For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. Titus 2:11-15
Chapter 2 of Titus describes the qualities of a healthy and functioning church. Paul is exhorting Titus by reminding him that the grace of God through Jesus opens the door for a righteous life. Therefore, we are called to live a pure life and encourage, exhort, and rebuke others to do the same. When we reject a correction because we feel judged, we could be basically despising the messenger. When we feel judged by people, it can abort God’s process to receive truth, and we can even get further away from His will. This may also lead us to seeing others as our enemies.
None of us are perfect, and we will do things that are out of alignment with God’s will. The devil’s goal is to make things look acceptable, so we can believe we have the freedom to do whatever we want. However, the same enemy who whispered in our ear to go ahead and do it, he will now begin to whisper shame and guilt in our lives and tell us that we live hypocritical lives.
God’s method is completely the opposite of the enemy. From the onset, He tells us the truth about the proper boundaries of right and wrong, and He has empowered us through the Holy Spirit to keep His standard in life. If we fall short of His standard, He uses several different means to bring it to our attention, so we get back on track with Him. When we read and study the Word of God, He uses His word as a search light in our hearts. In addition, the Holy Spirit, our counselor, convicts us in our hearts to get it right. If those methods don’t work, God can use people to speak to us about a situation in our lives. His ultimate goal is for us to admit we are wrong, repent, and get it right with Him.
Obviously, not every correction from others is led by the Lord. People can have their own issues, or they can mean well but impose their own preferences on us. However, the moment we feel judged by others, we close off the communication that allows God to show us something regarding an issue at hand. When we feel judged, we don’t even give it a chance to find out if there is any truth in what was stated that we requires our attention.
If we are the ones who bring the correction, we have to be careful to purify our own hearts from judgment, jealousy, and legalism. We need to ascertain whether the issue we are about to discuss is our preference or a scriptural mandate. Furthermore, the scriptural mandates can be applied differently by different people, and one has to be careful not to expect a cookie-cutter application of scripture. For example, the love and respect between a husband and wife can look very different from one couple to another. While love and respect should be evident in a relationship, one cannot impose their own experience or preference on another couple.
The more we are open to God and to His people, it gives us the opportunity not to be deceived by the enemy or by our own desires. When we are able to discern between the voice of truth versus man’s opinion, we can humbly receive correction and let go of other things that do not apply to us.
