By Darrel Proffitt, Lead Pastor
I was reading a blog recently and came across this:
“I’ve had some restaurant people tell me the “church hour”—after the churches finish on Sunday—is one of the hardest hours of their week. Really? That’s sad. I would hope it’d be the opposite.
How’s that for having the mind of Christ? Or being witnesses? Or considering others better than ourselves?
Whenever I’ve asked, well over three fourths of my blog readers identify themselves as believers. So, if you’re in the one fourth who don’t claim Christianity, this post isn’t for you. Sorry about that, but today I’m only addressing the “family”. We call ourselves brothers and sisters. In love, we sometimes gently rebuke one another. That’s what families do.
So, brothers and sisters. Quit being mean.
Consider what you say and the way you say it before you ever say it.
That sounds logical. Biblical. A good discipline even.
Because I can fall into a culture that thinks more about myself than others too. You can too. We all can. We can value our opinion, consider others without our opinion wrong, and talk to people who we know are wrong like they are less human because of it. Sometimes we treat members of our family—people we love—worse than we treat a stranger. I get that.
But, when we are mean it flies in the face of what Christians are taught to do—in the Bible we claim as our guide. And, it’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance. To my knowledge, no one ever comes to faith through meanness. Or watching someone be mean to others.
In fact, there is no “meanness” of God. God is love—even when He’s sharing truth.
And, we are to be like Him. At least becoming more like Him.”
The sad thing about the above post by Ron Edmondson is that it had to be written. The Bible tells us that the world will come to know who God is by the way His believers love. We are to be like Jesus who loved and forgave even when He was being crucified.
I wonder what other people who do not have faith think of God by the way I behave toward others? Are they intrigued and full of questions about how I can be so loving? Or are they turned off? Being mean is wrong but we sometimes fail to understand that there is a conscious force of evil that thrives off of such behavior. I challenge you to remember that the way we treat others is not just a gospel suggestion but a gospel imperative.
I was reading a blog recently and came across this:
“I’ve had some restaurant people tell me the “church hour”—after the churches finish on Sunday—is one of the hardest hours of their week. Really? That’s sad. I would hope it’d be the opposite.
How’s that for having the mind of Christ? Or being witnesses? Or considering others better than ourselves?
Whenever I’ve asked, well over three fourths of my blog readers identify themselves as believers. So, if you’re in the one fourth who don’t claim Christianity, this post isn’t for you. Sorry about that, but today I’m only addressing the “family”. We call ourselves brothers and sisters. In love, we sometimes gently rebuke one another. That’s what families do.
So, brothers and sisters. Quit being mean.
Consider what you say and the way you say it before you ever say it.
That sounds logical. Biblical. A good discipline even.
Because I can fall into a culture that thinks more about myself than others too. You can too. We all can. We can value our opinion, consider others without our opinion wrong, and talk to people who we know are wrong like they are less human because of it. Sometimes we treat members of our family—people we love—worse than we treat a stranger. I get that.
But, when we are mean it flies in the face of what Christians are taught to do—in the Bible we claim as our guide. And, it’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance. To my knowledge, no one ever comes to faith through meanness. Or watching someone be mean to others.
In fact, there is no “meanness” of God. God is love—even when He’s sharing truth.
And, we are to be like Him. At least becoming more like Him.”
The sad thing about the above post by Ron Edmondson is that it had to be written. The Bible tells us that the world will come to know who God is by the way His believers love. We are to be like Jesus who loved and forgave even when He was being crucified.
I wonder what other people who do not have faith think of God by the way I behave toward others? Are they intrigued and full of questions about how I can be so loving? Or are they turned off? Being mean is wrong but we sometimes fail to understand that there is a conscious force of evil that thrives off of such behavior. I challenge you to remember that the way we treat others is not just a gospel suggestion but a gospel imperative.
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