Accepting Correction Bring Peace
In today’s reading, Jesus goes again to the temple to teach the people, but the scribes and religious leaders block him. Remember, this is the day after Jesus came to temple and ran out the money changers and the swindlers. They wanted to know who gave Jesus the authority to turn their temple upside down. What they should have been more concerned about was why he needed to do it in the first place. These were the leaders of the people. They were responsible for teaching the people what God’s word contained. It was their job to establish and uphold what was right and what was wrong. They had failed. Had they been doing their job, Jesus would have had no need to disrupt what they were doing. As it was, the court was no longer a place of prayer but instead a marketplace. Not only was it a marketplace, it was a manipulative and corrupt marketplace. The temple itself swindled people by charging outrageous prices on things the pilgrims needed to make their required sacrifices.
We need to be open to correction. That is a touchy subject, but an important one for us to address. It is not always pleasant. Hebrews 12:11 acknowledges this while pointing to the importance of correction and disciple. It says, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Notice that the fruit of discipline is peaceful. When we struggle against the firm boundaries of the Lord, we will never find peace. The only way for our lives to be defined by peace is if we live within God’s will. With that in mind, I want people to correct me. Imagine our lives like a stone tower. If the first few stones are off even a centimeters, giant chaos ensues. With each stone, the margin of error increases and what starts as a small infraction becomes a huge leaning tower. Our attitude needs to be one of accepting correction with gratitude.
Proverbs 12:1 could not possibly say the truth any more plain. It says, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.” I don’t want to be stupid. I don’t want to stand before the Lord and have that be the message He proclaims over my life. Let us grow in knowledge and understanding. Let us live a peaceable life. Let us not look to pointing the finger at others, but rather examining and accepting the correction of our own lives.
(Written by Keegan Harkins.)
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