Are Christians supposed to correct the sins of others?

[Michie]

By Fr. Victor Feltes


Back in your school days, did you ever have a teacher whom you really liked teaching you a subject you would not have otherwise cared about? The winsome way your teacher presented the material, and your personal respect and affection for her or him, motivated you to learn. Even back then, you recognized that your best teachers were not there to control or manipulate you, to make you obey just so they could collect a paycheck. You knew they wanted to give to you a good gift: knowledge, for the improvement of your life. You behaved better in their classrooms and gave your best effort in their classes because you knew they cared about you and willed your good. This common experience of excellent teachers helping students absorb lessons they would have otherwise rejected contains lessons for how we ought to fraternally correct one another.

But are Christians supposed to correct the sins of others? You may recall last week’s reading from St. Luke’s Gospel where Jesus said: “Stop judging and you will not be judged.” From this one might conclude we should never correct anybody; for how could we ever correct anyone without judging something they did as wrong? (Among some people today, “Don’t judge” is the only fragment of the Gospels they ever quote.) Yet, Jesus declares in a later chapter of this very same Gospel of Luke: “If your brother sins, rebuke him…” What is going going on here?

Continued below.
On Fraternal Correction

 

[truthisfreedom2019]

We are not to judge people but are to know the difference between right and wrong. Jesus says that all that lives in sin will not inherit eternal life. Our job is to live right and encourage others to live right too. We are to leave the judging to God. I have heard a lot of judging in my past. We may think that someone will never get the oil for their lamp but only God knows their future. So if one says another is lost or saved, we are judging. That is God's job.