All Scripture is…
2 Timothy 3:16-17
(NIV) 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
(ESV) 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God[a] may be complete, equipped for every good work.
(NASB) 16 All Scripture is [a]inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for [b]training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
One of my observations in all walks of life is that many people are willing to be want to be trained or taught in their walks of life. However, they are very resistant to the idea of being corrected or rebuked / reproofed.
Correcting and rebuking /reproofing are necessary parts of being able to learn, but it feels like an attack on ourselves most people deflect such topics from themselves and gloss over them completely.
Likewise, the same trend continues even in the Christian manosphere where “improvement” is touted as king. Christians say that it is great to workout, eat healthy, learn great conversation skills/charisma, learn how to talk to women, learn “game”, etc and it is good to install these good habits and skills.
Nonetheless, there tends to be a lack of inward introspection to any sort of correction or rebuke. In my opinion, this is part of the self hubris which is an inward nature of the original sin, but is cultivated by the stroking of the selfish pride that can come from either game or even doing righteous actions.
We often think that because we are acting righteously by studying the Scriptures in depth, praying continuously day and night, meditating on the Word, and generally discipling ourselves to live healthy and fruitful lifestyles that we are doing what is good and those other people aren’t on the right track. Even if we don’t it’s a very easy pit to fall into every once in a while.
This is precisely the reason why I keep harping that Christian nice guys need to repent of their sin of pedestalizing women and their feelings.
You can do God/self improvement all you want, but if you never repent of your sin then how are you going to take a step forward in your faith? You may indeed become a “better you” or even a “better steward of your body” but if your mind is still trapped by sin and a lack of repentence then are you even going to be growing spiritually?
It’s the spiritual growth that matters because when our minds are transformed the rest of our thoughts and actions will follow.
Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 3For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
Likewise, it is in the correction and rebuke that is going to make the most change. Utterly destroying the bad habits and sins leaves room for good habits and actions to fill their place.
However, if you only receive training and teaching and you add on good habits with the bad habits that you have you will frequently become exhausted because you are going to be torn in half trying to make everything happen.
This is part of the cognitive dissonance that many men new the the Christian manosphere have. Instead of the inward introspection to eliminate all of the feminism ingrained in their minds, they add the God/self improvement on the top. This seems to work for a time, but you eventually hit a plateau where you’re stuck in the inbetween world of God and self.
You become lukewarm, and you have to choose who you serve. And I see many Christian men leaving and serving the world rather than God. They take women off the pedestal and instead of putting God there they install themselves.
This is why many of my posts on Christian nice guys focus specifically on correction and rebuke for certain behaviors in the context with training and teaching.
Eliminating the sin via correction and rebuke is one of the most beneficial things to Christian men and women alike because it is the first step in the process of taking down idols from the pedestal and installing God on it.
Of course, it is always a choice for whether the Christian men and women will accept it.
Rather than becoming defensive it is best to examine in any correction or rebuke if there is any hint of truth there and acknolwedge it and repent if so.
