One of the toughest thing a Christian leader faces in discipleship is to confront sin in a person’s life. Some hesitate because of the fear it might offend or it might hurt the person’s feeling and that he might not come back to church if confronted or corrected.

In my 7 years pastoring Greenhills, I have the hard task of confronting certain people in church who are sinning and it is not something I love to do but because for the love of God and His people, I need to do it.

Again let me repeat that – confronting sin is not something I love to do but because of my love for God and His people, I need to do it.

So what are we to do?

The simple answer is to lovingly confront. That means spell out the sin but don’t get mad at the one sinning. The people we are leading needs to know if they are sinning. Now we are not the Holy Spirit which means we can’t force their response. Some might repent of their sin, others might be offended and leave church – again we are not the Holy Spirit so let’s not act like one. Just stick to Scripture when pointing out a sin. Get them back to the Word and not to our own opinion of the matter.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, ” Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin.”

If the Church refuses to face the stern reality of sin, it will gain no credence when it talks of forgiveness. Such a Church sins against its sacred trust and walks unworthily of the gospel. It is an unholy Church, squandering the precious treasure of the Lord’s forgiveness.