Dysfunction of the Black Family: A Biblical Perspective 2- No Nathans

Today, I attended a home going service for a spiritual father of mine.  He was the Paul to my Timothy, and I will miss him greatly.  If it were not for his counsel and constant encouragement my sons would not have a father in the home, and I would not have a church family, nor a home family.  I can never repay him, and I never got a chance to thank him for what he did.  Praise God that I will have an opportunity on the other side to say all of the things I did not say on this side.

Now, Brothers and Sisters, lets speak about us.  Our families are in disarray, and I believe it is because we have abandoned biblical principals and allowed Ceasar to raise our children and inform how we practice our family lives.  Today's installment is about Nathan.

Who is Nathan, you ask?  Nathan was the prophet who went to King David about his sin.  David was King and he committed adultery, fathered a child out of wedlock, and had the woman's husband killed to cover up his sin.  There had to be people in the kingdom who knew what David did.  He could not have done all of these things without others knowing his crime.  Yet no one, save Nathan, uttered a word to David about his terrible sin.

Which, brings me to my point.  Black families tend to ignore one another's glaring, obvious sinfulness.  We think we are turning the other cheek, but in reality we are being selfish and unloving.  May I submit to you that we are in a sad state because there are too few Nathan's in our homes and in our churches. 

 If our brother goes astray and is unwilling or unable to heed the conviction of the Holy Spirit, then he continues to travel down the wide path of destruction, and we are too selfish to speak a word to Him.  We would prefer to stay comfortable and let our brother go to hell.  

Instead of reproducing Christ-like individuals we are reproducing the sinful culture that we live in because we are afraid to be Nathan's to our loved ones.  For the record, brothers and sisters, if our family is in trouble, here is what the Bible says we need to do:

Matthew 18:

¹⁵ Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

¹⁶ But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

¹⁷ And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

Brothers and sisters, none of us are perfect.  We have all sinned and there are always people who know about our sin.  But how many times has someone confronted you about you sin in love, like the passage above says.  How many times has someone sought to get you delivered from your own sin?  

We are hateful toward our friends and our family when we do not act as Nathan.  Our silence conveys acceptance.  We do not stand in judgement when we go to our brothers and sisters in love.  We do not condemn our brother and sister.  We only remind them of who they are in the Lord and what the word of God says.  The rest is the work of the spirit.

Let's be more like Nathan.  Let's love one another enough to tell each other the truth.