Well, I was reading the epistle of Paul to the Corinthians and came across this verse. (I had a discussion about this once and just found this verse again, and it is awesome). I am saying that you shouyld act as if everything is fine when one of your christian companions is promiscuous, or crooked, or flip with God, or rude to friends, gets drunk, or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t go along with this treating it as acceptable behavior! I’m not responsible for what the outsiders (unbelievers) do, but don’t we have some responsbility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line, and if necessary clean house.
It’s a tough thing to confront someone. But I think that when you do it in love and with an attitude of humility, that God is honored. The whole point of out Christian lives is to glorify Him. But it is hard to show His glory as a unified church when so many of our own are running around being poor reflections of who He is. Thus it falls to each of us to be encouragers of our brothers and sisters. Don’t stab each other in the back with the gossip sword. Go to the person. And to those on the receiving end of someone confronting you (been there a few times!) be humble, be open to the possibility that you might possibly be wrong and God is trying to give you a message through one of His children. Get past the pride issue and see if what they are saying is true. Confrontation can be a good thing because it often leads to restoration and healing. The closer we get to Jesus Christ, the farther the world gets. Fill your mind with Him… with prayer and worship, with His Word. He loves you and wants you to become so intimate with Him. Don’t let anything push you apart from His love. The old song is true… Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.