“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.” Hebrews 12:5b
To be rebuked for sin, or chastened for it, or both, is the matter of God loving His children, Hebrews 12:6. This is understood in the physical parent-child relationship, Hebrews 12:9.
As children grow up, they are endeared to parents for training and discipline that developed right thinking and conduct. As God’s children mature spiritually, they, too, appreciate this process God uses for their spiritual success, Hebrews 12:10-11.
God uses His local New Testament Church ministry to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, through the uncompromising preaching of all scripture as the means for reproving and correcting, 2 Timothy 3:16-4:2.
Carnal thinking repudiates the use of sound doctrine for either the message or the method of the ministry, since it disagrees with the preferences of man’s carnal nature, 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
When and where the objective is to fight the good fight of faith, rather than be overcome by sin and Satan, then God’s Word must be sounded out that sin might appear sin…that sin by the commandment of God might become exceeding sinful, Romans 7:13.
Sin never reveals itself to be sin, but requires the exposing power of God’s Word to unmask it, Hebrews 3:13, lest we be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. To not expose sin, results in man’s willful darkening of his understanding regarding sin. Should sin not be exposed as being offensive to, and at enmity with God, man will then become accustomed to viewing sin as being an acceptable way of life.
The awful result of sin not being reproved unto appearing sinful, is that it obscures God from being recognized by the sinner. It took the message from Nathan the prophet (2 Samuel 12) to jar King David’s awareness of his sin against God. This conviction led him unto repentance and reconciliation with God.
Beware of the acceptance of sin: “…and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.” James 1:15b-16
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