Romans 15:14 (NKJV)

“Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.”

Not everyone qualifies to admonish another person. We tend to want to teach and correct others, even when we don’t qualify to do this, and this is wrong. Paul’s words to the Church in Rome was clear, “You are able to admonish others because you are full of goodness and filled with all knowledge.” In other words, Paul was telling his brethren that we who admonish others should do this, having ourselves been able to live the spiritual life we expect of them. It is the height of falsehood to admonish others to live some high and mighty spiritual principle, while we are crawling in the dregs of fleshly Christianity.

One of our greatest needs in the Church today are for spiritually mature people with spiritual authority to admonish others. We need fathers and mothers who do not shy away from the spiritual duty of teaching, correcting and instructing others in the ways of righteousness. This is a critical need. However, such qualified people are few and in between. Many who seek to and try to offer this ministry, do not have the personal goodness and spiritual knowledge to make their ministries acceptable and impactful. We need to grow in ourselves so that we can grow into this ministry. Unless we develop to filling this gap, the Body of Christ will continue to suffer a great loss from the lack of it.

“Lord, may I not rush to admonish others, rather, may I grow in abiding in Jesus, in growing personal goodness and growing in spiritual knowledge. Then I know that I will have Your authority to admonish and instruct my brethren in righteousness. In Your name I pray. Amen.”