Punish All Disobedience

Before we finish up for the week with the theme of 2 Corinthians 10: 1-6 take a good look at
verse 6: being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. I took the Greek words and paraphrased this verse so I can understand it better, being prepared to protect or defend against disobedience when your obedience is in abundance. Does this mean what I think it does? Are we literally to be on the offensive against disobedience? YEP!!!!!!!!

Please read Matthew 18:10 - 20 to see what Jesus says about dealing with disobedience before you read my comments.

So here are just some personal thoughts about this subject of waging war against disobedience:

• Before we dare attack someone elses disobedience, we must be overflowing with our own obedience.
• Obedience to Christ makes us more like Christ. The closer we get to Him, the more sin will literally make us sick and bring us to the necessity of coming against it.
• A relationship is necessary to confront someone of their sins for the purpose of restoring them in a relationship with Christ.
• We come against disobedience:
  

1. out of love - if we cannot separate the sin from the sinner, loving the man while hating the sin like Christ - well, we better get off of our street corners and shut our mouths!
   
2. to rescue a brother from sin that will bring destruction to their lives
   
3. to protect the purity of the church
   
4. to defend against the unity of the church.

I hope you hear my heart here. I do not condone attacking people (by the way - neither did Jesus), but it is our job to come against disobedience. Would I be showing love to my children if I never spent time showing them their disobedience, pointing out the consequences of their actions, helping them develop a plan to stay in obedience? How about if I just looked the other way when they were disobedient because I did not want to get personally involved or the fear of them not liking me anymore? Of course not, I would be telling them that I do not care about them!

So what is the leadership of most churches telling their people when they do not confront sin? Hang on here! What do most deacon's do in the church? They think it is their God given responsibility to run the church. Where is that in Scripture? They are to be servants!!! You will not be a servant unless you are obedient to God (overflowing with obedience). Does that describe most deacon bodies? Maybe churches should be less concerned with rather a deacon is divorced and focus on if he is obedient.

What about pastors and staff? When is the last time an ordained minister sat in the home of a person and confronted them of sin. I know it is not popular, people may not like you, they may talk about you, they may not add to your attendance or give to your account - but how can a pastor continue to let people live in sin and look the other way? That is telling people that we do not care about you - we just care that you come to our programs, give to our building fund, and laugh at jokes that are told from the pulpit!

Now some of you are saying that no one does it like that anymore. Not so true, I have had to do this a couple of time. I did not confront sin because I hated the person, but because I loved them and following Scripture could see their actions were leading to destruction. For some there was restoration, others chose to go their own way. Now was I perfect, nope and I still am not. Was I obedient - yep. Did some leave the church because of it, yep. But I will take you to the family that is living in obedience, joy, and service because they turned from their sin!

If the church were to actually attack sin in it's own midst, a revival would take place. But we will not because too many are lacking in their own obedience. What about you? Are you overflowing with obedience, or are you one that needs to be confronted?

Next week we will continue this thought but focus on our weapons for the battle. Have a great weekend, full of obedience.