House churches like to talk about the ‘one-anothers’ in the New Testament as describing how we should live and treat each other in this small group environment. Or I really should say in any group environment. The Bible teaches us that we are to love one another, build up one another, encourage one another, serve one another, pray for one another, exhort one another, rebuke, correct, and discipline one another when necessary. There are others but this is where we ended this week in our study of the ‘one-anothers’.
We had a great discussion about disciplining a fellow believer who is either caught in outright sin or has offended another. We talked about the possible responses that could be expected. We agreed that it could run from outright refusal to accept the rebuke, leading up to the discipline Jesus talks about in Mat. 18:15-17, to the offender understanding and agreeing to seek to repair a broken relationship.
There are two things that we can all understand. God looks at the heart of a person. He knows whether the person is being authentic or not. He is the final judge. We can only decide based on the actions of a person. And the goal of rebuking, correction, and discipline is always to restore the relationship if possible.
I have been grieved when I see Christians who claim to understand some of these very basic things refuse to follow the commands of our Lord because of hurt or other reasons. People react to being hurt in different ways. In an ideal world, the person would actually grow in their faith as a result of the pain they experience. This does happen sometimes. When the person does not grow but rather stumbles in their faith, what should we do? How do we minister to these people? How do we minister to those who would rather wallow in their own self-pity than to seek Godly counsel or advice? Perhaps we are not do anything but trust the outcome to God and keep them lifted up in prayer.
We will jump into more of the ‘one-anothers’ next week.
