Articles
Attitudes Towards the Weak
The Messiah's attitude toward the spiritually weak is pictured by Isaiah in the following words: "A bruised reed will he not break, and a dimly burning wick will he not quench" (Isaiah 42:3).
In our zeal for purity and strength in the church, we may be guilty of doing the very thing that our Lord does not want done. We create a mental image of what the ideal church ought to be, and then go about to establish one. Every member is going to attend every service. Every member will be "sound" in his convictions. Worldliness will not be tolerated. This church is not going to have the weaknesses that characterize other churches we know of. This is going to be a strong church, a model church.
A new convert is made, and immediately he is indoctrinated in what this church is, and the contribution he is expected to make to the maintaining of this ideal. Each newcomer is viewed as a potential threat. If he's not going to "line up," we don't want him. Weaker members are handled with a "shape up or ship out" attitude. People soon recognize that there is far more concern for the image of the church as an organization than for them as struggling and weak children of God. While the Messiah is tenderly and delicately nursing the "bruised reeds" back to health, we may be there crushing them. While He cups His hand around these fluttering, dimly burning flames to protect what fire is left, we may be there quenching them.
We are not suggesting that unrepentant false teachers and immoral members ought to be tolerated. They must be warned, marked, and withdrawn from. Nor are we suggesting that the weak ought to be left alone in their weakness. They must be taught, encouraged, reproved, rebuked, and exhorted, but with all longsuffering, and with a view toward strengthening them. "Admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be longsuffering toward all" (I Thess. 5:14). Ask not what they can do for the church but what the church can do for them.
As long as there is a little life in that "bruised reed," there is hope. Don't crush it! As long as there is a little fire left, it might be fanned to burn more brightly. Don't extinguish it!
