Secret Agent (2)
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 2 Timothy 4:2
Reprove – Every Twelve Stepper knows that secrets kill. The rest of us live in denial. The power of addiction is found in the secrets addicts keep. It doesn’t matter if you eat in secret, drink in secret, shoot up in secret, lust in secret, shop in secret or gamble in secret. Whatever you do in secret to alter your mood takes you prisoner. Your secrets will kill you.
That’s why we each need a secret agent. Paul calls this person someone who “reproves.” The Greek is elencho. In the New Testament, the meaning of this ancient Greek term is restricted to the action of showing people their sins and calling them to repentance. This is one of the principal roles of the Holy Spirit (John16:8), but you and I have a part, not in convicting others, but in acting as the revealers of secrets. The secret agent is the one person in your life who can speak through your denial, who can hold you accountable, and who stands ready to lead sin out of your life.
By the way, this isn’t new either. Remember the man who stood ready to lead away the scapegoat. Well, reproof is a part of Leviticus too. Leviticus 19:17 tells us that reproving each other is an essential component of holiness. This is not optional. In fact, it is so important that Proverbs says that the parents who fail to reprove their children are signing death warrants for their offspring. Reproof is serious business.
Oh, did you think that this was an endorsement for you to start digging up the secrets of others in order to call them on the “holiness” carpet? Don’t be so foolish. Clean your own closet first. Your secrets reveal the depth of your hypocrisy. No one comes to the table without hidden things, except the man who said, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” Reprove? Yes, but with the guidance of the Spirit and with fear and trembling over your own darkest hours. God is a God of community. Holiness is a community affair. Therefore, I need to watch out for you. I need to protect you when I see your life veering away from total commitment to God. And, Lord knows, I need you to do the same for me, for I feel the sting of Jesus’ words to that crowd when they dragged the woman in front of Him. I was standing there too. Until the Spirit has nothing more to convict me about, I will need a secret agent. Will it be you?
I guess I basically just want to bump this TW. This is a good reminder for me. I was never so sick as when I thought I had to look well to the world. The memory of the cowardice that it took to always try my best to keep a brave face to the world and myself (forget God) can make me cringe even now. Cowardice is the strength behind guile. The lie behind that cowardice would tell me that I would only look acceptable to others if they did not know who I really was (insert nasty insinuation here). When I believed that lie, I was bound. Even though I am still struggling with honesty I think I can see a few things better now. One of them is that I have found that I have nothing but admiration for people who can let it all hang out. And I feel sympathetic but sorry for those who still can’t. I still find myself shaking with cold sweat sometimes when I end up in a witness moment that I did not see coming. I still stink at pop quizzes pretty much, but as there does seem to be somewhat less bushes in my garden for me to end up behind, they seem to be less frequent. For now.
P.S. If anybody finds me behind a bush, please feel momentary sympathy for me if you can, but then could you just offer me a hand back out? I’d be much obliged.