"Put Into One's Mind"

  1. Share
Southeast Christian Church
2 0

After we have been admonished, what do we do with that information? How are we going to respond? The word “admonish” usually appears in the New Testament right next to another word, and that's the word “teaching”. An example can be found in Colossians 1:28, when talking about Jesus. It says, "He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ."

There's teaching when you admonish, there's a lesson to be learned. It's lovingly giving wisdom to build others up, so they can grow into the image of Christ. Admonishment is always connected to truth, love, and wisdom. That's at the heart of it. 

Proverbs 3:12 says, “The Lord disciplines those that he loves.” So, the Lord corrects and speaks truth. He helps point us in the direction that we should go, showing us how we should also interact with our Christian brothers and sisters. The Bible says that iron sharpens iron, and when we hold each other accountable and are involved in one another's lives, we will say the hard things and we will also do the hard things. We will care enough to speak words that may be hard to receive, but all of it comes from the foundation of love. Admonition causes the recipient to take a look at things from a different perspective and vantage point. It's a chance to remind another person of Scripture, or to reach out and lovingly voice a concern motivated by the purest of intentions.

Discussion/Reflection Questions: Who in your life do you trust enough to lovingly admonish you when you need it? Does this person know they are able to do so?

Community tags

This content has 0 tags that match your profile.

Comments

To leave a comment, login or sign up.

Related Content

0
You Have Been Chosen
Everybody wants to be chosen. We’re fooling ourselves if we think we don’t. All humans have a deeply rooted desire to be chosen, because we were made to be chosen by Christ. Jesus chose us because he loves us, and he has chosen us for a purpose. It’s easy to get caught up in wondering what our purpose is in this life, in this season, in the world, but Jesus makes our purpose clear: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12, NIV). We get lost in decisions such as: What college should I go to? Should I take this new job? What should I do with my life in retirement? And we want God to give us clear answers for a clear purpose, but he has already made his purpose clear. His command is that we would love each other as he has loved us. It doesn’t matter what college you go to, it matters that you love people like Jesus at your college. It doesn’t matter what job you have, it matters that you love people like Jesus at your job. It doesn’t matter what you do in retirement, it matters that you love people like Jesus wherever you go. We have been chosen by Christ to love others just like he has loved us — what better purpose do we need? So, the question is, how does Jesus love us? He loves us sacrificially. Jesus gave everything in order to make us sons and daughters of the King. Jesus loves up close, not far away. He loves us when it seems inconvenient. He loves us intentionally and intimately. Jesus’s love is full of grace and truth. He relentlessly pursues us. He loves us when we don’t give love in return. First, we must take in this love, then we can live our purpose of giving it out. Reflection/Discussion Question: How does it feel to know that you’ve been chosen by Jesus?
0
God will Go to Great Lengths for the "One"
As you reflect on your own journey with Jesus, what lengths has God gone to in order to reach you? Who has he brought into your life to show you Christ? Philip left behind flourishing relationships and a ministry that made sense to set out into the desert alone. There, he interrupted an Ethiopian in his quest for full life and introduced him to Jesus. God goes to great lengths to reach one person at a time, but he invites us to be a part of this work. Ephesians 4:14-16 says, “Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (NIV). This passage describes God’s plan for using the full force of the church to love people one at a time. When we live isolated from the church and don’t engage in God’s work of loving people one at a time, we remain infants in the faith who are easily swayed by lies. But when we each do our part within the Body and engage in God’s one-at-a-time love, we grow in maturity and look more like Christ. When God calls us to join him in his work, he will call us to do unreasonable and impractical things, but fighting for peoples’ eternities is always worth it. God gives us this gift of working alongside him in his beautiful plan of salvation, but he also gives us the gift of his presence. The more we give ourselves to God’s work, the more we experience the true character of God. When we join God in doing the impractical and unreasonable to reach people for Christ, we set aside our expectations about who God is and how he is supposed to work, and we get to experience his saving grace up close. Reflection/Discussion Questions: As you reflect on your own journey with Jesus, what lengths has God gone to in order to reach you? How can you do the same thing for others?