The missing Rs!

What do l mean?

The Word of God has a three fold application according to 2 Timothy 4: 2
 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

Reprove and rebuke are very similar in meaning.

To rebuke someone is to reprimand someone, to tell what’s wrong with that person’s words and/or actions with the hope that the person will make an effort to change.
The reason why you rebuke someone is because you love him/her (2 Cor. 2:4) and the goal is that the person will learn and grow. (http://www.vtaide.com/lifeskills/AffirmRebuke.htm ).
So this simply means we stand in great danger if we refuse to receive rebuke and get correction.
Being rebuked is part of being a Christian, and if we refuse to receive it, great danger lies ahead.

The word ‘reprove’ means: act of rebuking or reproaching
According to the above scripture we have 2 Rs and One e i.e exhort.
We do need to be very careful in these days. Many sermons consist of so much exhortation, people running up and down during the sermon but with the two missing Rs, reprove and rebuke.
 Lets look at 2 Timothy 4 verses 1 to 3 :

2 Timothy 4

 ¹I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
 ²Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
 ³For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
From the above scripture, we can see that we are not only to exhort, but to reprove and rebuke.
 Are you a teacher of the Word? People may have itching ears, but we are required to be faithful in what the Lord tells us to do.

1 Timothy 5:20-21

  Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality
This simply means we need to rebuke those that deserve to be rebuked with no partiality.

Titus 1:12-14
 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth

As Christians, we are to receive reprove and rebuke as apart of the gospel if we are going to bring glory to the name of the Lord.

 

Revelation 3:19

 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

If all we are hearing is exhortation, we stand in great danger. We are not supposed to pick and choose but received instruction and correction.

Lets embrace the whole truth of the Word of God. Thank God for exhortation, but to be a full grown Christians we need to be reproved and rebuked.

Bisi Oladipupo