The very few times I have been chastised publicly, I rebelled. Especially in my adult years. I am of the view that there is a better way of doing everything – including correcting a person. Hence, if you can’t call me aside and whisper my flaws softly into my ears then I assume you are the one with issues. You probably need to check your anger bro. And you too sis, you need to read more on grace to understand what scripture says about not judging people. But hey, you really can’t grow out of certain things unless you are chastised in the open. Open rebuke is a two-edged sword. The harsh words hurled at you coupled with the shame you feel because it was done in public do you more good than evil if you humble yourself to accept your flaws.

Solomon said in Proverbs 27:5 ESV. ‘Better is open rebuke than hidden love’. Ouch! So it is biblical after all. It isn’t a pleasant experience and I believe those who openly rebuke people should do so with caution. Lashing out at somebody and becoming verbally abusive can easily be camouflaged as an open rebuke. When in actual fact the perpetrator is just exhibiting a lack of self-control. We should be tactical in our approach. It should be planned. I have heard of so many instances where a person commits a sin and is brought to the podium in church and rebuked openly or even stripped of some title or position. These are usually carefully planned and thought out. Hence, they are less reactionary but more corrective.

Is Solomon the only person in scripture who approved open rebuke? Certainly not. The New Testament is almost riddled with many instances of open rebuke. Let us look at a few of such cases. Jesus’ dialogues with the Pharisees are often an example of open rebuke. Paul is also known to have openly rebuked Peter in Galatians 2:11 for acting hypocritically in the presence of some of James’ followers. Peter was comfortable eating with some Gentiles and immediately he saw these men, the ‘circumcision party’ as Paul calls them, he stopped. Indeed, Peter was a higher-ranking apostle than Paul so by hierarchical order Paul had no authority over him. However, when it comes to jurisdictional order, Paul did. Paul was known to be the apostle sent to the Gentiles. Therefore, anything concerning the relationship between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians was an issue of major concern to him. Hence his reaction to Peter’s hypocrisy.

In 1^st Corinthians 5, Paul dealt with a peculiar issue. He made mention of a case where a man, who was a member of the church in Corinth, was known to be having sexual relations with his father’s wife. Paul said such this kind of sexual immorality wasn’t even known amongst pagans. Therefore he told the church ‘let him who has done this be removed from among you’. Ouch! Excommunication. Well, I could deal with this actually. If the elders of the church approached me secretly and told me to leave the church because of my sin, I would be hurt, but I would leave. It is sneaky alright, but less embarrassing. Guess what, Paul isn’t done making his point yet. In verse 4 and 5 he said:

When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (ESV)

Wait a minute. So we are on the verge of establishing the fact that open rebuke is biblical but where from ‘deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh’? A few verses away, Paul says the man should be excommunicated, which is understandable. But how are we as Christians supposed to deliver a fellow Christian to Satan for the destruction of his flesh? The issue gets more confusing when we remember how Jesus went about open rebuke. Remember when Peter was bent on stopping Jesus from being caught and crucified? Jesus turned and faced Peter. But he didn’t address Peter, he rather cast out the devil out of Peter. This is open rebuke like no other. The problem has been dealt with to the roots. This is why what Paul said up there appears confusing to me. Where he says the man who committed the abomination should be DELIVERED TO Satan, Jesus rather DELIVERED Peter FROM the manipulation of Satan.

Here is another instance in 1 Timothy 1:19-20 ESV:

… holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Yet again we see fellow Christians being delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in this case for blaspheming. What was the sin Alexander and Hymanaeus committed? In 2 Timothy 4:14, Paul states that Alexander the coppersmith did him (Paul) a lot of harm. No further details – that was all he said about Alexander. Hymanaeus’ sin is also mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:17-18. According to Paul, Hymanaeus together with Philetus ‘who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some’. So obviously the sins of Hymanaeus and Alexander had serious implications.

What does it mean to deliver someone to Satan for the destruction of the flesh? From scripture we see Paul doing this to fellow Christians and even non-believers who committed some particular sins. Paul in Acts 13:8-11 delivered a sorcerer by name of Elymas to the devil for the destruction of his flesh. A mist fell on him and he became blind instantly. His crime? He opposed Paul and Barnabas in their bid to preach the word to the Proconsul. Delivering someone to Satan for the destruction of the flesh means to pronounce judgment over the person that will result in sickness or even some permanent disease coming upon the person. This is done so as to cause the person to repent of their sins. This is very noteworthy, the end goal of delivering someone to Satan is to cause the person to repent. Do not do so merely because you are angry and wish to punish the person who has sinned.

Back to the contrast between Paul’s approach to open rebuke and that of Jesus. In this very instance, before Paul pronounced judgment on the sorcerer, scripture says he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Which means, what he did was inspired by God himself. Therefore, it doesn’t in any way contradict what Jesus did or how he went about it. The issue here is that not every sin requires open rebuke or deliverance to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Open rebuke is godly. The effect it must have on you is repentance. I believe this is what Paul meant when he said in 2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV:

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

To be openly rebuked will cause one to be ashamed of his/her actions thereby leading him/her to repentance. To be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh will make you physically stricken by a disease, also leading to repentance. Both are painful experiences; the latter is worse. Let’s learn to heed to the voice and promptings of the Holy Spirit always lest we fall into any kind of sin that would merit either one of these two punishments. Those of us who mete out these two punishments should also do so with a lot of caution and out of love. Not every sin requires open rebuke.

The dangers of obeying God: One of the most baffling experiences in one’s walk with God is when he consciously finds himself in the will of God and yet exposed to so much peril. It hasn’t happened just once, not twice but countless times in the bible and in the day-to-day activities of present day Christians. I find it very interesting that Jesus was the one who sent his disciples out on that stormy voyage while he stayed behind to disperse the crowds (that’s strange). He literally sent them into danger. That is rather disappointing and it’s almost a betrayal.  Peter and his cohorts walked into danger by following God’s instructions. Jonah ended up in the same situation by disobeying God. But this wasn’t Jonah this was Simon Bar-JONAH and his colleagues. It is amazing how the disciples experienced the same predicament through obedience that Jonah did through disobedience.

Mark’s account of this story (Mark6:48) is very fascinating. According to Mark, when Jesus appeared on the sea he was walking past them. He seemed to be uninterested in the plight of his own disciples. He was walking past them, until their cries caught his attention. We often assume God knows it all hence he should be able to know all our worries and therefore it is needless for us to draw His attention to us in prayer. Well I have news for you, He is walking by, will you call on him or you will just watch him walk by? Countless times we see this happen in the bible. When Jesus clearly walks up to someone who is afflicted by some disease and yet still asks how He may be of help to the person. God won’t interfere in a situation he isn’t invited into. The truth remains, if you want a load of blessings, heavy enough to force you to your knees, please get on your knees first.

In the second verse of the song it says:

Your Grace abounds in deepest waters

Your sovereign hand will be my guide

Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me

You’ve never failed and you won’t start now.

Have you not found yourself praying for abundant grace before? Well, according to the song, abundant grace can only be found at one place: IN DEEPEST WATERS. God’s greatest resource (Grace) is only available when He is the only one available to you. Better yet, His grace is available when you are at your wit’s end. Therefore He said, ‘my strength is made perfect in your weakness’. The ‘deepest waters’ are the places where everybody fails you. They are the places where every single person you know is either incapable of helping you or has totally neglected you. The song writer calls it a place ‘where feet may fail’. The faith I have in my feet is exceedingly above anything else. When I wake up in the morning I never doubt the fact that the moment I throw my feet off the bed the next thing is to walk. My feet are my support. They have never failed me and will never fail me. We all have feet in our lives. No, I do not mean ‘feet’ literally. I mean that physical entity that seems to always have your back and won’t ever leave you, not for all the fish in the sea. It could be your parents, their wealth, your intellect, your beauty, your health, your friend or even that lover. These are your feet. The truth is they may fail you one of these days, if they haven’t already. But a more soothing and sweet fact is that, if they fail you, God is available. In such situations, God has never failed and he won’t start with you.

The desire to be tested in deeper waters: the songwriter says:

Spirit, lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters, wherever you would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my savior.

What is shocking in the story about Jesus’ walk on the water is the fact that Peter called to Jesus asking to join Jesus on the sea. The call to be taken away from one’s own comfort zone has to be one of the most outrageous things to do. In the midst of the storm, there is enough reason to fret but Peter turns the heat up a notch by desiring to defy Archimedes’s law of flotation. I can almost see the perplexed look on the faces of the other disciples when Peter took that first step on the water. Peter’s decision was one taken in total trust in the nebulous creature before him. Especially because it claimed to be the Jesus he knew. It is worthy of note that our acts of faith are only necessary when we are at sea. When our backs are against the wall that is when our faith is necessary. When you are broke, that is when giving to God even means more to him. For in that, you prove to him that you are not a slave to money but you are happily leashed only by Him. You express your boundless trust in him in such circumstances by desiring to be stripped of any other relief mechanism. The song writer puts it this way ‘… where my trust is without borders’: the place where my trust in God cannot be restrained. The place where my trust in God is ever increasing and gaining more grounds (or borderless) like wild bush fire, is the same place where his grace is abundant; and that is where I want to spend the rest of my life. When the song says ‘Let me walk upon the waters, wherever you would call me’, it only establishes the fact that wherever God will ever send you, there is a sea to walk on. God will always require you to do the seemingly impossible things: a walk on the deep blue seas. Such a place, one cannot walk there except he is sent there purposely by the Savior. That is why the song writer desires of the Spirit to lead him to a place deeper than anywhere his feet could ever wander. At the end of all of this, it is supposed to increase our faith in God. This is an amazing story captured beautifully in an amazing song. The electrifying voice of Taya Smith makes listening to the song a calming and reflective experience. It is just amazing.

I believe Simon Peter would have wished he had heard the story of a pre-historic Peter who encountered Jesus on the sea. By this example he could have kept his eyes on the Savior (or above the waves) and therefore he wouldn’t have sunk. Well, unfortunately for him he didn’t but fortunately for us, we have heard of such a story. A story that teaches us this truth: when you focus on the problem instead of the solution, you will be overwhelmed by the problem. I like how someone put it, he said, ‘don’t tell your God how big your problem is, rather tell your problem how big your God is’. Let’s be God-conscious and not problem-conscious. It is amazing that Jesus came to the rescue of ‘the drowning Peter’. Jesus, the same one who was impressed by Peter’s decision to join him on the water came to his rescue. It is refreshing to know that anytime we fail, his hands are ever ready and present to come to our rescue. This is Grace, Praise God.

Please share with me how the song has been a blessing to you. it is in the link below.