Will they ever get it?

I ponder often about a situation that came up in our church body. Without getting into the details, it was a situation where two people had gotten up to their eyeballs in sin. And though the church offered and did what they could to help them see their sin and get out of it, the sin itself blinded them. And rather than see the error of their ways, they decided to take offence and walk away.

This reminds me of a situation where a brother pointed out some sin in my life. Because I knew that the sin was sin, I could say nothing about it. So I did what any rebellious Christian would do, I decided to take offence to the way that he approached me, and I severed my relationship with him. Well that festered under the surface and produced all kinds of grossness in my life. The day I repented in tears to him was the day I was really set free.

I have never been in a church where somebody would actually be asked to leave. Would I be able to love somebody that much that I would be willing to face rejection myself so that this person might somehow be set free from their sin? I know that the natural me would want to smooth things over, make excuses for them and just say that the love of Jesus is enough. What kind of love is that?

The situation brought out issues that I have with people involved, and how I need to forgive even though there is no repentance only selfishness. My heart aches for the people that got hurt in the process, for them there can be no repentance that could ever heal their pain.

So will they ever get it? I hope so, otherwise we will be just one of the many obstacles they view in their rear view mirror of life. As they careen from place to place hoping that somehow the next church may have the answer as to how stop the hurt of a life of sin and a lack of repentance.