All to Him I Owe

It shouldn’t surprise us when sinners respond like sinners when we try to help them. Bitter individuals will often respond to rebuke with bitter rants and accusations. Angry people often respond to rebuke with cutting words and accusations that attempt to malign the character of the one who is rebuking. Liars continue to hide behind false statements and deceit when they are confronted with truth. It is especially difficult when the people who are responding this way are people who have served alongside us or are people we consider dear friends. The hurt we feel when that happens must be a small taste of what Christ experienced when his own disciples forsook him in his darkest hour.

There are three dangerous conclusions that we can come to when the person we are trying to help responds to rebuke the wrong way. The first is to conclude that since he didn’t respond spiritually, we must have done something wrong in the way we rebuked him. The second is to conclude that successful ministry is defined by everyone we are working with always responding right. These two conclusions can often become the soil that despair grows in and leads us to the third conclusion–that our ministry is in vain.

What are the truths that properly combat these wrong conclusions? Let me begin with a reminder of the exhortation of Hebrews 12:3: “For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” It is easy to let the situation we are dealing with so consume our thoughts that it brings our minds to a point of mental weariness. Instead of giving weight to the situation, give weight to your Savior. Properly considering Christ is the key to this whole situation. Apart from a proper view of Christ, our minds will become so weighted down that we find ourselves “easily beset” in our race of ministry (Hebrews 12:1).

When we come to the wrong conclusion that since he didn’t respond spiritually, we must have done something wrong in the way we rebuked him, please remember II Corinthians 12:15, where Paul says, “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.”Paul was aware that loving someone else does not insure that that that person will love in return. If we quit loving, because we didn’t receive love in return, we must question the integrity of our love in the first place. Love by its definition is to be willing to give for the good of another with no requirement of love in return. Ephesians 4:15 is a great guide for us concerning a godly rebuke: it must contain truth, with tenderness, over time. If you have given truth with tenderness but didn’t see a good outcome, don’t quit too soon. Don’t forget to give it time. Over time, truth given with tenderness can bring a favorable outcome.

Finally, in answer to the wrong conclusion that successful ministry is defined by everyone we are working with always responding right, we must remember that God defines success by our faithfulness to His calling. I Corinthians 4:2 says that faithfulness is what is required of a steward. We have each been given the responsibility be a good steward of people under our care. Our job is not to produce the fruit, but rather to remain faithful. Faithfulness is at the heart of God’s definition of success. Let’s plant and water, and leave the increase to God. There is nothing harder in the ministry than trying to do in our humanity what God says He will do in his Deity. Don’t try to be an overachiever, doing more than what God has asked us to do. Let’s stay faithful in our stewardship of the ministry God has given us, and leave the increase to God.