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HINDRANCES AND CHALLENGES TO SERVICE (IV)
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4
Nehemiah 5:6-13

1 Timothy 5:17-25

 

“Them that sin rebuke before all,

that others also may fear.”

 

HINDRANCES AND CHALLENGES TO SERVICE (IV)
 
It is possible for double standards of living to exist within the community of God’s people. Relationships between people may be starkly different when they gather for God’s work and service, and when they meet “out there in the world” or live their “normal lives.” But when this comes to light, how the community of God’s people addresses it and what is done about it is very critical. Ignoring or glossing over it serves to reinforce the wrong and make it acceptable, even lawful. Addressing and correcting the wrong serves to reinforce God’s standards for Christian life. God’s work was still in progress, but the matter that had come to Nehemiah’s attention was grave and had to be handled.
 
And I set a great assembly against them (Neh 5:7). What Nehemiah did was the only right thing to do. He did not choose to postpone it and focus on completing the wall first. He faced and addressed the issue soberly and decisively. He spoke to them directly “and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother,” and he publicly “set a great assembly against them.” The public assembly probably consisted of those who were oppressed and aggrieved, as well as those who were not guilty of the charges raised. The practice had to be denounced publicly because the people whom the charges were levelled against were people whom Nehemiah had worked with repeatedly. He had the charges openly examined and justice administered on those “that sin.” And he had them rebuked “before all, that others may fear” (1 Tim 5:20).
 
And I said unto them (Neh 5:8). In the presence of the assembly, Nehemiah pointed out the error of their ways and the effects of their actions. He showed a contrast between how they acted (“ye exact usury”) and how he and others with him had acted (“we after our ability have redeemed our brethren”) under the same circumstances. The selling of fellow Jews into slavery was not consistent with the redeeming of them from slavery. One was against God (Lev 25:42), and hence clearly wrong.
 
THOUGHT: Imitating the world often leads to open transgression.

PRAYER: Father, grant me grace to imitate Christ and walk in love.

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