Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2)

Love definitely has its soft side, but let me suggest it also has a sharp side. Deep love means caring enough to set somebody straight when that person has driven off the correct path.

We don’t like this side of love, and we often refuse to acknowledge it as love when we are on the receiving end of it. But it is love. Christ told Peter, “get behind me…” because Peter couldn’t accept Christ’s assertion that He had to die (Matthew 16:23). It was not just a pretty tough rebuke, but an act of love designed to set Peter back on the right path.

Loving our spouses can mean a tough “setting straight” response to moral error. Doing it right often means making sure you have “taken the log out of your own eye first” (Matthew 7:1-5).

We are tempted many times to rebuke our spouse for being harsh in their discipline with the kids, or not patient and long suffering enough with them, only to have the Holy Spirit prompt us to inspect ourselves in this area. It is then that we realise that it wasn’t time to talk to our spouse about their responses to the kids, until we have humbled our own heart concerning our own impatience.

We have been tempted to rebuke our spouse about their tendency to bend the rules and find all the loopholes. And then the Spirit reminds us of our own rebellious attitude toward some of the church leadership, and our unwillingness to comply with new church structure. The Lord lets us know that it wasn’t okay to talk with our spouse until our heart was completely surrendered to Him and His established authorities.

ACTION ASSIGNMENT
How specifically will we prepare ourselves today to lovingly rebuke, and receive rebuke?

PRAYER: God, help me to discern when and how to rebuke my spouse. Help me to be open to loving rebuke as well. In Jesus’s name, amen.