Should it be acceptable for a preacher to reprimand an individual in front of the church?<\/p>\n\t
“Now when Peter had come to Antioch,\u00a0I withstood him to his face<\/strong>, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel,\u00a0I said to Peter before them all<\/strong>, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?”<\/em>” (Galatians 2:11-14).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There are times when a public rebuke is the most effective way to get someone to see the error of their way.<\/p>\n
“Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses.\u00a0Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all<\/strong>, that the rest also may fear<\/em>” (I Timothy 5:19-20).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When a person sins in such a way as to lead multiple people into following after his sin, then it is best to address the issue where those following after can hear why the person is in the wrong.<\/p>\n
One last example is Ananias and his wife who lied before the church and was likewise rebuked before the church:<\/p>\n
“And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon\u00a0all those who heard these things<\/strong><\/em>” (Acts 5:2-5).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
These examples are not to imply that every problem is handled by public rebuke, but it is certainly clear that public rebuke is neither wrong or uncalled for in all cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Should it be acceptable for a preacher to reprimand an individual in front of the church? Answer: “Now when Peter had come to Antioch,\u00a0I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1511,1598],"class_list":["post-21914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-preachers","tag-rebukes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1751,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-sin-after-receiving-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":21914,"position":0},"title":"Can you sin after receiving the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you sin after receiving the Holy Spirit? Answer: Peter received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, along with the other disciples (Acts 2:4,\u00a014). He, along with John, was able to pass on the gifts of the Spirit to others (Acts 8:14-15). Yet, he was rebuked for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86240,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-peter-be-in-rome\/","url_meta":{"origin":21914,"position":1},"title":"How could Peter be in Rome?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read from many early Church fathers that Peter was in Rome and preached in Rome. Still, in Galatians 2:7-9 at the Jerusalem Council, the agreement is made that Peter would only go to the Jews, not the Gentiles, so Peter would be breaking that agreement if he went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47722,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-gentiles-allowed-to-go-into-the-synagogues\/","url_meta":{"origin":21914,"position":2},"title":"Were the Gentiles allowed to go into the synagogues?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were the Gentiles allowed to go into the synagogues? Answer: Gentiles were allowed to come to the temple complex, but they were restricted to remain in the outer court, the court of the Gentiles. The question is whether some similar restriction forbade Gentiles from entering synagogues. We know that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85757,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-apostles-in-full-agreement-on-all-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":21914,"position":3},"title":"Were the apostles in full agreement on all doctrine?\u00a0","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were the apostles in full agreement on all doctrines?\u00a0 Answer: \"Doctrine\" means teachings. Jesus told his apostles, \"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2670,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-ending-of-the-law-and-salvation-of-the-gentiles-taught-before-paul\/","url_meta":{"origin":21914,"position":4},"title":"Was the ending of the Law and salvation of the Gentiles taught before Paul?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Before Acts 9 can you give me scriptures that shows the twelve apostles teaching that we are not under the law, there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, and that we are saved by grace through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ only for salvation? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33526,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-are-gentiles-commanded-to-be-saved-by-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":21914,"position":5},"title":"Where are Gentiles commanded to be saved by baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I had not visited this site in a while, and ran upon it, along with\u00a0our correspondence, recently.\u00a0 I noticed that your last comment has an interesting conclusion, and I quote \"You claim that the Philippian jailer was not baptized\". This claim never was, nor ever has been made by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}