How to Serve Others (5 of 6) By James Boice

5. We must speak God’s truth to the other person. When I began this listing of what it means to serve others I said that Christians tend to talk without listening, assuming that they already know what is about to be said and that they already have the answer to it. I stressed that service begins with real listening. That is true; it is an important first requirement. But having said that, we need to realize that there is also a time to speak and that Christians are distinguished from others at this point by having something genuinely helpful to say…because they can speak God’s words as they have heard them in Scripture. This gives us service far ahead of secular psychologists and counselors. They listen…often better than we do. They offer wise advice or counsel. But the help of a purely secular counselor stops there. The Christian, once he has heard and understood, can go on to share the cure for the problem or the hope for the despair given by God in the Bible.

Many persons have a natural reluctance to instruct another person, particularly another believer. They are conscious, as we should all be, that they are often confused themselves. But fear of our own proneness to failure should not keep us from saying what is necessary at the proper time. The Christians at Rome had not had a benefit of apostolic instruction when Paul wrote to them, but he said, “I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another” (Romans 15:14).

Bonhoeffer is right on this point:

Where Christians live together the time must inevitably come when in some crisis one person will have to declare God’s word and will to another. It is inconceivable that the things that are of utmost importance to each individual should not be spoken by one to another. It is unchristian to consciously deprive another of the one decisive service we can render to him. If we cannot bring ourselves to utter it, we shall have to ask ourselves whether we are not still seeing our brother garbed in his human dignity which we are afraid to touch, and thus forgetting the most important thing, that he, too, no matter how old or highly placed or distinguished he may be, is still a man like us, a sinner in crying need of God’s grace. He has the same great necessities that we have, and needs help, encouragement and forgiveness as we do.

At times we must speak words that sound harsh to the one who has to hear them. It is difficult to speak such words. More often, it is our privilege to speak words of comfort that the Bible contains. We may have to speak of sin. But we can always also speak of God’s grace and forgiveness. We can tell our brother, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). We can assure him that, if he has confessed his sin, God has already forgiven it for Jesus’ sake.