Love is corrective

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People, and particularly preachers, in the message often state something similar to this:

First of all, know that I love you. I do not hate you. You are not my enemy... But true love is corrective.

This then serves as an excuse for them to say some of the meanest, nastiest things that they can, and say them in a way that appears to be filled with hatred. This attitude comes directly from the teachings of William Branham (see quotes below).

But is this Biblical?

What the Bible teaches

The New Testament does refer to this concept but it is interesting to note that it is always God that is the one who disciplines his children:

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

“My child, pay attention when the Lord corrects you, and do not be discouraged when he rebukes you. Because the Lord corrects everyone he loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as his child.”

Endure what you suffer as being a father’s punishment; your suffering shows that God is treating you as his children. Was there ever a child who was not punished by his father? 8If you are not punished, as all his children are, it means you are not real children, but bastards. In the case of our human fathers, they punished us and we respected them. How much more, then, should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them; but God does it for our own good, so that we may share his holiness.American Bible Society, The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation, 2nd ed. (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), Heb 12:7–10.

The scripture clearly teaches that God can and will correct us, but does this give permission for people to correct each other in ways that can best be described as "extremely confrontational".

No! God describes his discipline as coming out of the relationship that a father has for his children.

Any parent knows the intense displeasure and irritation that comes from another adult trying to discipline their children. It is completely inappropriate for me to apply "corrective love" to God's children. And like a human parent, he would take extreme displeasure when someone tries to discipline his children, particularly when they do it in a way that is anything but loving.

Try this next time you are in the local mall. Go up to a child that is acting like a brat, and give him a good paddle on his behind. Do you think his parents will turn to the little urchin and say:

“You see what happens when you act this way in public? Strangers spank you.”

I don't think so.

The proper Biblical approach

First, if you have a doctrinal issue, which is what 99.9% of message people will beat you up for, there are no Biblical grounds for going on a rant against a fellow Christian.

The Bible does say this in respect of "church discipline":

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

...Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

through love serve one another.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ga 5:13.

Quotes of William Branham

And now I have a Message that I'm responsible for. And many times I've been considered, amongst the people, well, maybe someone who just didn't sit down and think a minute, that I was a—a, oh, an awful person, I didn't like people, and I was always cutting them. And that's not so. That isn't so. I love people. But, you know, love is corrective. If your little boy was sitting in the street out there, and you said, "Junior, dear, I don't want you out there, but…" And cars buzzing by him, and you brought him in. He run back out again. Why, you should correct him. If you love him, you will. You have to. 24 If you seen a man floating down a river, towards a falls, in a little boat, that you knowed that boat was going to sink when he hit the falls, would you say, "John, you, maybe you ought to think a while, maybe you might not make it"? If I know he's not going to make it, I'm going to almost jerk him out of the boat, if I can, because it's love that does that.

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