Articles
Public Correction vs. Private Correction
“Then the tribes of Israel sent men through the entire tribe of Benjamin, saying, ‘What is this wickedness that has taken place among you? Now then, deliver up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove this wickedness from Israel.’ But the sons of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel.” (Judges 20:12-13)
Benjamin was wrong for not listening to the other tribes about what had happened in Gibeah. However, the other tribes were not totally in the right. They were basing their judgment on the testimony of one man — the man who had given his concubine to the murderers in order to save himself! Additionally, Israel showed up to make their charges with over 300,000 soldiers armed for war. We should know enough about ourselves to realize that demands issued by soldiers carrying weapons will be perceived as a threat.
There is an argument to be made for diplomacy, even in the case of actual wrongdoing, on the basis of the golden rule: “Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). It seems that the other tribes of Israel had already made up their minds when they went to confront Benjamin. The initial defeats that Israel suffered would suggest that God wasn’t exactly pleased with the actions of the other tribes (Judges 20:21, 25). Yet, a truly terrible thing had occurred in Gibeah.
Do we have to go to brother privately when they have said or done something in public that we are concerned about? We may be interested in the technical answer to this question, but it should be noted that when this question has been answered technically, love your neighbor as yourself is still a command. Sometimes issues may be made public very quickly in order to leverage others into submission through pressure rather than good arguments. This is not loving or honest. Still, we do have the example of Paul dealing with the public behavior of Peter…publicly (Galatians 2:12-14).
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. Love places the best possible construction on the words and the actions of others. Love does not watch for the slightest failure in others so that they can be crushed without a sincere effort to help them make any necessary corrections. Such behavior is cruelty towards one for whom Christ died and it is hard to see such behavior as anything other than arrogance in the critic. If our words and our actions in defense of the gospel do not combine truth and love, we will do harm to the cause of Christ rather than good and we will be a stumbling block to anyone who follows our example.
On the other hand, if we believe that a private rebuke would have been more loving in a particular situation, it still remains true that bad doctrine will inevitably produce bad behavior. We cannot practice sin and inherit the kingdom of God. We should not ignore issues of doctrine that have been raised because we think a private rebuke would have been more appropriate. People are sometimes mistreated in the name of correcting error, but we cannot allow feelings of sympathy to blind us to legitimate spiritual dangers.
