Have you ever worn a new outfit with a tag still attached?
Who laughed behind your back, who told you it was there, and who helped you
take it off?
Have you ever been “uncomfortable” speaking the truth
because you were afraid of what the other person might think about your
honesty?
What about the tougher issues we face—are we willing to
be a “best friend” who reminds our friends of God’s moral truths (in kindness
and compassion—when our friends ask) or do we ignore what we know is wrong
(sin) because we don’t want to be the “messenger who is killed,” the faithful
Christian friend who is “rejected?”
Would you be willing to tell a friend that it is not
right to use a company car on personal time; to take “fringe benefits” home
from the office without permission; or spend the night with someone of the
opposite sex before they are married? How often do you speak against revenge, contraception,
premarital sex, cohabitation, homosexuality and abortion?
And how do I react when someone tells me the truth? Do I become
resentful, rebellious and revengeful towards the messenger—thinking to myself—“oh,
now they are judging me?” Or do I accept the truth, take off the tag (change my
way), and become grateful that someone had the courage to tell me of my blunder
(sin). Do I say “thank you” for the honesty of a best friend? Or do I “kill the
messenger?”
"Get behind me, Satan. You are
thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." He summoned the crowd
with his disciples and said to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must
deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the
gospel will save it." Mk 8: 27-35
And what about those who don’t “feel comfortable” enough
to tell us the truth, who gossip behind our backs about the errors they know we
are making? Are they only willing to do or say the truth if it gives them a
reward? Are they like the person who says “they have been saved” but who does
nothing with the faith they profess?
What good is it, my brothers and
sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith
save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the
day, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,"
but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also
faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, "You
have faith and I have works." Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and
I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. James 2:14-18
Are we only willing to be the messenger, the bearer and
doer of difficult truths, God’s truths, when we see something in it for
us?
Ten of the
apostles were killed for following Christ. Many prophets and saints became
martyrs, including some at Columbine High School. And we were saved because
Christ was crucified. They all said YES to being God’s messengers.
So be imitators of God, as
beloved children, and live in
love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial
offering to God for a fragrant aroma. Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even
be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones, no obscenity or silly or
suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving. Eph 5:1-4
Heavenly Father, you gave us your Son so that we might be
saved. Help me to express my gratitude for his suffering by being truthful and
honoring your commandments even when it is difficult and I am persecuted for my
Christian convictions. Thank you for the spiritual gifts of wisdom and fear of
the Lord which allow me to not fear being Your messenger. Amen.
Demonstrate your faith, but don’t kill the messenger—we are
both the friend who needs to say the truth and the friend who needs to hear the
truth.
Blessings,
Charlotte
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