How do you think Paul, \u2018the apostle of grace\u2019, would have handled the following inquiry: \u2018Dear Paul: We\u2019re thinking about hiring Alexander the coppersmith as a company manager, and because you know him well, we\u2019d appreciate your opinion.\u2019 Knowing the problems Alexander had caused in the past (1 Timothy 1:19\u201320; 2\u00a0Timothy\u00a04:14\u201315), how would Paul respond? <\/p>\n
Or what about this one: \u2018Dear Abraham: Lot has applied for a loan to expand his cattle property in the Jordan Valley near Sodom. So we\u2019re writing to ask you for a character reference.\u2019 Would Abraham, who was well aware of his nephew\u2019s shady business practices (Genesis\u00a013:11\u201313), be evasive and \u2018fudge\u2019 the facts to keep peace in the family? It\u2019s doubtful. <\/p>\n
Or what about this one: \u2018Dear Apostle John: We need a mature Christian to fill a slot on our church board. Based on your dealings with Diotrephes, do you think he\u2019s the right person?\u2019 John knew the trouble Diotrephes had already caused and his need for power and control (see 3\u00a0John\u00a01:9\u201310). But would he hedge and take the path of least resistance? Probably not; based on John\u2019s existing forthright comments, he\u2019d be honest all the way. <\/p>\n
So, what would you do? Remember, the Bible says that love should always make us tell the truth. Following Christ means being honest when it would be easier to mislead and spin. Hopefully you\u2019d find the courage to be straightforward\u2014and gracious. Yes, gracious!<\/i> Why? Because being asked for your input doesn\u2019t give you a right to resurrect another\u2019s mistakes and publicly embarrass them. The Bible says, \u2018Let your conversation be gracious and effective.\u2019<\/i> (Colossians\u00a04:6\u00a0NLT<\/sup>) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do you think Paul, \u2018the apostle of grace\u2019, would have handled the following inquiry: \u2018Dear Paul: We\u2019re thinking about hiring Alexander the coppersmith as a company manager, and because you know him well, we\u2019d appreciate your opinion.\u2019 Knowing the problems Alexander had caused in the past (1 Timothy 1:19\u201320; 2\u00a0Timothy\u00a04:14\u201315), how would Paul respond? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}