Page 21 - Demo

Parents, a major part of your job is to teach your children. Can you, over the course of their entire childhood, only teach without correction? No, it just doesn't work that way. You don't want to nag or correct out of anger. You want to always be motivated by love. But a parent abdicates responsibility if he or she never corrects, never warns or never admonishes. I think parents, more than anybody else, know that wouldn't work. Yet, we parents also know that admonishing and re-directing of our children stems out of our great love for them. That's the way it is to be among Christians.The apostle Paul practiced what he preached, didn't he? If you've read your New Testament at all, you know that Paul was not afraid to confront anybody, anywhere and at any time about sin in their lives. In Galatians 2:11, he confronted the apostle Peter. I had to confront him because he did the wrong thing. Acts 20:31, Paul admonished elders in the church. But I love the way that verse concludes when he says to those elders, \stopped warning\the compassion and the love? Paul knew that at times admonishment was the right thing to do, but there's a right way to do it. A.Who is responsible for being an admonisher?Whose ministry is it? First, it is the responsibility of leaders of the body. \brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord (look at this) and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.\In those two verses Paul recognizes the great difficulty of shepherding a church. He knows that those men who are going to serve as elders are going to at times need to redirect the thinking of some of the members who are in error. He charges us to supportthose men whose task it is to do so. Leaders cannot lead a church if they turn their head to sin because it will destroy their credibility. But it's also true that leaders can't lead if they are not supported by and respected by the body when they do admonish. Likewise, members will not be able to support leaders if they are not informed about what the leaders are attempting to correct or accomplish. If a church has leaders who care enough to confront carefully and lovingly, they should be held in the highest esteem by the members of that body.B.Whose responsibility is it to admonish?Yes, the leaders, but also the members of the body; \is addressing it to the entire church at Thessalonica, \who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.\Thessalonians 5:14) Again, that word, warn, is the Greek word for admonish. So Paul points to a reciprocal, brotherly ministry of Christians administering mutual and caring oversight. He said, \Why? Because we are members of one another. If you're going to obey the \passages, you must understand what it means to be %u201cmembers of one another.%u201d We're not members of an organization. We're members of an organism. We're members of a body, and we're connected to one another.