Thoughts from Culhwch

The topic of Christian unity cannot be understood without also addressing the concept of rebuke. I think Christ is precisely addressing the problems that will come about in a Christian community when in Luke 17 he says that stumbling blocks will come, but that when someone sins against you, you should rebuke, and forgive when they repent. This is key. There can be no Christian unity where people are hurt by sin. It will not happen. This goes two ways. If I have sinned, or become a scandal to someone else, I am hurting the community. If someone has sinned against me, and I do not address that pain that has been done to me, but continue to let it go, it will probably continue to divide me from my brothers and sisters. But we don’t like rebuke. Nobody likes being rebuked. However, unity cannot exist where sin goes unaddressed. If we want to talk about uniting Christians together, we must find a loving way to accept and give out loving rebuke.

If someone sins, but they do not know how, then rebuke, when done rightly, can provide a path of reconciliation. We have lost this path, when rebuke becomes exclusion [from God's grace]. Rebuke should be the means of grace… not an exclusion from it. Likewise… when we fail to learn how to accept or give out rebuke at all… then our lack… far from just allowing things to continue, may actually exclude others.