"And the Lord's servant must be..." different than I was today.

2 Timothy 2:24-25

22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

1 Timothy 3:1-7

3 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife (lit. "a one-woman man), sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

Titus 1:5-9

5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

I had a moment today. I certainly failed at, I guess you could call it, correcting a brother about a particular statement made about some doctrine. I was definitely challenging wording. I care about that. Words matter. Ideas have consequences. That said, if you put all the above-bolded phrases together, I would use the word that Voddie Baucham has used - winsome. I was not winsome in my approach toward my brother. To be certain, I apologized to him.

Then, I apologized to him again. I heard my brother in Christ, Gabe Hughes, in a Q&A, and during this Q&A came up the subject of the known false teacher, Steven Anderson, in which he recently ran out someone who challenged him on the doctrine of the Trinity during a church service. His attitude was the exact opposite of the characteristics listed above. Yelling, screaming, arrogant, blasphemous. I felt immediately convicted of my own passion in today's conversation. I feel terrible. I was a bad example to him and to those who witnessed this "conversation." I am thankful to my brother who forgave me. I pray for the above characteristics to be evident in my life even in the face of concern over the precious Word of God. May I be winsome, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable (wow!) and not quick-tempered, arrogant, and the like.