Communication Challenge

I just read a post by Tim Challies in which he offered a challenge to Christian bloggers. Here's a direct quote from the end of his post:

"Let us be certain that we constantly seek to serve and that we pursue holiness rather than popularity. Let us set the standard for respect and fellowship. Let us take the better path and show our love for God in our love for one another."

Earlier in the post he said this:

As Christians, we are called to a high standard--we are called to holiness. We are not to push the limits of what is decent and what is true, but to serve and to be a blessing to others. We are not to ask "Is this libelous? Will I be sued if I publish this?", but we are to ask "Will this serve the person I am writing about? Will this serve the church? Will this bring glory to God? Will this defend the truth?"

Excellent challenge, not only for Christian bloggers but for Christians period. We need to carefully evaluate all our communication and ask ourselves the questions in the last quote: "Will this serve the person? Will this serve the church? Will this bring glory to God? Will this defend the truth".

If you take the time to read the comments from readers under his post you get to see an excellent example of Christian communication as it should be - full of humility and grace, but, because we are human, far from perfect. :-) We all can slip up in the challenge to live right. The real test is in if we pick ourselves up after the slip up and do what we can to make amends for it or keep on sliding down. Commentors Dr. Mike and Ron both do an excellent job of picking themselves up after slipping and make amends for their slip ups rather than continuing to slide down.