Somehow we’ve inherited a belief system that has taught us that correction/instruction are one thing and edification/encouragement are another. People walk with offense right under their skin and Scriptural counsel is often scoffed at immediately. “We shouldn’t judge, you know. We should just ‘love’ one another.”
But what does the Word say? Today’s example is one of many. Humble people, who walk in meekness, postured to learn and grow, receive counsel. They receive instruction. Why is that? They knew that it is good for their well-being. They understood that they required it. They had no issue with admitting that they needed to learn a new way to live.
Sadly, today most go it alone or with clones of their own beliefs, rejecting any biblical correction and counsel that may come to them from an outside source. We’ve all got it figured out now. We’ve become settled and immovable. There’s simply no need to change what we do or do not do. And if anyone steps into the boundary? They get run off. I’ve seen this time and time again. The Body has grown comfortable and lethargic, duped to believe that we already know it all already. Just start in Matthew chapter 1 and move on… “in love.”
That however wasn’t the way that the post-resurrection Body that Paul spoke of lived, as we read in Romans 15, "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." What are the Scriptures? The Torah and the Prophets. Warnings. Counsel. Instruction. Correction. They used to encourage the Body, and not just some of the Psalms and Proverbs that land in daily devotional books.
In Acts 18:25-27 we see a man named Apollos who “had been instructed in the way of the Master” and he was ”fervent in spirit, accurately speaking and teaching things about Yeshua” but was only “acquainted with the baptism of John.” “He began speaking boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of Elohim more accurately to him.”
So, are we told that he responded with angst and stiff-neckness? Did he tell them that he already knew the Scriptures as he recited to them his great knowledge and experience? No. Verse 27 simply continues on as he “wanted to go across to Achaia, [where] the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace.” Apparently, he moved on, adding what he was pulled aside to be told. There’s no record of anything but good coming from this small snapshot of instruction and counsel. We could all learn from this.
There used to be a prominent place for counsel, instruction and correction. It used to be encourage Believers that humbly admitted that they had much to learn. Those who heard and received the instruction of the Jerusalem council welcomed the things they were told they could no longer take part in. Lines were drawn. Absolutes. Rules and law. Instruction. Just like their had always been. This is where they were *to start* in their new journey. (Please note that they were literally told what they could no longer do.) More would be added, in proper time. Counsel, instruction and correction would come from the Torah, as it always had. Training these new Believers in righteousness, unto the image and likeness of the Son!
These changes in behavior would begin to move them out of the world that they had known and move them into the counsel of Yahweh via the reading of the Scriptures in the synagogue. I would suggest that we return to this lost facet of the Body. Are you postured to receive correction and instruction today? Am I? Let us be found ready to receive the counsel that we all need today, whatever that may be. Selah.
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