Article May 24, 1999 Issue

Tact or love?

The value of "merited rebuke"

By Deane Miller Dorwart

I WAS RUMINATING over how someone had communicated a much-needed reprimand to me. "He could've been a lot more tactful," I grumbled to myself.

And then I began to think about how Jesus rebuked. Hmm ... not so very tactful, it would seem. But right on, every time. Not so popular, but so needed to guide us straight to the kingdom of God within us. Take Peter, for example. Look what Jesus said to him: "Get thee behind me, Satan" (Matt. 16:23). Yet Peter stayed. He stumbled; he bumbled; he stayed. And what do we owe Peter? Bless him, for forging ahead and laying the first sturdy stones of the church designed to encompass the world in God's dear love.

So even if Jesus wasn't always tactful, was he loving? Indeed. He could not have been more filled with love, with tender yearning for the well-being of his fellowman. No one has ever loved as he did. He backed up his love with his life, which he laid down for all of us, to prove that divine Love, God, conquers all, even death.

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