“Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” – Proverbs 9:8
In his now-famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. offers a scathing rebuke of his white clergy colleagues, whose inaction caused him much frustration:
“I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: ‘Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother.’ In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.
In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: ‘Those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern.’ And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.”
A gentle, loving rebuke can shake us to great things. Today in prayer, ask the Lord to give you a ready ear and heart and to apply any rebuke to become more like Jesus Christ.
"Often, God asks us to take risks in order to be obedient to Him. This is especially true when He speaks to us about our need to confront others when they are unmistakably caught in the cycle of unrepentant sin." - Ritch Grimes
God’s Word: “These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.” – Titus 2:15
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