He says in verse 14, now we exhort you brethren.
I like what it says here.
Warn them that are unruly.
Comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak,
be patient toward all men.
Now this is a good instruction for pastors, okay?
Because as pastors, we deal with every single one
of these categories at the same time, okay?
And he's telling them, hey, you need to make sure
that you warn people who are unruly.
What are unruly people?
These are people in the church that sometimes
they get a little out of hand, okay?
They get a little out of hand, they're a little unruly.
They have a tendency to get out from under authority
or they become backbiters and gainsayers.
Maybe they're a little carnal, a little fleshly.
And God says here through the apostle Paul, warn them.
He doesn't say like boot them out right away.
He says warn them.
And look, we all like a warning every now and then, right?
We don't want someone to just bring the hammer down on us
right away, especially if we don't know any better
or something like that.
We need warnings, right?
I mean, who doesn't appreciate the fact that if you get
pulled over for speeding and you know that you're speeding,
you know you're drifting and you're doing all these,
you're doing that California roll
and the police pulls you over, it's just like,
I'm gonna give you a warning.
We kind of appreciate that, you know?
Because it kind of helps us to think like,
I gotta be careful next time and I gotta make sure
I watch out for the police the next time I drift,
you know what I mean?
I shoulda checked, I shoulda checked, you know?
Warn them that are unruly.
And well in like manner, you know, we as Christians,
we as pastors, and by the way, not just me, but just you
also, you hear someone in our church make a stupid comment
or something, something where they seek to subvert authority
or subvert the Bible or teach some false doctrine
or become disrespectful in any way, you know,
you should warn them.
And just tell them like, hey, that was kind of random
that you said that, you should like watch that, you know?
You shouldn't speak like that against other people
or threaten other people or say this or that,
you know, that's a warning.
Because you have the authority to do that.
You know, don't have this bystander apathy
where you hear something and you're just like,
oh man, I don't wanna get involved in that.
No, you heard it, okay?
So your hands should be on that person first, amen?
And by hands, I don't mean like you're gonna stone
that person, I'm saying you're gonna warn that person
and say, hey, you know, what you said there
was inappropriate, you gotta make sure you watch
your mouth and not say things like that.
We're in the house of God, okay?
So he says, we exhort you, brethren, warn them
that are unruly, like there's unruly people in church.
Of course there's unruly people in church.
Church is filled with all types of people.
And sometimes you get unruly people,
people who don't like authority or they're disrespectful
or they're inappropriate sometimes.
And the Bible tells us we need to warn them.