WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:5-14, Jeremiah 36:1-3

In 2 Thessalonians 3:14,15 we are told, “And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” Verse 15 is very interesting in that it says we are to not count a brother as an enemy, but we are to admonish him. “Admonish” is the same Greek word for ‘warn’/nou-thet-eh-o. When we see people heading off on a tangent, our job may be to warn them, in love, that the direction they are going is going to create problems they may not be able to get away from. Warning is a biblical sign of friendship. Do we have real friends? Because real friends will warn us. Jeremiah 36:1-3 says, “Now it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ‘Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.’” It is interesting that at one point in Jeremiah’s life God said to him, “Every word I have ever given you, I want you to write it down.” That had to be quite a thick book! The whole purpose was he was supposed to write down the words that God gave against different nations. This was so that the house of Judah might hear the adversity which God purposed to bring and that everyone would turn so that God could forgive them and relent from bringing the adversity. If there was ever a passage that demonstrates the reality of the love of God in warning, it is this one. “Jeremiah, write down every word I have given you against Israel and the other nations. It may then be, they will hear all the adversity I have purposed and repent – so that I do not have to bring it again.” Warning is a life-saver. It is Layer Three of God’s love. It is time the church grew into this dimension because it may well save many!