I guess that it is part of human nature for us to not want to hear that we do is wrong. I know from experience that when I was a child, I did not like to hear my mother telling me what I could and could not do. It did not get any better when I was a teenager, either. You see, pride had entered my heart and was altering the way I felt about discipline and authority, even when I could see that it was for my best interest.
Pride has never been a great human attribute. Very often, it keeps us from reaching our potential because of its stifling and selfish nature. Because of pride, we never like to be chastened or disciplined. Hebrews 12:11 says that discipline yields “the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” I always had a problem seeing that fruit through discipline when I was younger. Now, it all seems much clearer.
Just like most of us, the children of Israel did not like to be told they were wrong. When Amos was delivering the prophecy against Israel, God brought up the sin of the Israelites (2:12). When we read of instances like this in the Bible, we are immediately surprised or offended. We have a great urge to don our judgmental hats and declare that what they have done is absolutely sinful. However, we fail to sit back and realize how sometimes we are the same way.
In Amos 3, God gave the Israelites a series of rhetorical questions in order to show them how their sin had separated them from God. In verse seven Amos said, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” In chapter 2, we learned that Israel had told their prophets to be quiet. This same pattern is easy to follow today. How many times have you heard of preachers getting fired for teaching or preaching on scriptural subjects that the congregation had no desire to hear? How many people have you seen get mad because they felt the preacher was “preaching right at them?”
I wish that it were not so, but I have seen and heard of many who fall into the above categories. How hard it is to approach a brother or sister in Christ anymore with genuine concern and not walk away from their Public Enemy Number One! It should not be that way. We should restore one another in a “spirit of meekness,” looking lest we too are tempted (Galatians 6:1; cp. Isaiah 30:10)
Kyle Campbell
