring someone to repentance, I think I must say more than, “I think you were wrong when you lashed out at me in anger. It hurt.” It doesn’t matter what I think. I must show a person from scripture his sin if I want him to change for the right reasons. If he changes just to stop my hurt feelings, the change won’t last. He needs his heart changed as he hears from God’s word.

So we should first search our own hearts, and ask God to expose in us any sin on our part, and then we should go to our brother and ask him to forgive us if we have sinned. After that, if we still need to correct a sinning brother, we need to use the word of God and say something like, “You sinned when you lashed out at me in anger, because God says in the book of James that we are to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. I love you, and I forgive you for hurting me, and I’m not telling you this because I’m injured, but because I want you to be happy and healthy and in obedient communion with God.”

That doesn’t put the one who is doing the correcting in an authoritative position. It puts the Bible in the authoritative position and it puts the one delivering the message in the position of servant.

Most people don’t correct us this way, and we most often don’t correct others this way, but it is what we shoot for. Because in the end, Cain was wrong: We are all our brothers’ keepers. It’s how God set up the church.