2 Samuel 12:1-7
The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.
The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle,
but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die!
He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!
Have you ever been on the receiving end of correction? Have you ever had to correct someone because they did something sinful or neglected to do something they should have done?
One of the twisted perverted messages the devil is using nowadays is that we should not correct anyone. The devil uses Scripture out of context and without proper interpretation to confuse people.
One of the Scriptures that satan has been using for a while is "Judge not." Some are so confused that they are not correcting their children, their friends or fellow church members. Today we need to expose this lie from satan.
DONT GET IT TWISTED! There are two types of judgments that we need to consider. One of the judgments in Scripture is condemning judgment and that's what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7:1 when He said "Do not judge."
But there's another judgment that God's word tells us to get involved with and and it has to do with correctional, loving and discerning judgment found in 1st Corinthians 2:15. "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things."
It's possible that you have lovingly sought to correct someone so that they can get on the right track and be restored to fellowship with God and not be deceived by satan. Maybe you were told not to judge because you're not perfect.
If Nathan would have ignored God's directive, he would have never approached David and we would not have seen the beautiful result of David's repentance and restoration to fellowship with God.
David's spiritual, emotional and physical health was affected by his sins and his decisions caused others to sin sexually and there was more than one death as a result.
Don't forget this...Although there was forgiveness after his repentance, there were still consequences.
The prophet Nathan knew that God sent him on a mission of mercy and restoration. Is God sending you to someone today who is off track and needs to be restored, or have you digested the lie from the devil that if you correct that person, you're a hater and you're judging them with condemnation?
Go and tell the truth in love and how they respond is between that person and God. By the way, if God sends somebody to you, be careful about using the phrase "Judge not." DON'T GET IT TWISTED.