Have you ever been in a group of people who defended someone because they were corrected?
I have experienced this, even in Christian gatherings. One person will say something unbiblical or rude, everyone else agrees with them and another person will say, "that is not biblical" or "that was rude" and the entire rest of the room defends the unbiblical rude person in an angry manner.
Godly people who love the Lord humbly take a correction. They go to prayer to see if the correction matched the word of God and make changes in their thoughts to obey God if the correction was Biblical.
The rebellious heart rejects correction, raging in anger they attempt to intimidate the person who cared enough to admonish them. If we love someone the best thing we can do is tell the truth, but the world sees this as a personal attack, the very reason most people are offended by a rebuke.
We are not counted as causing trouble because someone else became angry at our correction. It is the angry person who is causing division and trouble.
Because of the lie propagated by psychology that; "hurting people hurt people", many people now, in the culture and in the church coddle and massage the one who sins while beating up the truth-teller who desires to obey God.
Telling the truth is the new hate speech in the culture as a whole. Most people are followers wanting to be accepted by society. Because cultural acceptance is more important than God is, most will defend the ideas of the world they hear every day rather than evaluate them according to the Bible.
Sadly most people who say they believe in the Bible does not read or know it. Even those who have attended Bible colleges repeat the psychological nonsense they were taught in those universities.
Even if the teachers in those institutions claim they do not use psychology they really do because all their instructions, and the way they think is based on their education influenced by all the government school education they have received during the first 12 years of their schooling. The way the teachers relate to the children and their instruction on how to treat people is based on psychology, not the Bible. In fact, when someone brings up the Bible using it to find the truth, they are mocked and dismissed by the world and by Christians in the church.
"More is caught than taught" is an old saying that shows how the teachers handle the children has more influence than her words. Teachers are trained to resist making a child feel bad by correcting them. Teachers use psychology rather than the Bible. They do not train the children in the ways of the Lord but rather in the ways of the world.
Our culture as a whole is psychologically dominated, it drives how everyone operates. And, often it is against God's Word. Even more disturbing is that the Christian church is fully entrenched in this worldly thinking. It is no wonder our country is sliding down the slippery slope of total depravity. We are headed toward destruction thinking we are alright because we do what we want all the time.
Romans 12:2
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
1 John 2:15-17
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."
James 4:4
"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
Satan knows how to make error look attractive while its effect is destruction.
2 Timothy 4:2-5
"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."
Colossians 2:8
"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."
Knowing God's Word and being led by the Holy Spirit is our encouragement to the believer. We do not have to wonder if we did or said the right thing, we will be confident. The world will not be able to intimidate us into silence when it comes to the truth. Of course, once we find out someone is a rager and resistant we can remove ourselves to avoid them, but it will not keep us from telling the truth to another person later.
Be full of joy no matter how ugly others act, they cannot remove our joy unless we care more about how others think of us than we do about what God thinks.
