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Not To Shame You

vinc

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Not To Shame You

"I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I remind you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers" (1 Corinthians 4:14, 15).

Quite often Paul had to write somewhat boldly to the various churches (Romans 15:15). Since people are quite used to being reproved - put in their proper place - and shamed, he considered it necessary to remind them that he did not write to shame them. An impatient teacher can make fools of his pupils and put them to shame. But a father would never treat his children like that. Paul was such a father. In 2 Corinthians 2, he bares his father-heart more fully and writes, "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved....". Not to shame them. Not to grieve them. Not to push them into a corner. Only to help and to bless them.

The Lord wrote a letter to the messenger of the church at Laodicea (who was in such a pitiful state), and counselled him to clothe himself in white garments so that the "shame of his nakedness be not revealed" (Revelations 3:18). Jesus was not interested in revealing the shame of that leader's nakedness to others. Instead, the leader received loving words of advice and exhortation and a promise of blessed fellowship with the Lord if he repented. Not to put him to shame. Not to grieve him. Only to help him to life.

Putting others to shame, "triumphing" over them, is a nasty and evil human tendency. This tendency, to a greater or even smaller and "finer" degree, is so common, that Paul thought it necessary to mention to the Corinthians that he did not write to them in order to shame them, even though he had to point out several things to them that were shameful (1 Corinthians 6:5, 15:34). His purpose was that they "might know the love which he had so abundantly for them".

- Arild Tombre
 

heartnsoul

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Great post Vinc!! :thumbsup: So true. As humans, we sometimes don't realize that we feed our own egos by diminishing other's credibility in efforts to increase our own self worth/importance. How damaging that can be to our own (as well as other's) spiritual growth and walk. May spiritual maturity eventually lead us all to a humble heart that lives daily to magnify Christ's light instead of our own. May the words that our lips speak be of encouragement instead of shame to others. God bless. :angel:
 
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brotherjim

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And yet, the more Paul Loved, the less he was Loved, and, by implication, less by those he Loved more and more.

Let us also not ignore the other side of the coin.

Was Jesus shaming anyone when He said, "O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"? Or how about when He said, ". . . hypocrites, you are like whitewashed tombs . . . full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness." Was Jesus Loving when He said, ". . . you are of your father the devil"?

Was Paul shaming anyone when he openly rebuked the Apostles of the Jerusalem Council, because of the Apostles' prejudices against Gentile believers and their attempts to put them under Old Cov. Law?

Of course; of course.

While the thread starter was excellent, it only reveals half the story, and is sparse on details. Paul was writing to his own children that he travailed in labor pains until Christ was more fully formed in them. He had a deep intimacy and long history with those to whom he was writing.

But there were many who were enemies to Paul, namely the mere "ten thousand instructors of Christ" who undermined his apostolic authority and who perverted the Gospel by watering it down and making it palatable to the masses. Such "Christians" were, in effect, enemies to the Cross of Christ Jesus itself and Himself, and were worthy of not only shame, but in the end, destruction. God knew it; Paul knew it.

So let us be gentle with those to whom the Holy Ghost has us be gentle, and rebuking those who the Holy Ghost has us rebuke, and bring shame upon those who the Holy Ghost ordained even that. In all things, in whatever way, we are not called to some all-inclusive dead black and white letter of the Law, but are commanded to obey the Spirit moment-by-moment in whatever He has us to obey, even to the point of death if need be (for we should already be dead, the only thing remaining being Christ in us).

It was no trite request for Paul to ask prayers for boldness, as it's not an easy thing to tell someone they are headed for hell unless they repent, especially when the audience believes they are already God's eternal children.
brotherjim

 
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