Loving Discipline
There are many people who believe that love always lets the other person do whatever they want to do. They want to make love a reason to never correct another person, but to just be happy and enjoy life all of the time. That is not the essence of real love. Love is choosing to do what is best for the other person unselfishly. It is thinking about his or her well being and not your own. It is giving of yourself to help them in any way possible.
When you put all of that together, you realize there are some situations which call for loving discipline. The reason is that sin is harmful. Therefore, if someone we know is involved in obvious sin, the loving thing for us to do is to help them see the damage they are doing. We will try to get them to repent of that sin and follow the Lord's way. That is looking out for their well being. If we do not deal with the sin, we really don't love them completely.
Think of what Christ did for us. He came to die on the Cross and rise again, so our sins could be forgiven. Who did the Father send ahead of Him? John, the Baptist, preceded Jesus preaching repentance and baptizing those who were willing to turn from their sins. What was Jesus' first message? Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. All of this was done out of love for mankind. It involved loving discipline, and our love should involve the same thing.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 49-51.
When you put all of that together, you realize there are some situations which call for loving discipline. The reason is that sin is harmful. Therefore, if someone we know is involved in obvious sin, the loving thing for us to do is to help them see the damage they are doing. We will try to get them to repent of that sin and follow the Lord's way. That is looking out for their well being. If we do not deal with the sin, we really don't love them completely.
Think of what Christ did for us. He came to die on the Cross and rise again, so our sins could be forgiven. Who did the Father send ahead of Him? John, the Baptist, preceded Jesus preaching repentance and baptizing those who were willing to turn from their sins. What was Jesus' first message? Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. All of this was done out of love for mankind. It involved loving discipline, and our love should involve the same thing.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 49-51.