MBC Tysons Campus Blog

Answer:

False! Might as well say that getting a $200 speeding ticket is hilarious.
True! It’s like having a personal life coach hang out with me.

Walking in a parking lot one day with one of my young sons, I suddenly yelled at the top of my lungs, “STOP!!” Just in time, he avoided an encounter with a land-boat (one of those big cars from the 1960s). Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen the car coming at a fast speed. I proceeded to do the usual dad-talk of “always look this way and that way, stay close to my side, see how it’s good to obey your parents right away,” etc. A rebuke (for not looking both ways) literally saved his life.

There’s nothing like a good rebuke to get us through life. Here are two good things about a rebuke:

1. You learn the right way (attitudes and actions), as it is immediately contrasted with the wrong way.
2. You’re gratified through your growing ability to better serve God and others.

Athletes pay people to rebuke them (they’re called personal trainers), to be ruthless in telling them how not to throw the ball or swing the bat. They learn what is the right attitude and action and get training in doing it right. Why? . . .for the big pay, not necessarily as serving God and others, but certainly for advancing in their careers. 

Here’s a few tips, if you’re giving the rebuke:

1. Have the right spirit. That’s the only way to keep the emotional door open. Once that door is closed, you might as well be talking on the moon. Communicate genuine thoughtfulness about their needs, sensitivity to their feelings, generosity regarding their faults, and gladness for their successes.
2. Be non-condemning and non-threatening. Never rebuke to “straighten him out.” Remember God’s mercy to you? Hold a mirror in front of your face as you rebuke another. Don’t forget that you have done the same or worse. God’s goodness led you to change your ways, and that will be the only way for anyone else to change.
3. Maybe you’re not the right person. You might be too subjective, because you have too much invested emotionally. Or, you might be the opposite, too objective. Be the right match.
4. Is it the right time and place? God waited before he spoke to Adam and Eve until the “cool of the day.” Timing, as they say, is everything.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)