Proverbs 27:5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.

What good does love do you if you do not know it exists?

An open rebuke gives you an opportunity to explore problems. Maybe the rebuke is justified, maybe it is not, but if your brother feels strongly about your behavior, the honesty of a rebuke places conditions on the table where they can be examined and dealt with.

Have you heard the term milquetoast Christian? It is hard to get them to express any zeal at all about their beliefs. They express nothing for fear of confrontation. One does not have to be confrontational in a rebuke. It can be as simple as saying, “That hurt.”

While 1 Corinthians 13 says that love is not easily offended, it does not say that it cannot be offended. If an offense is received, then it should be voiced, otherwise it is secret love.

I will tell you what hurts me worse than an honest rebuke; that is when someone turns their back on me and walks away. That is rejection. I’ve had to deal with many rejections in my life and it hurts worse than a slap in the face, or a punch in the gut.

But how would you know if I suffered rejection if I kept quiet? You would not know. Such is many of the wounds of our past that are opened by the thoughtless acts of others. There is no slight, no direct intention, unless it is voiced.

Philippians 2:1-3 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

1 Corinthians 15:31b I die daily.

We know that we do not physically die every day. We know that we have been baptized into Christ death, that being born again we are a new creature. So what does Paul mean when he says I die daily?

Think back to those first days of your salvation. You surrendered to God and you became His. Were you not still you? Did you stop having the same personality traits you developed as you grew up? Wasn’t family and friends a large influence in your identity back then? Did that stop altogether just because you accepted Christ by faith? No, it didn’t. It didn’t stop for me.

Being conformed into the image of the Son isn’t an instant transformation. You now belong to God, but at that moment you were a babe in Christ, with everything to learn, no matter how old you were. It is a sad truth that we do not all come to Christ at a young age. Some of us have a lifetime of being the old man before becoming a babe in Christ.

Growth in Christ is a process that takes time. The older we are, the more set in our individual personalities became. Growing in Christ does not remove all of what we were but changes from glory to glory according to God’s will. He will transform us into perfection but only when we are received into that incorruptible body. We live in a corruptible body today, and it is still subject to decay, not only in life force, but in spiritual maturity.

The old man doesn’t want to stay in the ground and does not stop being an influence just because we have a new Lord. Paul is warning me, if not you, that daily death is making sure the old man stays in the ground, harmless to interfere with growth in Christ. But what if not all parts of the old man have been laid to rest.

Philippians 2:3-4 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

If you are looking at my things, and you see the old man, please warn me.