Iron Sharpens Iron...

Proverbs 27:17 "Iron sharpeneth iron: so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."

I love the above verse. I like to base how I view my friendships off of this verse. I want to be an encouraging friend to the people God has placed in my life, but I also need friends who can encourage and "sharpen" me as well. True friendships are give AND take. If one is constantly giving, without ever receiving, they will become weary, run down and eventually feel taken advantage of. If one is constantly taking and never giving, then the friend doing the giving will most likely end up slowly separating themselves from the relationship and the taker will be left lonely. While there is a lot of truth in these words, that is not the reason that I am writing this post. The reason I am writing is to share a verse that a very dear friend shared with me to take to heart regarding a specific situation in my life right now. I am so thankful that God has placed this friend in my life "for such a time as this." The verse is this:

Luke 17:3 "Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him."

I read this verse and it kind of hit me between the eyes... For some reason I have never really noticed this verse before. I mainly hear the verse just following that says if a brother tresspass against you seven times a day and ask for forgiveness, then seven times are you to forgive that person. I've also always known the verse where Jesus says we are to forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven. The one thing that is different about this verse though is that it gives me, the one who is hurt and upset by someone else, the command to "rebuke" the person who has done something against me. Then it says IF that person repents, THEN I am to forgive them. I am a very non-confrontational person so for me this is really hard to swallow. Maybe that is why I don't ever remember this aspect of these verses on forgiveness?

I have done a little word searching in this verse to see how the original Greek would interpret this. Here is what I came up with.

What does the word "trespass" mean here?
-"to miss the mark (and so not share in the prize), i.e. (figuratively) to err, especially (morally) to sin:--for your faults, offend, sin, trespass

What does the word "rebuke" mean here?
- "to tax upon, i.e. censure or admonish; by implication, forbid:--(straitly) charge, rebuke"

What does the word "repent" mean here?
- "to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider (morally, feel compunction):--repent"

What does the word "forgive" mean here?
- "to send forth, in various applications (as follow):--cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let (alone, be, go, have), omit, put (send) away, remit, suffer, yield up"

So basically this verse can read something like this:

"If your brother "misses the mark, or err's, or sins" against you, "admonish, charge, or rebuke" him; and if he "afterwards thinks differently or reconsiders or feels compunction (compunction means "A feeling of guilt or moral scruple that follows the doing of something bad; A pricking of the conscience) repents, "forsake, lay aside, leave, let go, omit, put away (the fault)" forgive him."

This is the same thing that God does when we sin and come to him and ask for repentance. The thing is though, when we do something wrong or when we sin, God doesn't just let it go. He gives us His word to convict us and a conscience that nudges us and the Holy Spirit who teaches us. (This is how he "rebukes" his children. Because we have a way of knowing that we having commited a sin or fault, we then have a way to make things right with God. If we weren't given that opportunity then we would never experience God's forgiveness.

Psalm 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."

I think it's time for me to start doing some more "rebuking" or "calling out" in my life, rather than holding secret "grudges" or frustrations. If a person is continually unrepentant of their sin and seeks to justify or explain why it is not their fault then it finally comes down to "shaking the dust off your feet." When a person is continually unrepentant I do not need to spend time with them and I definitely do not need to "coddle" them. I just need to give it to God and let HIM handle the rest.

Matthew 10:14 "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet."