The concepts of encouragement and admonishing are related, but different. Those who are discouraged and those who need admonishing both need to hear the Word of God. They both need the truth spoken into their lives, though for different reasons.
Those who are discouraged need to hear a message that might embolden them and give them courage to continue in the circumstance which is tempting to quit. A child fearful of a thunderstorm, a couple experiencing the fallout of a broken engagement, a Texan seeing the fifth snow fall of the year in March (especially if it is impacting his ability to work), an employee who has been laid off, a couple watching their last child leave home, a pastor in the throes of church turmoil, all need to understand and rely on the bigness of God rather than be fearful of the largeness of their disappointment.
Those who are discouraged need to hear the power of God to supersede their troubles.
Those who are in need of admonition and counsel are often those who need correction for sin. They have stumbled — or sometimes walked directly — into sin. They are not thinking well (i.e., Biblically) and they need someone to speak the truth about the wisdom of God’s moral standards, the grace of God to forgive those who confess, and the sufficiency of God to restore forgiven individuals to Himself, and the wonder of fellowship with God that infinitely surpasses the indulgence of any fleshly desire.
Those who need confrontation also need to hear of the power of God to supersede their troubles.
In thinking about how to help those who need encouragement and confrontation, several Biblical principles apply:
- Before we can offer encouragement or counsel, the truth of Scripture needs to reside richly within us (Col. 3:16; Gal. 6:1). One reason that our counsel sometimes falls short is not the inadequacy of the words we speak, but our failure to allow those words to transform our own lives.
- This is an everyday activity. Encouragement and counsel is not a one-time offering but a manner of life (Heb. 3:13). It exists in a counseling or hospital room, of course, but it also exists on the phone and at the dinner table and at the office desk and on a walk at the park and in every other daily activity of life. When circumstances arise that need encouragement, then words need to be spoken — at that moment. Counsel and encouragement should be considered a normal part of life for every believer — always ready to give testimony to the surpassing power of God.
- Those who counsel must always bear in mind that the end of counsel is not punishment but restoration. We encourage and instruct and exhort so that sinners are restored to Christ, not to be punitive. In this way not only is counsel given, but the principle of accepting one another is also practiced (Rom. 15:7).
- Those who need to hear counsel and encouragement (which is every believer) do well to cultivate a willingness to hear those words of instruction.
- This activity takes the entire body of Christ working together. Admonishing and encouraging and instructing and counseling is for every believer, not just pastors and other leaders (Rom. 15:14). It is for all who name the name of Christ.
This past week I heard of another seminary friend who has been forced out of the ministry for marital infidelity. Another soldier has fallen. I cannot help but wonder if he might have been helped by more of these kinds of relationships. Would he and his church have been spared sorrow upon sorrow if he had cultivated a listening heart and those around him had cultivated boldness to speak when inconsistencies began being evidenced years ago?
We need each other. We need each other to encourage and teach and counsel. The life of the church is dependent on it and the spiritual life of the individuals members of the church is dependent on it.
Words of Grace 