Quote:
Originally Posted by Nell
1 Timothy 5:19-21
19 Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
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I think it's instructive to look at Jesus' rebukes. He didn't always rebuke people, but rather included the forces that the people fronted.
Two examples:
1) "Get behind me Satan" to Peter. It wasn't Cephas that was rebuked but the force behind Cephas, that had temporarily usurped him;
2) when he asked the man in the tombs, "Who are you" the man said, "Oh, there's a lot of us in here", instead of, "My name is Joe Johnson". The man wasn't the issue, it was the forces that had usurped the man.
The NT pattern shows me that yes, people do bad things, but our enemy is not people but the forces behind them. "We fight not against flesh and blood but the authorities, the forces of the air." For years I've said that WL's assertion that China was "virgin soil" for the Holy Spirit was a scam. China is full of fallen human vessels as well. Nothing virgin about it.
As soon as we realize who we are, what we are, we are less liable to be duped like that.