Rescuing people
This week is a short one on Jude 1:22-23:
So what do you do when someone you know is in trouble? How do you confront things, like bad ideas and bad behaviors? Is there only one way, or are there many?
Jude talks about people who are badly mistaken, and then switches to these verses to explain how to confront people while loving them. There are three ways: "Be merciful," "be direct and aggressive," and "be precise but thorough."
So how do you be merciful to someone who is in trouble? Like say they're someone who believes a lot of weird doctrinal stuff about diet or needs for rituals during prayer and stuff. Just let it go. Be merciful in the sense that you won't prosecute them for having wrong ideas, because those wrong ideas do them no harm. They're still saved from hell. They still believe in God and are living an otherwise healthy lifestyle. Is it that important that they don't eat meat? Is it going to endanger their salvation or others' salvation if they insist on burning incense when they pray? Yes, they're distracted from the truth in some areas, but for the most part they're healthy. Give them time.
How do you be direct and aggressive in love? Like say it's a serious thing. The person is involved in adultery, or is badly addicted to crack. You might expose the adultery, or smash the crack pipe and call the person's friends to get them to go to rehab. They're shocking things, but they get the person out of trouble. They're fast-paced and direct, like you would do if you were rescuing the person from a physical danger. If you're pulling someone out of a burning vehicle, you might smash their windows, and injure them physically in the process of dragging them out through it. If you did those things to a random bystander on a normal day, they'd be shocking and wrong, but in the process of a rescue they're necessary.
What about being precise but thorough? Sometimes you have to be merciful while being stern. Like say it's a person with anger issues, and you want to love them through it. They listen to a lot of angry music, and they do a lot of things that make them angry. Even in helping them through the anger issues, you may find that they need to stop listening to the angry music, or stop doing the things that make them angry like listening to political debate shows or using Microsoft Windows. Those things are tainted with the memories and emotions they're trying to be free of. You're being precise in addressing the issue of anger, and thorough in removing the kindling that will cause it to flare up.
It's like changing the dressing on a wound. If the old dressing is infected, you don't want it in contact with the wound, even if the wound has been cleaned and sterilized. Some issues are like that. You have to be precise, but you also have to be thorough. Don't remove too much or too little. God will show you the right way. You're being merciful, in that you're not shaming the person or condemning them, but you're also showing fear, because it's a serious issue that could reinfect them or others if left unaddressed. Drug issues often fall into this category, where you have to stop hanging out in certain situations for awhile, listening to certain music, keeping certain paraphernalia around, etc. It's different for each person.
So there's not only one answer to a question like this. Even two thousand years ago, it was a complicated issue to address doubt and sin in the church. We should be patient with each other, and love each other, and not use the wrong approach with the wrong person. Don't grab the incense guy's things and smash them, or tell him he can't hang out with his incense-prayer group. Don't be patient with the heroin addict and act like nothing's wrong until he overdoses some day or kills his girlfriend to get money, or let him keep his needles and stuff when he gets out of rehab. Each situation has to be handled differently in its own merits. We need to really know each other, and really understand God's timing and direction in things.
The good news is that God wants to use us as his ambassadors. We get to be his representatives who help arrange for people to be rescued. We can call in help with our prayers, and send up the smoke flare to guide in the rescue copter. We can stay with the person mercifully until help arrives, or perform whatever shocking or thorough actions are needed to keep the person safe until God changes them.
We can't do it apart from God. Before these verses, Jude talks about the useless divisiveness of people who are not guided by the Holy Spirit. At times, that's every one of us. Pray before acting. Seek God in prayer and in meditation and study. Get to know people and ask God to show you who they are. It's a team exercise. But we are so lucky to be able to be a part of the rescue process when it happens.
Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
So what do you do when someone you know is in trouble? How do you confront things, like bad ideas and bad behaviors? Is there only one way, or are there many?
Jude talks about people who are badly mistaken, and then switches to these verses to explain how to confront people while loving them. There are three ways: "Be merciful," "be direct and aggressive," and "be precise but thorough."
So how do you be merciful to someone who is in trouble? Like say they're someone who believes a lot of weird doctrinal stuff about diet or needs for rituals during prayer and stuff. Just let it go. Be merciful in the sense that you won't prosecute them for having wrong ideas, because those wrong ideas do them no harm. They're still saved from hell. They still believe in God and are living an otherwise healthy lifestyle. Is it that important that they don't eat meat? Is it going to endanger their salvation or others' salvation if they insist on burning incense when they pray? Yes, they're distracted from the truth in some areas, but for the most part they're healthy. Give them time.
How do you be direct and aggressive in love? Like say it's a serious thing. The person is involved in adultery, or is badly addicted to crack. You might expose the adultery, or smash the crack pipe and call the person's friends to get them to go to rehab. They're shocking things, but they get the person out of trouble. They're fast-paced and direct, like you would do if you were rescuing the person from a physical danger. If you're pulling someone out of a burning vehicle, you might smash their windows, and injure them physically in the process of dragging them out through it. If you did those things to a random bystander on a normal day, they'd be shocking and wrong, but in the process of a rescue they're necessary.
What about being precise but thorough? Sometimes you have to be merciful while being stern. Like say it's a person with anger issues, and you want to love them through it. They listen to a lot of angry music, and they do a lot of things that make them angry. Even in helping them through the anger issues, you may find that they need to stop listening to the angry music, or stop doing the things that make them angry like listening to political debate shows or using Microsoft Windows. Those things are tainted with the memories and emotions they're trying to be free of. You're being precise in addressing the issue of anger, and thorough in removing the kindling that will cause it to flare up.
It's like changing the dressing on a wound. If the old dressing is infected, you don't want it in contact with the wound, even if the wound has been cleaned and sterilized. Some issues are like that. You have to be precise, but you also have to be thorough. Don't remove too much or too little. God will show you the right way. You're being merciful, in that you're not shaming the person or condemning them, but you're also showing fear, because it's a serious issue that could reinfect them or others if left unaddressed. Drug issues often fall into this category, where you have to stop hanging out in certain situations for awhile, listening to certain music, keeping certain paraphernalia around, etc. It's different for each person.
So there's not only one answer to a question like this. Even two thousand years ago, it was a complicated issue to address doubt and sin in the church. We should be patient with each other, and love each other, and not use the wrong approach with the wrong person. Don't grab the incense guy's things and smash them, or tell him he can't hang out with his incense-prayer group. Don't be patient with the heroin addict and act like nothing's wrong until he overdoses some day or kills his girlfriend to get money, or let him keep his needles and stuff when he gets out of rehab. Each situation has to be handled differently in its own merits. We need to really know each other, and really understand God's timing and direction in things.
The good news is that God wants to use us as his ambassadors. We get to be his representatives who help arrange for people to be rescued. We can call in help with our prayers, and send up the smoke flare to guide in the rescue copter. We can stay with the person mercifully until help arrives, or perform whatever shocking or thorough actions are needed to keep the person safe until God changes them.
We can't do it apart from God. Before these verses, Jude talks about the useless divisiveness of people who are not guided by the Holy Spirit. At times, that's every one of us. Pray before acting. Seek God in prayer and in meditation and study. Get to know people and ask God to show you who they are. It's a team exercise. But we are so lucky to be able to be a part of the rescue process when it happens.
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