Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes<\/em>” (Proverbs 24:4-5), the tone of my reply was firm but milder than the one she presented to me.<\/p>\nYou did not prove that the answer was wrong. You merely didn’t like the way it was presented. I wonder if you would have scolded John the Baptist (Matthew 3:7) or Jesus when he spoke to the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:22-28). One style of response does not fit all people.<\/p>\n
I have no idea if she was open to the answer. I suspect from the tone of her original note and her lack of response to my reply that she already had her mind made up. Any answer that disagreed with her position would have been rejected.<\/p>\n
So, no, I do not apologize for demonstrating that someone is taking an incorrect position. She was promoting a false idea and I did as I must to rebuke her for that position. “Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you<\/em>” (Titus 2:15).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: I saw your response, “Since the church isn’t the building, you can’t make rules about how the building is used,” to an older woman who “dared” to say what is in\u00a0her\u00a0heart. What disrespect you showed her! Do you really believe she was open to your answer?\u00a0 Did you show her the wrong in her…<\/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":[127,1598],"class_list":["post-30090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-about-this-site","tag-rebukes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25684,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-apologize-or-move-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":30090,"position":0},"title":"Should I apologize or move on?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm 19 and I was in a relationship with a girl. I love her so much, but I do not know if she is the right girl for me. I believed that God sent me this girl because no matter what happened, we stayed together for more a year\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":19157,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-person-who-had-sex-with-another-persons-fiancee-needs-to-apologize-to-the-fiancee\/","url_meta":{"origin":30090,"position":1},"title":"Does the person who had sex with another person’s fiancee needs to apologize to the fiancee","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If a Christian sister falls into formication with a brother who is engaged, and both have sincerely repented, is it necessary for the sister to call the brother's fianc\u00e9e to apologize as a form of restitution?\u00a0 Does the brother need to tell his fianc\u00e9e and show her the sister\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":31358,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-missed-an-opportunity-to-tell-someone-that-their-life-is-not-right-with-god-what-do-i-do-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":30090,"position":2},"title":"I missed an opportunity to tell someone that their life is not right with God. What do I do now?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My wife ran into an old friend at a store, and they were talking.\u00a0 Her friend talked of how she and her fiance were living together, and my wife said something that kind of approved it.\u00a0 Her friend was also cussing.\u00a0 I walked away and sat in the car.\u00a0\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":48149,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-deal-with-a-woman-who-brings-her-dog-to-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":30090,"position":3},"title":"How do you deal with a woman who brings her dog to worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a lady who has been attending worship with us for over a month. She has since placed her membership with our congregation. This morning when she entered the building she had a little Chihuahua dog in her arms. She stated that it was her service dog and\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":4422,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-dont-understand-kids-today-have-to-live-with-someone\/","url_meta":{"origin":30090,"position":4},"title":"You don’t understand, kids today have to live with someone","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just wanted to say that your site is very distorted from the word to God and I pray that you find Christ. I read the topic over of the question beginning with: \"I am in the same situation as the young lady, who is 23 years old. 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":31739,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-date-a-woman-who-divorced-her-husband-because-of-his-infidelity\/","url_meta":{"origin":30090,"position":5},"title":"Should I date a woman who divorced her husband because of his infidelity?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: There is a young woman who I'm interested in. Last year she divorced her husband because she found out through the woman he slept with and her friends that her husband was cheating on her. She said he also later confessed to her about sleeping around and that's when\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\/30090","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=30090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}