{"id":4430,"date":"2016-02-09T09:21:10","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T14:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/?p=4430"},"modified":"2016-02-09T09:21:10","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T14:21:10","slug":"bitterness-vs-boldness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/2016\/02\/09\/bitterness-vs-boldness\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitterness vs. Boldness"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:\u00a0Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.” II Timothy 4:14,15\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Apostle Paul’s words in the above verses were a sound warning to his son in the faith, Timothy. As I read this passage this morning, I imagined how these same words could be perceived today. In an hour where accusations of “hate speech” or “unloving spirit”\u00a0are resulting in Christians being afraid to speak up and sound out clear warnings, I’m afraid the apostle’s words would be attacked:<\/p>\n

“Paul, you shouldn’t say such things about Alexander – that’s not Christ-like!”<\/p>\n

“Paul, you need to get over it – you’re just bitter!”<\/p>\n

“Paul, I can’t believe you actually NAMED him!”<\/p>\n

If the verses above were read by someone who had no clue who Paul or Timothy were, I can see how they may be perceived as mean-spirited. And yes, there are plenty of people in this world who are filled with bitterness over deep hurts. These people desperately need to allow the Lord to do a work of grace in their hearts so that they are able to forgive and go forward.<\/p>\n

But then there are others, as in Paul’s case, who have been on the receiving end of evil and their heart’s desire is to protect others. Paul’s warnings to Timothy were spoken\u00a0out of love and concern for this young preacher.<\/p>\n

Bottom line – just because a preacher or fellow-believer sounds a warning against individuals who have done them\u00a0evil does\u00a0not mean that the preacher or fellow-believer is\u00a0bitter or mean-spirited. As in Paul’s case, they very well\u00a0may be\u00a0speaking out of love and concern. And I, for one, and very THANKFUL for those in my life down through the years who have loved me and my family enough to speak with boldness.<\/p>\n

“Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe<\/span>.\u00a0Beware<\/span> of dogs, beware<\/span> of evil workers, beware<\/span> of the concision.” Philippians 3:1,2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:\u00a0Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.” II Timothy 4:14,15\u00a0 The Apostle Paul’s words in the above verses were a sound warning to his son in the faith, Timothy. As I read this passage this morning, I imagined how these same words could be perceived today. In an hour where accusations of “hate speech” or “unloving spirit”\u00a0are resulting in Christians being afraid to speak up and sound out clear warnings, I’m afraid the apostle’s words would be attacked: “Paul, you shouldn’t say such things about Alexander – that’s not Christ-like!” “Paul, you need to get over it – you’re just bitter!” “Paul, I can’t believe you actually NAMED him!” If the verses above were read by someone who had no clue who Paul or Timothy were, I can see how they may be perceived as mean-spirited. And yes, there are plenty of people in this world who are filled with bitterness over deep hurts. These people desperately need to allow the Lord to do a work of grace in their hearts so that they are able to forgive and go forward. But then there are others, as in Paul’s case, who have been on the receiving end of evil and their heart’s desire is to protect others. Paul’s warnings to Timothy were spoken\u00a0out of love and concern for this young preacher. Bottom line – just because a preacher or fellow-believer sounds a warning against individuals who have done them\u00a0evil does\u00a0not mean that the preacher or fellow-believer is\u00a0bitter or mean-spirited. As in Paul’s case, they very well\u00a0may be\u00a0speaking out of love and concern. And I, for one, and very THANKFUL for those in my life down through the years who have loved me and my family enough to speak with boldness. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.\u00a0Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.” Philippians 3:1,2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courage","category-protection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4o6C2-19s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4431,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4430\/revisions\/4431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}