#241 - Joby Martin // Love That Risks Offense To Rescue A Friend

We call men to real accountability that rescues, not shallow comfort that enables harm. Using Scripture, we show how to confront with courage and love so brothers grow strong together.

• the sword of the Spirit as our primary weapon 
• live a life worth following and seek wisdom 
• iron sharpens iron as a gritty model for growth 
• judge without hypocrisy by removing your own log 
• confront privately and directly for restoration 
• Paul confronting Peter as a gospel-aligned standard 
• speak the truth in love to build the body 
• take action now to call a brother back

Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review

Chapters

• 0:01 Framing The Fight And Purpose
• 0:22 What True Friends Owe Each Other
• 1:11 Iron Sharpens Iron, Not Comfort
• 1:53 Judge Carefully, Remove Your Own Log
• 3:02 Confront Privately, Boldly, For Their Good
• 4:12 Truth In Love Grows The Whole Body
• 5:07 Make The Call And Stay Sharp

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christians' armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

All right, welcome back to the Daily Blade. We are on day three of what your friends, what your foxhole brothers, what your mat carriers need from you. Yesterday we said we need you to be wise. Your Foxhole brothers are looking to you to be wise. The first day we said you need to live the kind of life that is worthy of following. Can you say, follow me as I follow Christ? Today, your friends need a friend who is more concerned with them than what they think about you. That your friends, your foxhole brothers, your Mac carriers, they need a friend that is willing to confront, correct, and to hold accountable. Proverbs 27, 17, this is the most favorite like man verse, men's Bible study verse out there. Proverbs 27, 17. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. One of the funniest things I've ever heard is when Kyle, I was interviewing Kyle for our men's conference here at 1122, and we were talking about this. We were talking about this kind of accountability, you know, and he goes, and he mentions as iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another. And he says, I don't know if you've ever seen iron be sharpened, but it's nasty, it's loud, it's violent, there are sparks, there are pieces of metal flying anywhere everywhere. And yet in most men's Bible study, it's not iron sharpening iron. It's like two streams of lotion crossing one another. What you owe to your foxhole brothers is you owe them encouragement, sharpening, spurring on. Matthew chapter 7, verse 7 says this: Judge not that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye. Now listen, many people have used this verse to say that we should not hold each other accountable, that we should not, quote, judge one another. First Corinthians says, Are we not to judge the house of God? Of course. I mean, the whole contract, the whole relationship that you have with a mat carrier or a foxhole brother is, I want you to hold me accountable. So what you're saying is, by the measure that I judge you, I want you to judge me. But it says, you hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. So are you kind of are you the kind of man that loves that brother more than you love how they feel in the moment? Matthew chapter 18, verse 15, 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. In Galatians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul noticed that Peter was out of step with the gospel, that he preached the freedom of the gospel when it was only Gentiles around, but when Jews and the Judaizers would show up, he would act in a different way and he would shun his Gentile brothers. And so the Bible says in Galatians 2 11, it says, But when Cephas, as Peter, came to Antioch, I, Paul, opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. What your foxhole brothers need for you to do is if they are in sin. Now, not just if they get on your nerves or not if they're doing something that is just against your own preferences, but if they're outside the precepts of God, what they need from you is for you to confront them directly, personally, privately, and for their sake, say, Listen, brother, I see you heading down a path of sin and you don't want to go where it goes, and you have invited me into your life to speak up, not keep my mouth shut, but to speak up and say something about it. Now, the how you say what you're going to say matters a lot. Ephesians 4, 15 and following. Rather, speaking the truth in love. And when we speak the truth in love, this is not half truth and half love. Jesus came full of love and full of truth, okay? And so there's no more full than full. And so you tell them the truth, but love means that you're more concerned about them than you. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, for whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself in, so that it builds itself up in love. Listen, 1 Corinthians lets us know that we're one body with many parts. And so that means that if we are a part of the same body, then your business is my business because we're all about the king's business. So maybe you have a friend, maybe you have a foxhole brother, maybe you have a mat carrier, and they are walking in sin, or maybe they're just walking in stupid, and you know that if they continue down this path, it is going to lead to destruction. And God is calling you right now that the moment this podcast is over, in like 20 seconds, you're going to pick up the phone, call that person, and say, Hey, I need to have a tough conversation. For your sake, under the glory of God. That's what your friends need from you. See you tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00: 5:36

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.