Your Initial Response to Their Correction
Thank you so much for being courageous enough and grace-filled enough to bring correction to me. I now know that you love me because of your willingness to fight through your own fear of man issues to adjust me. The Bible is true, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are profuse. Thank you for not being my enemy. You are demonstrating your friendship and affection for me by correcting me. For that, I am grateful to God for you.
Now Your Turn to Correct Them
Though I am thankful for your correction and realize you have brought some things to my attention that I need to work on, I feel compelled to let you know that your observations are somewhat incomplete. You have only mentioned two things that I need to change, that trouble you. It saddens me to inform you that you are working with incomplete data. You really do not know me as well as you think you might know me.
You see, we have not known each other that long. We only met a few months ago. The real bad news, and what you are not aware of, is that I have been sinning much longer than the time we have known each other. The honest truth is that I have sinned so much in my life that it would be impossible for me to recount to you all of the sinning that I have done.
I do not say this proudly, though I realize I am being humble right now, and I am somewhat proud of the fact that I’m trying to be humble. I am such a rotten sinner that I can sin even when I’m trying to walk in humility, as in this response to you. I suspect that if I could pile-up all the sin that I have done in my life, that it would far surpass any sinning that you have done and it would far surpass what you think you know about me.
And Now, the Worst News of All
Here’s the honest truth: You do not know the whole truth. I’m a lot worse than you think. You only mentioned two things, but I’m far worse.
I killed Christ.
Not only have I sinned in the ways you have just mentioned to me. Not only have I sinned far beyond what you are bringing to my attention. But it was because of me that the Father executed his Son on the Cross. It was because of me that the Savior silently and humbly chose to go to His Cross.
The things you know about me, that are wrong and I need to change, do not compare to what I have done to my Lord. Though I am very grateful for your courage and grace to bring my sin to my attention, I am more aware of what I have done to the Son of God.
The Best News of All
Please do not misunderstand me. I am not downplaying what you have brought to my attention. It is precisely because of my awareness of my sin against my Lord, that I am going to aggressively repent of these new sins you shared with me. It is this awareness of my worst sin that brings me hope for these lesser sins. My Savior will not only forgive me of these new sins, but he will give me the grace I need to overcome them, because he chose to forgive me initially, when he regenerated me.
He is the Gospel and in the Gospel I have hope.
So thank you for reminding me of the Gospel once again and I pray you will not hold back when you see me dishonoring my Lord. I have the power to change through Him who saved me. I just need friends like you to help me see where I need to change.
Rick
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