FALAITE SIULAI 10, 2026
PALOVEPI 12-13; FAKAHA 3:14-22
It takes rescuing and empowering grace to love reproof and to understand that, on this side of eternity, we regularly need it.
Ko e kelesi fakahaofi pe mo fakaivia te ke mahino’i ai, ‘i he kauvai ‘itaniti ko eni, ‘oku kei fiema’u pe ke akonaki’i tautea’i kitautolu.
When my good friend and I sat down to talk, I didn't know that he planned to confront me about something I had said and the attitudes behind my words. As I got a sense of where he was going. I felt my chest tighten and my ears grow warm. As he was talking, I thought of all the ways I could defend myself and show him that he was wrong. I didn't like being in that moment, and I didn't like what he was saying to me about me. But something else was going on in my mind. I knew then, as I know now, that I am not perfect. I knew that the things I had said had been fueled by anger. He had made me mad, and my anger had shaped my words. As much as I hated being in that moment, I knew my friend was right and what he was saying to me about me was true. By grace, I resisted my self-justifying internal arguments, listened to his words, and asked for his
Forgiveness.
I know I need to read the following words again and again. What about you?
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.
A good man obtains favor from the LORD,
but a man of evil devices he condemns.
No one is established by wickedness,
but the root of the righteous will never be moved. (Prov. 12:1-3)
If I called you up on a Friday night and told you that I wanted to come over to rebuke you, how would you respond? When we think of reproof or rebuke, we often think of pointed fingers, a loud voice, and inflammatory accusations. But this is not what Proverbs has in mind at all. Reproof in Proverbs is such a good and necessary thing that you would have to be stupid not to want it in your life. Why? Scripture teaches that sin blinds us, and, because it does, we often don't see or hear ourselves with accuracy. The doctrine of the deceitfulness of sin teaches us that we do not know ourselves well. So I need help, and since God is the helper of helpers and is unwilling to leave me to my blindness, he sends helpers my way. He puts people in my life who love me enough to step into hard moments with me, helping me see what God wants me to see. When I am properly rebuked, I am not experiencing human disrespect. No, I am experiencing divine rescue, a rescue I will need repeatedly until sin is no more. Jesus came to give sight to blind eyes, and he sends people into our lives as his instruments of seeing.
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