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When we speak of the love of God we are not referring to a wishy-washy, unconfrontive force that refuses to deal with anything. The love of God deals with problems. The Apostle Paul writes: Love: ...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor 13:7). Notice that Paul didn’t say that love ignores all things! The love of God confronts problem areas in our lives and brings about a positive change. Many Christians meditate upon the scriptures which talk about peace, joy, prosperity and eternal life but they completely ignore the scriptures that bring corrections to our bad-attitudes and selfish desires. There are thousands of New Testament scriptures that warn us about the penalties of continued sin and yet we skip over them like they are not even there. Why do most Christians embrace the “bless me” verses and skip over the “correct me” verses? It’s because flesh always likes to feel good. It loves to be pampered and it hates the corrections of God’s Word. The Bible is filled with scriptures which are designed by God to bring adjustments to our attitudes and life-style. The Apostle Paul said that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction....” (2 Tim 3:16)

 

Corrections Come Because of God’s Love

God’s corrections are administered because of His great love for us. He confronts problem areas of our lives because He doesn’t want us to be destroyed with the world. If your child was about to walk onto a busy freeway, you wouldn’t just ignore him or act unconcerned would you? Of coarse not. You would shout “Billy!” at the top of your lungs and arise to quickly intervene. God is the same way towards His children when they start playing around with sin. God's great love compels Him to confront the situation and bring about a change of direction.

Strong confrontive preaching is the love of God in action. The truth doesn’t always make us feel good, but it causes us to grow and change into the likeness of Christ. It makes us into a spotless bride and preserves us for the return of our King. When we embrace the truth and mix it with the blood of Jesus into our everyday life-style, it enables us to approach the Judgment seat of Christ with great confidence. That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote to his young disciple Timothy saying: “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth...” (2 Tim 4:1-4)

The Body of Christ is facing a great dilemma today. Many ministers have forsaken the rightly-divided Word of truth and have begun to only preach things that make people feel good. They attach “pillows” to their “swords” in an attempt to blunt the sharp edge of God’s Word. They soften or ignore certain scriptures in order to make the Bible sound more “loving.” In reality, they are tickling men’s ears because they are afraid of offending someone or loosing their support. This is a big problem in American churches. The love of God is being redefined as a soft, non-confrontational force. Many ministers are implying: “If it doesn’t make you feel good, then it is not from God.” This is a bold-faced lie straight from the pit of Hell.

 

True Exhortations

Ministers who walk in true love of God are bold enough to confront you with the truth. They will not just edify and comfort (1 Cor 14:22), they will also convince, rebuke and exhort (2 Tim 4 :2). I used to think that the word exhort meant to excite, make happy or stir-up. It doesn't. In the Bible, the word exhortation is always used in conjunction with a correction, warning, admonishment, or rebuke. It is an earnest prodding to: partake or continue in upright conduct. In several scriptures it is accompanied by a command to repent. (See: Lk 3:2-18; Acts 2:36-40; 14:22; 15:32; 1 Thess 2:11-12; 4:1-12; 5:5-14; 2 Thess 3:10-12; 2 Tim 4: 2-4; Titus 1:9; 2:15; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:25-27; 1 Pet 5:1-3; Jude 1:3-4) Ministers who walk in the true love of God will warn you about the consequences of sin and the dangers of eternal judgment. They will be concerned enough about the eternal state of your soul to bring scriptural corrections and adjustments to your life-style and attitude. They will boldly exhort you to live holy and they will not apologize for doing it.

 

Divine Corrections

The love of God doesn’t always come in the form of a “pat on the back.” It often comes in the form of a “paddle on the bottom.” That’s why the writer of Hebrews writes:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb 12:5 -11)

 

No Sheep-Beating Allowed

Now when I speak about the corrections and confrontations of God’s love, I want to make it very clear that I am not referring to the “sheep-beating” that goes on in some churches today. There are those who preach God’s Word in the letter of the law and “bludgeon” people to death with religious legalism. They take out their frustrations on the sheep and vent their irritations in the name of “confrontation.” This is not the true love of God — this is spiritual abuse. God’s corrections come because He loves us, not because He is irritated with us. His corrections come because He wants us to be blessed and not cursed. He wants us to be “saved” and not destroyed. God does not correct us with demons, fear, sickness, poverty or evil circumstances either. These are attacks of the enemy designed to keep us from obeying God's Word. God’s corrections come to us by His Spirit, through His anointed ministers and in accordance with His Word. They are administered in order to bring about profit and spiritual productivity.

 

The Gospel is Good News Because of Bad News

The gospel is God confronting the earth with His love. It is good news because of bad news. The bad news is that all of mankind has fallen short of the glory of God. Creation is no longer perfect and has been marked out by God for destruction. It's all in the Bible. As beautiful as the mountains, streams, forests, animals and people are, they are still in a fallen state and they don't meet with the standards of a perfect God. God has determined to renovate all of His creation by fire. He will one day replace it with a new heaven and a new earth. Everything that is imperfect will melt with fervent heat (See: 2 Pet 3:10-14). Creation is like a rickety old house with a big CONDEMNED sign nailed to the front of it. It was marked out for destruction long-ago. It is like a sinking ship with only one life-raft — JESUS. He came to rescue anyone who wants to stay alive. The problem is that very few today believe that this ship is even sinking! The scriptures are clear, Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world — it was condemned already. He came to rescue those who would hear the gospel, believe it and repent.

It's the bad news that makes the good news of the gospel so good! Those who live their life for Christ are saved from the condemnation that is hovering over the world. They are saved from an eternity in the lake of fire. They will never experience the terror of an eternity separated from Jesus. That's good news!

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

(John 3:17-18)

 

The Watered-Down Gospel

The problem with the watered-down version of the gospel that is being preached today is that it never tells you what you are "saved" from. It mainly focuses on the side-benefits of salvation in order to draw people through fleshly enticements. Yes, God wants us to be prosperous, healthy and successful — Hallelujah for that! — but that should never be our motive for receiving salvation. These are temporal issues not eternal issues. Our reason for receiving salvation should be to make sure that our names are written in the book of life. Salvation is the only way to spend eternity with Jesus — our loving Creator. We are to receive salvation because God commands us to. It is the only way off of this sinking ship. It is the only way to avoid an eternity in the lake of fire. That’s the Bible version of the gospel. According to the Bible, we need to receive our salvation based on eternal issues first — then we can move on to learn about all the temporal blessings that are available to us through Jesus' sacrifice at Calvary. God loves us so much that He sent His Son to pay the price for our sins so we can spend eternity with Him. He commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel so they can confidently approach His throne of grace.

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"Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, "because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

(Acts 17:30 -31)

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Notice that Paul doesn’t say: "God suggests that you give His way a try!" or: "Come to Jesus and He will give you everything you have ever wanted!" This is not the true gospel of Jesus. It has no keeping power. If people receive Jesus on the basis of receiving temporary blessings only, they will fall away at the first sign of difficulty. The true gospel is not a suggestion — it is a confrontational command. It warns of the coming judgment and gives only one way of escape — JESUS CHRIST. It is focused more on eternal issues than temporal issues. When someone has received their salvation based on eternal issues it makes their salvation much more significant. They become even more excited when they later find out about all the side-benefits that come along with their salvation package. The scriptures are clear — God is definitely concerned about our health. He does want to see us prosper and be successful in everything we do for Him. He even wants to bless us with the desires of our hearts, but we must never lose our focus. His main priority is the eternal condition of our souls. Let’s line our priorities up with His. Let’s put first things first. Let’s preach the gospel the way Jesus intended it to be preached. Let’s stop using the temporal benefits of the gospel to make converts and start using eternal truths of the gospel to make disciples. If we will do these things we will gain a better understanding of God’s love and we will begin to bear fruit that remains.

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Five-Fold Corrections

The confrontations of God’s love are administered to the Body of Christ by the Spirit-led preaching and teaching of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers. The five-fold ministry is the extension of God’s hand to the Church. Corrections and adjustments are a necessary for the Church to come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. They are essential if we are to become a bride without spot or wrinkle. When a five-fold minister brings a correction by the Spirit’s direction, he is doing it on behalf of the Lord Jesus Himself. Jesus says:

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"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent."

(Rev 3:19)

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The corrections of God are not to be despised. They are the sign of His great love for us. The Lord’s corrections are life to those who embrace them and they are death to those who ignore them. We are warned repeatedly not treat God’s corrections lightly.

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Where Are The Spiritual Fathers?

Corrections are the responsibility of loving fathers. In 1 Cor 4:14, the Apostle Paul writes: "For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers..." (1 Cor 4:15)There are ten-thousand "instructors" in the Church who could care less if you succeed or fail. Where are the fathers who sincerely care about the condition of your soul? Where are the fathers who bring the disciplines and corrections needed to strengthen, mature and stabilize the children of God? Where are the fathers who smash the kingdom of darkness into pieces and lead the younger into battle? Where are the fathers who are kind and compassionate and want to see you become all that you are called to be in Christ? Where are the fathers who remain touchable in order to impart wisdom to the next generation? Where are the fathers who are full of strength and goodness and know how to reproduce after their own kind? Where are they? God is calling for fathers again. He is saying: "Who will be like-minded and sincerely care for the state of My Church? Who will take up My rod of discipline and correction? Who will train up My children in the way that they should go? Who will shepherd my people and lead them to the rivers of living water to drink?

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Confronting Each Other in Love

The confrontations of God’s love are to bubble over into our relationships with one another as Christians. Jesus expects us to help each other become more like Him. Many Christians today think that to "walk in love" means to close your eyes or look the other way when you see a brother overtaken in a sin or trespass. This is dreadfully wrong! If you ignore a brother overtaken by a trespass, you are guilty of the sin of indifference (James 4:17). If you discuss a person’s sin or character flaw behind their back you are guilty of the sin of slander and indifference! You should never sit by and watch his or her life be destroyed. Love is not passive, motionless or unconcerned. It sincerely cares about the spiritual and physical condition of others. The Apostle Paul writes:

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Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

(Gal 6:1)

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Confronting each other in the spirit of gentleness helps us to grow in Christ individually and corporately. We are supposed to stir each other up unto good works. I’m not talking about taking our frustrations out on each other or snapping in anger at someone because of our own fleshly irritations. I’m talking about speaking the truth in love so we can grow up in all things into Him who is the Head; Christ. (Eph 4:15) I’m talking about loving each other enough to address character flaws or areas of our lives that are out-of-line with God’s Word. Some Christians are scared of the word confront because they have been abused and they are afraid of fleshly reactions. There will always be reactions when truth is spoken, but when it is spoken accurately and in love with the sole motive to see the person become all that they are called to be in Christ, then it becomes a powerful force for change. If someone refuses to receive it, don’t let it become a point of contention. Release them, love them, and pray that they would come to the knowledge of the truth. Your hands are clean. Go on with your life. God will take care of the rest.

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"Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who
hates correction is stupid."

(Prov 12:1)

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