01/01/2021 – Day 187 – Proverbs 8 – 9// 9:8 – “… Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.”
9:8 – I have conveyed to fellow Christian warriors that: “If you don’t have a really close brother in Christ that will rebuke you , then pray for one..” Interestingly, the front end of this verse says: “Do not correct a scoffer , lest he hate you.” Or back in verse 7: “He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself” What’s up here?
As I have mentioned before, one of the favorite recited verses, even for future Christians is: “Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, let you be judged”. As our Proverbs verse attests, that rings God’s Truth for non-believers. Let’s look at what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5:12; “For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore, ‘Put away from yourselves the evil person.’ So, this is applying the principal of “let scripture testify to scripture” so that single verses are not taken totally out of context. If a church going christian gives you Matthew 7:1 in response to a rebuke in love, point out to the them our charge as Christians in 1 Corinthians 5:12.
I once again recall the take away from one of my all time Christian conference presentations: “Conflict is sine qua non to growth in our faith walk within the body of Christ. (Sine qua non from Latin = “prerequisite”. Or if you don’t have conflict, you don’t grow!)