Swords and Guns and stuff.

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  Jesus ( John 16:12) 




I read this chapter this morning and this passage stood out to me. It nearly leapt of the digital page as if it were one of those magic eye puzzles and after going cross eyes I could finally see the real picture.
I remember when I was a kid, my sister and I hated each other. Actually, I think she loved me, but I was a jerk. We would go around getting each other in trouble and pointing the finger at everything that each one did wrong then scurrying off to tell mom. I'm sure this is something universal in all children with their brothers and sisters.  There are a mixture of motives, justice, self righteousness, or even the actual warning of consequence for the benefit of the transgressor. I remember telling on my sister for things and my mom getting mad at me for tattling. When I was younger that didn't make much sense to me, because SHE was doing wrong... why wouldn't mom want to know about that? We've already established that I was a jerk right? Yeah? Just making sure.


Brothers and sisters still do that. I'm talking about the kingdom here. Brothers and sisters of God. We play the role of the spirit and we pick of the word of God and we tell people what they are doing wrong. We point the finger, and we sit back in our chairs and smile brightly at how we've done right by wielding the word of God like a sword, having just stabbed someone with it. We revel in rebukes because after all, God must now favor us for exposing the sin of everyone else. 


"I have many more things to say... but you cannot bear them now" 

I think about this often...
How we demand things of others that they aren't ready for. We hold them to a stander that they cannot possibly reach for reasons that aren't the purest of nature.  What if when we saw an issue with someone, we loved them. We served them and helped build them up so that they could get to a place where they could handle all the rest of the the issues before them?
What if we did that for ourselves?

Support.

Imagine if instead of stabbing one another with the sword that is the word of God, we used to it parry the arrows and the attacks of the enemy.

Many have heard me liken the spiritual struggle as soldiers all trying to take a hill under enemy fire. We get shot up and we are wounded. The last thing you need when you have a hole in your side, is someone in your platoon not only watching you bleed, but shooting at you. 

I'm not saying that we shouldn't address sin if we see it in our brothers and sisters, because after all.. If the soldier walking behind me is pointing their gun at their face and the safety on the rifle is off, its is a disaster for EVERYONE. What I am saying is that there are times to speak. There are ways to speak. There are heart checks that we ourselves need to perform before we even open our mouths to speak out about the sin of another, because if we do it wrong its going to be a disaster.
I imagine a surgeon trying to remove a bullet from a wound. If he doesn't make sure that his equipment is clean, that wound is going to get worse. If he doesn't make sure he is in the right frame of mind, then his hand is going to shake and he is going to cause nerve damage.


"I have many more things to say... but you cannot bear them now" 




There is a man that I quietly respect ( I'm pretty sure he thinks that I am an idiot because he doesn't know me all that well, and his limited interaction with me has been me making jokes with his kids) who said that if you are going to rebuke someone for their sin, you must be ready to die for them. 
That is a profound bit of truth. What if before we spoke, we were ready to give all of ourselves. 


We need to get to the place were we are more aware. We cannot win a war righteously with the actions and tactics of our enemy.