Yesterday I got into a huge fight with this idiot blind man over what color looks like. He had all these moronic preconceived notions about it that he held onto even after I shouted at him that he was wrong. So I got really angry at his stubbornness and proceeded to ridicule him for it.
Just kidding, that never happened! But can you imagine how rude and inconsiderate it would be for me to get angry with and fight with a blind man about something he CANNOT see?
This is how silly it is to me when I see Christians getting so upset and angry at the world when they don’t understand spiritual things. Guys, they can’t see. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4
It’s not a matter of whether or not they WANT to see, they literally CANNOT see.
You wouldn’t go over and kick a blind man if he stumbled over the curb in front of you, would you? Of course not! You would help him, and love him in spite of his weakness.
That’s why it’s entirely possible for me as a Christian to hate the abortion industry, but to show love to the individuals involved in it. I can have a genuine hatred for all the different facets of moral and sexual depravity affecting our society, but give patient love to individual people. If you think about the hot button issues of our day, most of them really boil down to people being blinded. All you have to do is mention certain inflammatory subjects, and you can have a knock ’em down drag ’em out fight on your hands. It’s so easy to fall into the temptation to argue, even to ridicule people for holding onto their ideology and beliefs.
Is that the standard a Christian is called to? How differently would we react to people if we kept in mind that they have been blinded? That they cannot see? How differently would I treat the person in front of me if I remember that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12
I think we would do well to remember that when we engage in discussions or debates, we don’t fight spiritual battles with scarcasm, ridicule, or anger, but that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4
How are you representing Jesus in the way you engage your culture? With patience and gentleness, or with anger and frustration?
One parting scripture:
“But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
II Timothy 2:23-26