Free to Be Wrong

PCA pastor Steve Brown says, "50% of what I said was wrong and 50% was true. It's your job to figure out which parts are which." He was referring to how he handles someone who is upset with his counsel, a sermon, or something that he wrote. Pastor Brown spends a lot of his time writing and preaching about the freedom that we have in Jesus. I always loved this quote and it has helped guide me when I'm confronted with sin, with error, or with someone who needs their own correction. There is freedom and peace in knowing that you will be wrong - and guess what? It's okay. Jesus died for and paid for that too.

In his letter to the early church, John writes, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us (1 Jn 1:8–10). What convicting and also life-giving words. What if we approached all confrontation this way? What if we want into every confrontation knowing we are sinful and that God's work isn't yet done in us so long as there is breath in our lungs?

We spend a lot of time trying to make things right - even perfect. We should pursue the perfection of Christ in everything that we do. We should press on toward the prize which is Christ himself. But we must know, that we aren't going to get it right every time. We are going to misstep. We are going to sin. We are going to have problems along the way. Sometimes we are going to need a course correction - and the added benefit of being "in Christ" is being in community. We have been called out of isolation and into community with other brothers and sisters in Christ. We must depend on them to help us see the light when we're walking in dark places.

Confrontation in community can get us riled up. But it doesn't need to be that way. At least not when you are under the blood of Christ. When someone confronts you, reproves you, or asks you to think through the consequences of something you have said or done, you, in Christ, are free to hear their words, apply the Word of God and confess and repent of sin in complete freedom.

Fight the urge to be self-reliant in those confrontational moments. Fight the urge to be right. Because it is impossible for you to be 100% right all of the time. Our average score of being right are much lower than we'd ever suspect - that's why we have the counsel of the whole priesthood of believers.

One final encouragement today - when someone confronts you with sin in your word, thought or deed, look at the moment as a golden opportunity to become more like Jesus instead of a moment to remain a slave to your old nature. Allow God to use other people and His word to weed out deep-rooted sin, and to clear up blind spots you have to sin.

We have freedom to have peace in those moments because Jesus has indeed paid for those redemptive moments with his life, death and resurrection.