Skip to main content

Being brave in love

 

We all know those people who don’t appear to have boundaries, even in the church. Should we do anything about this? Do we say nothing about the Christian sister who inserts herself into every situation? The Christian brother who flirts inappropriately with a single female who doesn’t welcome his attention? Or do we gossip about them to our friends instead?

If these people are unbelievers, we may still have a part to play in supporting and loving them to recognise boundaries, especially if they are negatively affecting ourselves or someone else.

However, in a church situation, it is entirely biblical to approach a brother or sister in Christ and point out the issue with grace (Matthew 18:15-17). I would encourage you that if this person is the opposite gender it may be better for someone of the same gender to do this. Sometimes these people may have backgrounds that have resulted in this behaviour and are unaware of what they are doing. We must always be kind and calm if we intend to bring the issue up. It is far better to do this than gossip with other believers, as this brings us into sin and nothing is solved.

It feels unpleasant but may be necessary and we should not avoid this situation if it is causing this person to sin against God or others.

Be brave, be gracious and God bless you.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time to relax

  Another update on the ongoing saga of the renovations. The new kitchen has now been pushed out until September with no date given. The flooring has now been pushed out until the 19 September and wallpapering sometime after that. We have to wait for the wallpapering before we install the new heat pump and the range-hood. The new lounge suite will take three to four months to be ready in the colour we want. Family are coming for our 140 th church celebrations the second week in October. I’m praying that the heat pump is up! There will literally be no chairs for them to sit on. Hopefully the new kitchen will at least be installed so I can unpack all the boxes that are currently stored in the spare bedrooms otherwise I have no place for them to sleep. I am laughing at the thought of sleeping bags in the lounge around the piano which is currently right in the middle where we moved it to allow painters to get around it. But today, I had a lovely relaxing morning. My friend is stil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Planting Seeds

  Carrying on from last week, I was wondering how I am sowing seeds. I realised that we can all sow seeds everywhere we go. I don’t go out that often actually, I don’t belong to any secular groups but I can still be responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Under his leading I made a determined effort to get to know the names of all the staff at my two favourite cafés that I visit at least weekly. I ask about their families; I support where I can. My friends and I find opportunities to give them all a little gift of chocolate and a card with a verse of scripture written on it. They all know we are Christians. I guess that might be called planting seeds. I converse with the supermarket checkout operators just to have a chance to bring a blessing to them. Some of them now know I am a Christian. I can easily bring God into conversations with unsaved family members, neighbours and strangers I stop and talk to in the park—with the leading of the Holy Spirit. I do not adopt a heavy...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Importance of Unity

  What do you do when you think the Pastor or Senior Leadership Team have got it wrong! A friend was recently talking about a decision made by our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) including the Pastor. We are a small church community, so decisions affect every member there. However, unless directly involved in a programme or initiative the SLT do not know how a decision they make might impact on the on-the-ground day-to-day running of that programme or initiative. It is important to talk to those involved to get their perspective and even in a small church this might not necessarily happen. Having said that, our SLT are generally very good at consulting. So, what do you do if you think it’s an unwise decision? This will of course depend on size of the church, whether the Pastor is a good listener and is prepared to talk about it and I’m sure, many other factors. My perspective is that I do not want to be talking about the Pastor behind his back. I do not want to gossip about him ...
Post a Comment
Read more