Gift of Rebuke

I want to look at a pretty familiar story today. John 8:3-11 says:

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. 

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Now everyone loves the first part of the passage, that this women is saved from condemnation. Yet people rarely looks at the very last line.

We always say we're trying to be more loving, but I wonder what our love is really made of? C.S. Lewis writes in The problem of Pain:

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal."

And that's exactly the sort of love Jesus has always displayed; yes, He didn't come to condemn, but he always asked for repentance, for transformation. That is the love of God. Can you imagine if he gave us salvation but left us just as we are? (I don't even want to imagine how miserable I'd be.) He does not intend to leave us be; that we are to become noble vessels, prepared to do any good work.

Did you know, that as leaders of God's Kingdom, we have a responsibility to help people transform; to make disciples of all nations, to see to it that people are becoming more and more like Christ? But how often do we miss the chance to help someone be more like Jesus? All for the sake of being "nice"; that we get trampled on, and put up with all sorts of ungratefulness and obnoxious behavior, because we're supposed to be "loving". We stand idly by, while these people continue untransformed, as if we're satisfied with them keeping their iniquities, and since they don't care, neither do we.

The world is already full of nice people, our testimony isn't just more "nice"; the Holy Spirit within us is the counselor of truth. What the world needs is truth, told in love. Ephesians 4:15 says:

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

When was the last time you really spoke truth boldly into someone's life? Or was it watered-down, sugar coated, chock full of dodgy sentiments but barely getting to the point, rarely getting to the Word of God? We pride ourselves in being a community that is open and authentic. Well, are we authentic with the truth?

When I see my guys, I see their weaknesses just as much as their strengths, and I speak into that; boldly, sometimes harshly, but they know that of me. They know my intent and my love. Ultimately when I meet brothers and sisters, I see their need for more of Jesus, and I speak; that I'm committed to loving them just as they are, but I speak because I know who God intended them to be, and I am not satisfied to leave them just as they are. Are you?