Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 27:5-6 (ESV)
A question for you today: in your relationships are you a true friend or a secret enemy? Do you love your friends enough to "wound them" (which might result in you being wounded as well), or do you simply flatter them. This proverb tells us that sometimes love hurts.
Sometimes people tell me, I love them too much to confront them about that. Or, I love my child too much to discipline them like that.
My response is, no, you love yourself too much. You are more concerned about what it might cost you rather than what it might cost them. True love requires sacrifice. It requires hard choices. It sometimes requires hard words. Sometimes true love requires the risk of losing a relationship. The path of love is almost always the harder way. Just ask Jesus:
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (ESV).
Love the post! True, agape love does not look inwardly but outwardly. The same applies with reaching the lost. We say we have compassion on the lost and want to reach them for Christ yet we are worried how they might respond? If we truly love the souls that are teetering on eternity, then we will gladly bear rejection if it means planting seeds of the Gospel in darkened hearts.
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