Faithful

I was reading through several chapters of Jeremiah today, but it was this verse that struck me.

It’s in the middle of a passage in which God condemns his people’s leaders, particularly the priests and prophets, for not warning the people to turn from their sin.

And so he said in verse 18,

For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see and to hear his word,
or who has paid attention to his word and listened? (Jeremiah 23:18)

And again,

But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their deeds. (22)

Then in verse 28, he tells them,

Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.

It is sometimes hard to tell people what they don’t want to hear. To confront them with their sin. But God tells us that we must.

Not in hatred. Not with a despising heart. But in love.

You see, love is not just letting people go to their own destruction without saying a word. It’s warning them of the danger they are in so that they may be saved.

God has given us his Word. May we always speak it faithfully.