Confrontation

"Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body." - Ephesians 4:25

Why, good Christian, is it wrong to confront your brothers and sisters with the truth of God's Word?  While any Christian not around another friend or family who is in an obvious sin will say it isn't, the truth of societal living is when you try to confront someone they will beat you up as a judgmental "Christian" and you are just creating division in their perspective.  My experience is the person who is in sin and refusing to confront themselves will wage a propaganda war against you for trying to confront them about their sin.  You, who are only doing what the Bible says to do, something they claim to believe in; you, the one not living a lie or having brought the sin into everyone's lives, is blamed as the divisor and looked down upon.

Sounds eerily familiar doesn't it?  Jesus confronted everyone with their sin.  The majority took major offense to it.  The holier they thought they were, the more offense they took.  They waged a propaganda war against Him.  They claimed He was a divisor of their "religion".  Ultimately, they murdered Him for simply confronting them with the truth of who they were. 

Why should we expect less?  Jesus said in John 15:18-19, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you."  Why would we expect not be hated by those who are living in the world, even if they claim to be Christian or are Christian?  You do not have the same perspective, therefore it is impossible for either of you to understand the other's viewpoint.

However, there is also a different response.  I have confronted others and they have responded with pain over their recognition of this wrong in their life.  They may not be able to get it out of their life at that time because they are enjoying it too much or just aren't strong enough, but they recognized it and did not hate at all.  With a desire to help a brother through time listening, finding accountability, strong encouragement and just loving them in their trial, when they had losing battles and winning battles, it was possible to minister to them.  The conflict stayed rightfully with them and their sin. 

What is the difference?  The difference is that if a person is confronted by their sin and they turn on you, that person has not confronted the reality of who they really are versus who they think they are.  They are still living in their own authority of what is right and wrong and their own justification and refuse to live under the authority of God and His justification.  Even if they claim to believe in Him.  It is quite the paradox.  The person who is confronted by their sin and they respond with pain, that person is still living under the authority of God and they acknowledge their sin.  Even if they are struggling mightily in it.

“No clever arrangement of rotten eggs will make a good omelet.” – C.S. Lewis

As Paul indicates in his letter to Ephesus, we are to speak to our "Christian" brothers about the sin in their life, no matter how they respond.  If we do not, we are just another rotten egg in their omelet.  Our bowing down to their lack of comfort over their conflict is not going to help them, they will end up with a rotten omelet just as well.  Besides, how can we, who know the answer for life, which is located in His Truth, not offer it to someone who is in need?  Jesus did, and so He should continue to do, through us.