On This Day: When Love Requires a Rebuke

   Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
   After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
   Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:9-16)

   Central to my faith is this fact of God’s word, the Bible: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:16-17). 

   I believe in a personal God who personally speaks to his children through his “living and active” word by the personal presence of his Holy Spirit personally teaching us all things and personally reminding us of things we have already been taught from the scriptures.  

   Therefore, no matter whether the Holy Spirit is speaking God’s word to me by teaching me what I need to know, or rebuking/reproving me for what I am doing wrong, or correcting something I am doing into the right way, or coaching me through the training in righteousness that has its good days and bad, it is all “God is love” loving this beloved child. Always.  

   So, when I read about Jesus rebuking the disciples for their unbelief and hardness of heart, I first cringed-in-faith that I best get my comeuppance and find out how this applied to me. And then I found a strange turn of the spotlight as it drew attention to people whose unbelief and hardness of heart have done me wrong. Comforted after my comeuppance. I like that. 

   I feel like God has served me notice in a way, like he has said, “Monte, listen up and watch for this.” So I am going into this day, not so much like this is a settled issue, but that I must watch for things I may be struggling with out of an unbelieving hardness of heart, and I must watch for things others may be struggling with because they refuse to believe due to a hardening of their hearts.

   Either way, “God is love” will be doing for me and them what is best, and the rebuke to the eleven has served me notice that God wants me watchful that my faith is strengthened by his word, that I walk in “the obedience of faith” in everything, and I encourage others to join me in living “by every word that comes from the mouth of God”, even when the way it shows up in my life seems almost… well… UNBELIEVABLE!!! 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)