An integrity is demanded at home. Mission is from the inside out. How easy for us to forget that ministry of reproof, rebuke, admonition and exhortation has been given to the church. A ministry of exhortation can only be given and received in a community of faith grounded in the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. So it is that Paul urges us to speak the truth in love.
Love is the anesthetic that makes the surgery possible, the pain bearable, and the truth receivable.
It should not be delivered in passing. It requires the permanence of a community of faith. A rebuke should never be the first word in any relationship, nor should it be the last word. But it will, on occasion, be the right word. Exhortation is becoming a lost art.