On my heart, in my head, out on paper (well sort of)....

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. - Colossians 3:16

Our church is currently doing a study on Colossians, so I decided to keep reading through the book during the study (it's a super short book so I've read through it multiple times now). Each time I read it something new sticks in my mind  and currently it is Colossians 3:16, more specifically the word admonish. 

ad·mon·ish

ədˈmäniSH/

verb

gerund or present participle: admonishing

1. warn or reprimand someone firmly.

   "she admonished me for appearing at breakfast unshaven"

   synonyms:

   reprimand, rebuke, scold, reprove, reproach, upbraid,  chastise, chide, berate, criticize, take to task, read the riot act to, rake/haul over the coals; More

   • advise or urge (someone) earnestly.

     "she admonished him to drink no more than one glass of wine"

     synonyms:

     advise, recommend, counsel, urge, exhort, bid, enjoin;

     Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,... This is definitely different than what the world tells us. The world tells us to "mind our own biscuits and the rest will be gravy." Now I'm not a big country fan, but I do like that song and almost all of me agrees with it. Almost. Yes, we should always examine our motives before approaching someone with the intent to admonish, and yes we should always evaluate the type of relationship we have with the person we are considering admonishing, and yes we should make sure our heart is full of love before we say a word...BUT we should still 'let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.' We are to hold all of our brothers and sisters in Christ accountable.  Christ tells us to. We need to help each other finish this race. What about 'working on the log in your eye before the splinter in someone else's' (I'm paraphrasing)? Well, sure if you're a drunk and tell someone else they have a drinking problem then yes you might want to work on yourself a bit before you address that problem in others. However, we all sin and we all fight different sins more than others. Sometimes others see it before we see it in ourselves or before we are willing to admit it anyway... Sin is tricky.  The devil is tricky. He knows how to ease you into sin, so you don't know how deep you're in until you're drowning in it.  Like the frog that never knows it's being cooked. Ever heard that before?? I don't know where I heard it or if it's even true, but someone said if you put a frog in a pot of warm water and then turn the heat up it won't jump out. They said it doesn't realize it's being boiled until it's too late. That can be us... So entrenched in our sinful behavior that we don't even know it's killing us, but the people on the outside looking in can! Someone walking up and seeing the frog on the stove can say, " Hey, dummy your being boiled! Get out while you still can!" And do you think that frog is going to tell you not to tell him what to do?? No!!! He's going to jump out of the water and hopefully say thank you!!!!!! He can't be mad.  You were trying to save his life. That's what we are called to do for our fellow believers. It's not just their lives at stake, but their eternity. We can't wait until our lives are completely sin free before we say anything... Because that will never happen!! We just have to hold His word, ALL of His word, in our hearts and teach and admonish with all wisdom. We can't be afraid. We are called to love and often loving someone means you have to say the hard things.