Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]… – Revelation 3:19, Amplified Bible (AMP)

Life is filled with irony. Take, for example, today’s (January 6, 2014) news headline from the New York Post: Coast Guard to Save Ships Trapped in Antarctic Ice. The story starts with this:

They came to document global warming and shrinking polar ice caps – but now they’re desperately waiting for the US Coast Guard to rescue their ship after it got stuck in record-breaking Antarctic ice…

The drama began Christmas Eve when the Russian MV Akademik Shokalskiy – carrying scientists and eco-tourists on a mission to study global warming – got trapped in sea ice.

According to a December 30, 2013 article from Fox News regarding the incident, Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at Australia’s University of New South Wales and leader of the expedition:

…said it was “silly” to suggest he and 73 others aboard the MV Akademic Shokalskiy were trapped in ice they’d sought to prove had melted. He remained adamant that sea ice is melting, even as the boat remained trapped in frozen seas.

You just can’t make this stuff up!

Like in the story of the MV Akademic Shokalskiy, we can find irony in many biblical passages, such as Revelation 3:19. In this passage, God explains that pointing out and punishing sin is one of the dearest expressions of love He can engage in. Since God is our example of how to live, this means that pointing out and punishing sin is one of the dearest expressions of love that WE can engage in as well.

Such a thought is totally foreign in a society like ours. To offend somebody is one of the greatest affronts one can commit, and if you point out to people that they are doing something contrary to God’s Word, you will definitely offend them. In contrast, many would argue that keeping silent about sin is the true expression of love. By keeping silent about sin, we avoid hurting others’ feelings. And, by protecting others’ feelings, we show them how much we really love them.

Keeping quiet about sin, however, is not evidence that we love others. It is evidence that we love ourselves. We don’t point out sin to others because we don’t want them to be mad at us – because we don’t like the discomfort of confrontation. If we loved others more than we love ourselves, we’d be willing to risk confrontation in hopes that the confrontation would help others build a richer relationship with God – and help others avoid the punishment that a Holy God will visit upon unrepentant sinners. In other words, we’d care more about their souls than about our own comfort, and we’d be willing to pay the price of confrontation in hopes that our confrontation would lead to their repentance.

This doesn’t mean we have the right to be pious ogres like the Pharisees that Jesus despised. It does mean that we have a duty to humbly and to gently confront the open sin we see in others, risking our own comfort for the betterment of their souls. The recovering alcoholic would tell you that the best thing his family ever did for him was confront him and tell him that he had a choice to make: give up the bottle or give up the family. He would tell you that his family truly loves him because they were willing to risk him hating them in order to save him from self-destruction. Such “tough love” is love indeed, and when we engage in such love with a humble, godly attitude, we can bring souls closer to Christ that once were an offense to Him.

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