2 Timothy 2:24-25 says: “And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness...”
It is clear here that Paul is giving Timothy instruction on how to address the unbeliever. He is telling him not to be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, and to correct his opponents with gentleness. If this is how we are to address the unbeliever, shouldn’t we as believers be addressing one another with at a minimum this same respect (if not a higher respect)? I can not count how many times I have been involved in conversations with brothers and sisters (in Christ) where there was little to no gentleness displayed when disagreeing on some minor (non-essential) view such as earring’s or tattoo’s, etc. Some of these conversations may have even crossed the line to be disrespectful due to sarcasm and tone. In these conversations that I speak of it was not the subject matter that was the problem; it was the delivery of that subject matter and the heart and motives of the deliverer.
As Christians we are going to have disagreements and at times we may even have to rebuke one another and I am not suggesting that we should not do that. What I am saying is let us make sure that when we are doing this, we are doing it lovingly, with gentleness, kindness, and patience toward one another.
I would like to leave you with this verse (Galatians 6:10): “…let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
2 comments:
Great post! I agree that we need to find a happy medium in discussions. I know that some people go to far, but I do know that sarcasm is a useful tool in defending the faith. Some of my favorite bible verses are sarcastic. Like whenever Jesus uses it against the Scribes and Pharisees in verses like, Matt 23:2-33; Mark 12:13-40; Luke 11:39-54. Or when Jesus says to Nicodemus, in John 3:10 "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" Or my favorite in Galatians 5 when Paul, speaking of the judaizers, says in verse 12 "As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!" Paul wishes they would cut their junk off!
I just figured id add that. Keep it up!
Here is a recent article that I found helpful on one aspect of handling others. Its about the wrong way to judge. http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2009/01/two-ways-judging-people-is-condemned-in-scripture/
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