via TJC
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
Colossians 3:12-15
As disciples we have many opportunities to both give and receive correction, since we are human and prone to making mistakes. Thankfully, as the passage states above, we have a repository of wisdom from Christ that we can pull from to help each other be better.
As a recent example, I was confronted with my lack of love for a family member in crisis. I responded to the issue in a very technical and factual way but without much love for those involved. This caused my younger brother to call out my response as unhelpful and wrong, even though he acknowledged that I was truthfully right. While annoyed at first because my argument was sound, it was apparent after talking that since it was without compassion, it was not helpful in leading our family toward Christ but belligerent and harmful. We can now work together in peace to guide our family and I am grateful to him for challenging me to be a better disciple and to call others to be better while upholding the truth of our faith.
Daily Battle Order:
Read Colossians again and think about the last time you were called to correct someone. Were you too harsh or were you able to reach into their life with Christ’s Love and lift them up? If you responded in love, write down your method for sharing that love. If you were too harsh, write down an apology to whoever you were correcting and make an effort to give peace a chance through asking forgiveness and meeting them in the midst of their struggle.
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