1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
2 Timothy 4:1-2When you help others around you to grow, it is not only them who benefits from it but mostly you! So let us encourage one another - was what i posted on twitter 2 seconds ago.
It might be weird to think this way.. but somehow i think the concept that they use in multilevel marketing is kind of similar to the Body of Christ. I went to one of their seminar once and it's almost like listening to a preacher - only the aim of the preaching is how to do MLM - not how to glorify God and to be a citizen of the Kingdom.
I still remember that one of the session was to encourage the senior in the MLM scheme to help the newbie. One of the senior member gave his "testimony" about how he often helps those who are new in getting new customers. By the end of the testimony he said - that all the time that he spent helping the newcomer is never wasted - it is proven by the amount of money that he got in the bank the next month (that is when they get their comission).
The same with the body of Christ. When we do what Paul exhorts to correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction others are not the ones who benefits from it - but ourselves. Not only do they grow - but we grow together with them. Because they may prove to be better than you at some things - and they can help you grow in that area. This is what it means by iron sharpening iron. We sharpen one another.
But often, we get scared at rebuking and correcting and encouraging one another - because we think that we might be seen as prideful/know-it-all/pharisee. But - if we have the right understanding of why Paul wrote such a command - and the context that he wrote it and why, we will never think of this command this way. It is a command to love - not to boast or to extort us.
I'm just soooo amazed at how gracious God is - even in the hardest and most painful thing that He commanded us to do - it is given because He so loves us!! It's just too much and too amazing to comprehend!!
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