Rom 16:17
"Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and sinful enticements that oppose the teaching you have learned. Stay away from them,"
Those who cause divisions are those who bring in false doctrine or who are disobedient to the Word. They usually drag others with them and in so doing they turn others from truth against those who speak it. The truth-tellers will be the ones who are despised by the divisive ones and their flying monkeys.
2 Cor 10:1
"Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!"
Ephes 4:1
"Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,"
1 Thess 5:14
"We urge you, brothers, to admonish those who are idle, cheer up those who are discouraged, and help those who are weak. Be patient with everyone."
Titus 2:2
"Urge the older men to be temperate, venerable (serious), sensible, self-controlled, and sound in the faith, in the love, and in the steadfastness and patience [of Christ]."
In our culture now we have been indoctrinated to believe that urging someone to do what is right is rude. This is because the entire culture is full of pride and refuse to be told they are wrong or in need of confession to be changed by God. Many do not confess sin when pressed to do so, in fact they say words like "judgmental" or "mean spirited" to intimidate believers into a silence that they might freely rebel without challenge.
When challenged about something the prideful man does they make an excuse and defer to the "delivery", how you said it rather than addressing the real problem. It has been my experience that those in rebellion always attack the delivery or "the way you said it" and completely ignore the content of the rebuke. In the mind of the rebellious person, this was justification to ignore what was said and make the one who rebuked look like the bad one for the way they said something. Those who are rebellious never address the core issue, deflection is their favored tactic.
Titus 2:15
"Tell [them all] these things. Urge (advise, encourage, warn) and rebuke with full authority. Let no one despise or disregard or think little of you [conduct yourself and your teaching so as to command respect]."
1 Pet 2:11
"Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you."
When we consider the meaning of the word "urge" in the Bible being used 52 times, we see that our culture has lost its moorings in terms of expressing urgency when it comes to sin and salvation.
URGE,
1. To press; to push; to drive; to impel; to apply force to, in almost any manner.
2. To press the mind or will; to press by motives, arguments, persuasion or importunity.
3. To provoke; to exasperate.
4. To follow close; to impel.
5. To labor vehemently; to press with eagerness.
6. To press; as, to urge an argument; to urge a petition; to urge the necessity of a case.
7. To importune; to solicit earnestly. He urged his son to withdraw.
Importune means: "harass (someone) persistently for or to do something."
8. To apply forcibly; as, to urge an ore with intense heat.
When we see the intenseness of the word "importune" we realize that God wanted us to speak with boldness, frankness, and with the intensity of importance when relaying the truth of God.
Our culture has not only discouraged intenseness and urgency by its humanistic psychological rules of softness, but it has also caused people to rebel even more. We ought not to give in to the harassment that comes when people are rebellious and will not listen. Rather we should double down our message in stronger terms and remove ourselves from those who will not listen, AND, that will be most people in our day.
When we understand what Noah went through in preaching for 120 years and no one would listen, we get an idea of what we are in for in these last days.
Here is the key to honoring and obeying God in these rebellious times: Speak the truth as you are led by the Holy Spirit and never allow the reactions of others to shut you down from speaking it. The reactions of others are not on us, but on them alone.
When we are led by the Holy Spirit it will be of no concern whether or not someone likes us. Expect them to accuse you of all kinds of things, expect them to rage when they don't like the message, and expect them to gossip against you for your boldness. We are dealing with a culture of brattiness, anger, and resistance to the truth.
Also, expect to lose friends and family who love their superficial walk based on social acceptance. Expect to be left out of things because of the fear of others that you might speak something about the principles of God that the hearers would not like or that would embarrass the group.
Bold born again believers who live what they speak and speak what they live will embarrass the superficial walkers merely by walking what they believe. Most people want to "say" the things others want to hear but have no commitment to actually walking what they know.
It is no wonder the church is apostate today, those who saw what was wrong all along were intimidated into softness to avoid being accused of being mean. All one has to do is read the Word and see how the apostles and Christ dealt with people and read the responses to know what has happened to our world of modern Christianity.
May the Lord guide us in all we say, let us never consider our own safety, it is a hindrance to boldness.
Acts 28:31
"Proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance."
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