Instruction in Righteousness

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Discipline without instruction isn't helpful.

To have sound doctrine, you need to both avoid errors and walk in the good way. You train your ears to turn to the truth and away from fables at the same time. More than just correcting a wrong action, you must demonstrate the right way to believe and obey. The more you are prepared to proactively preach the word, the less time you will spend demanding disciplined deletions of deviant decisions. The simple discipline of observing what’s wrong doesn’t produce the righteousness God desires. “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son …” (Romans 5:3). The law teaches you what not to do and the consequences for doing what you are not supposed to do. In addition to the punitive law, you need instructions in righteousness to show you how you ought to live. You spend more time teaching a child how to tie his shoes than you spend teaching him not to stub his toe. So you should spend more time instructing in righteousness than finding faults.

Reprove in private so you don't embarrass in public. 

How you reprove and instruct yourself in private will demonstrate itself in public. The better you are at instructing yourself in private, the more behaved you will be in public. The more you fail to discipline and instruct yourself in private, the more out of control you will be in public. How you behave in public is a byproduct of how you behave in private. The more you study sound doctrine in private, the more you will be equipped to discuss sound doctrine in public. Fables can be fun and entertaining, but they don’t equip you to endure temptations or fulfill your ministry. Reproving yourself in private can be one of the best ways to do the work of an evangelist as you learn how to be watchful when you are in public. 

You don't become more righteous by listing the sins you didn't commit. 

Listing the sins you didn’t commit doesn’t produce the righteousness God desires. The righteousness God desires requires knowing God’s will and doing it. “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17). To perform God’s perfect will, you have to be transformed by the Holy Spirit as He completes what is lacking in you (Cf. Romans 12:2). “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10). Let the Holy Spirit work on you in private, convicting you of sin and purifying you with hyssop, so that you can stand unashamed in public being conformed to sound doctrine. Seek instruction as you walk in the light so your discipline moves beyond avoiding stumbling in the dark. Be prepared for the appearing of His kingdom.