Disagreement Among Christians!

There is much disagreement on political issues among Christians today.  And that disagreement can, at times,  be very painful.  But there really should be no disagreement on right and wrong, because God clearly tells us what He considers right and wrong in the Bible. Right and wrong is not up to another person, but up to God Himself.  And consider this,  Jesus did not tell us to love only those we agree with, He told us to love everyone. And as the song goes, “Love Changes Everything” 🙂

One way to deal with situations like these is to ask God to help us love more like Jesus.  Remember, He loved us first!  And because he loved us so, we followed Him.  After all, isn’t that what attracted us to Christ in the first place?

So if we find ourselves in disagreement with a Sister or Brother in Christ, here are some steps we can take:

 Remember that Jesus commanded us to love on another and be sure that is where our motivation is coming from. We need to check our motivation to ensure that our discussions are really coming from a place of love and not our own desire to be right. But if our conversations are truly coming from a place of love, then God requires us to share the Truth!

And we can also remember it is a long path that we are on. I wasn’t at the same place when I was 20 as I am at 60 and I made my share of mistakes along the way. And I won’t be at the same place when I am 80 because God takes us to different places along the way. Judging someone else’s path to God is not helpful to us or them. Leave the Judgement to God, for He knows the heart of a person, we do not. We can sometimes plant the seed, but its growth is up to God 🙂

So if we find ourselves in disagreement with a Sister or Brother in Christ, here are some more steps we can take:

• Ask the person that we are in disagreement with to ask the Holy Spirit to show them the Truth.  We need to do this too!  We must always accept that we might be the person who is wrong!

• Try to find the answer in God’s Word, The Holy Bible, but make sure it is an unaltered Bible. And we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us read it.

• Always remember that the “ends do not justify the means”.  Sin is sin. Two wrongs do not make a right… “Nor will it justify any man’s robbery to say, it was for burnt-offerings”-Isaiah 61:8

• Pray for yourself and for the other person.  We can ask God to help us to love more like Jesus.  Jesus did not entangle Himself in endless debates.  He knew the Truth and He shared it.  He left the choice to each person to accept it or not.  It is the same for us, we can share the Truth, but whether another accepts it or not is up to them.

• We can focus on God ?.  “When, by the grace of God, we attain to holy indifference as to the affairs of this world; when, though our hands are employed about them, our hearts are not entangled with them, but preserved entire for God and his service,”-Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary on Isaiah.

“Love each other as I have loved you.” – John 15:12

We don’t get to just disobey that command, even if it is a little more difficult sometimes. He also didn’t say, love your fellow believers. Jesus wanted us to love everyone, even those who do not believe 🙂