Everything God plans to display on Earth begins in the Church. Even the judgments of God. “For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?” (I Peter 4:17).

When the Lord exposes our sins, He is doing so as an act of mercy because His judgment will release blessings that only a repentant heart can experience. God’s judgments expose what is inhibiting the Church from reaching its full potential. It is a merciful act because it uses the consequence of our repented sin to motivate us to become something more.

If judgment begins with the house of God, there is something else we need to consider. Blessings also begin in God’s house. They follow a repentant heart. Those blessings will become a testimony of God’s goodness and a witness to an unsaved world. 

Exposure of our sin and a repenting response to that exposure is something we must welcome, though, at the time, the results are painful to see and experience. What will come from God’s loving judgments are blessings far greater than the pain and suffering His judgment brings. The process of exposure will transform us and allow us to experience God’s unimagined blessings if we are willing to walk the full course of His correction.