Our goal as a church is to support one another in our walk with Christ. We want one day to hear these words from Jesus, “Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” and nothing will ever be sweeter.
But, of course, the Christian life isn’t easy, and we need a little help along the way. Sometimes that help comes in the form of an encouraging talk from a brother or sister, or even perhaps a corrective word.
The passage for Sunday is difficult–not because it’s hard to understand, but rather because it’s easy to understand but hard to practice. Most of us would prefer doing almost anything rather than confronting a fellow believer about something he or she is doing.
But that’s what Paul tells us to do. He says that believers ought to have difficult conversations with one another from time to time. After all, if we had no one who was willing to challenge us on something we were doing–in the interest of helping us on our journey of faith, of course–that would be sad, wouldn’t it?