Focus
Experience silence in the midst of your busy day. Take some time to relax into a time to be with God.
Read
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: 2 proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage with the utmost patience in teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching, but, having their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. 5 As for you, be sober in everything, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
Reflect
This is one of those passages that’s almost always used to accuse the “other,” isn’t it? When we read it, we think about those who have a different understanding, opinion, idea, or interpretation than us. “Oh, they just have itching ears. They only gather teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They need to be rebuked and corrected.” After all, that’s something this passage encourages us to do, right? But we need to be careful to inspect how we handle our own itching ears at times, especially when we only surround ourselves with folks who think and believe like us. Chances are, the errors of our ways will remain uncorrected if all we ever do is close ourselves off and only listen to those who think like us and scratch our itch.
Rebuking and correcting isn’t always an easy thing to do. I think it’s effective only if you already have an established relationship with the other person. If that’s not the case, well good luck! The thing about correcting though, is it should always be done moving toward truth, not away from it. I get it, though; a lot of the time, we disagree with each other on what the truth is, and that makes the situation all the more frustrating. However, scripture gives us guidance when faced with this problem.
When looking for God’s truth, follow what is loving, for there is no truth apart from love. 1 John 4, 1 Corinthians 13, and so many of the teachings of Jesus make this clear. If what we hold onto lacks love, we can call it what we want, but do understand it is not truth. Verily I tell you, there is no truth apart from love. May that be something we remember when we stand to rebuke and correct people. Correction should always be in the direction of truth, which will always be the direction of greater, deeper love. When we encourage others to change, may we encourage others to surrender to Jesus’ way of love, which is the way of truth and life everlasting. And may we ourselves surrender, too.
Pray
God of love, who is love, be patient and gentle with us. When we go seeking your truth and correcting others, humble us to see our flaws. Help us to see the harm we cause when we get it wrong. May your Word remind us to seek the loving course of action, for therein lies what is true. May Jesus be our guide, and may we follow his ways. In his name, we pray. Amen.
Go with God!
