I Think We Are Harsh To Fellow Christians

[LadyKay]

Sometimes I think we Christians are too harsh on our fellow Christians.  We are ready to pounce on one another for not coming to the same agreement about scripture. Or for using a different Bible translation. We are too ready to accuse our fellow brothers and sisters of being less Holy then us because they attend a church that dose things a little different then our church dose. We are all learning as we go on this walk with Christ. Some of us learn faster then others. Some of us need to grow more to get to be where Christ wants us to be. For some, God maybe leading them to a path that will take them to the work that He has set for them to do.  Anyway, I think we need to be kinder to each other and not so quick to pounce on judgment of one another. Well anyway, that is what I think. 

[Hidden In Him]

17 minutes ago, LadyKay said:

Sometimes I think we Christians are too harsh on our fellow Christians.  We are ready to pounce on one another for not coming to the same agreement about scripture. Or for using a different Bible translation. We are too ready to accuse our fellow brothers and sisters of being less Holy then us because they attend a church that dose things a little different then our church dose. We are all learning as we go on this walk with Christ. Some of us learn faster then others. Some of us need to grow more to get to be where Christ wants us to be. For some, God maybe leading them to a path that will take them to the work that He has set for them to do.  Anyway, I think we need to be kinder to each other and not so quick to pounce on judgment of one another. Well anyway, that is what I think. 

I agree. I came to the place eventually where I realized everybody is wrong about something; not only every believer, but every denomination and leader as well, from the greatest to the least. Certainly some are more educated and enlightened, but I learned to always deal with people on an individual basis, regardless of background, affiliation, ect. I decided, why not treat others the way I would want to be treated? I was dumber than a stump when I first came to Christ. I wasn't raised in a church, and when I first got saved I thought the Book of Job was actually pronounced "job," as in "get a job." But we are all at different places in our spiritual walk, and come to Him from different backgrounds. So long as a person is truly searching for Him in their hearts, the mercy of God embraces them no matter where they are.

I went to visit an old friend who is moving in a few weeks. He's been ailing and is on a whole host of medications. He never seemed to be too religious in the past. But lo and behold, he answers the door and told me "You would come over right in the middle of prayer." Come to find out, he was praying with a daily Catholic chapel prayer that aires on EWTN. Am I Catholic? No. But did I start getting judgmental? No. His drawing closer to God through His Catholic faith was to my eyes taking his eternity more seriously than I had ever seen him do in the past, so I was happy about that and still am. We ended up having a fantastic conversation. I discussed what God was doing in my life, and he shared a number of stories from his faith that chimed in with the things I was sharing with him. And the entire conversation ended up being about scripture and our shared faith in Christ (for once). If either he or I had been judgmental of each other, we would not have had such a good time discussing faith, so I'm very glad to see a friend of mine doing all he knows to do to live for the Lord now.  

[Sower]

49 minutes ago, LadyKay said:

Anyway, I think we need to be kinder to each other and not so quick to pounce on judgment of one another. Well anyway, that is what I think. 

                               Marks of the True Christian
Rom 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy, shrinking from the evil, cleaving to the good,
Rom 12:10 in brotherly love toward one another, loving tenderly, going before one another in honor;

Romans 14:1-3 King James Version (KJV)

14 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Gary Lee

[Debp]

I agree we all need to be gentler and kinder, especially to our fellow Christians.  The world and life can sometimes be difficult enough as is.

[Justin Adams]

Ah yes. The attitude. 'There but for the Grace of God go I'.

From whence come wars and strife???

Ya'all probably heard of the story of the guy that complained to the King of all the sin he saw in town.

King gave him a bucket full to the brim of water. Told him to walk from the east gate to the west gate of the city. If he spilled any, his life was forfeited. So off he went.

The guy made it, sweating!

The king asked him how much sin he had seen on his last walk thru town.

We all know his answer!

[Dan_79]

Divide and Conquer.

I don't think it has anything to do with dislike or hate.

When new Christians are coming out of a Godless paradigm (seeking the fold for safety), life has up to that point instilled a great division in their psyche, individuality and perpetual rivalry, ego, insecurity of mind etc leaves some scars that only Jesus can heal, your change of heart (made of stone) that brought you to God has been replaced with flesh.

When someone new to Christianity tries to join an established group of Christians and is confronted with such hostility of opinion, the safety in numbers that is shown by such strong unity can feel like the choice of conformity is being presented to that persons mind.

The formidable need to survive in a group runs contary to swimming upstream with only your own learning to get you there, your bible and personal faith in the lord and messiah Jesus Christ, should be enough.

It is not the differences in opinion that shouldnt be put to the test, only the strongest and closest to the truth will ever exist longer than dogma or ignorance. Is that not what the forum is for?

I am begining to wonder what purpose I have visiting a internet forum filled with opposing views seeks to achieve for me personally.

Defeatest? Unloving, cold?

Or a personal distraction.

I need the Lord Jesus and scripture. I need it to guide me, so what do I honestly expect to not have people try and change my views, as much as I could possibly change theirs.... If we are all on the same page we would be singing the new song in unison.

Getting there aint going to be easy.

With love it becomes a joy. The truth is love...

 

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by Dan_79

[warrior12]

9 hours ago, Hidden In Him said:

And the entire conversation ended up being about scripture and our shared faith in Christ (for once). If either he or I had been judgmental of each other, we would not have had such a good time discussing faith, so I'm very glad to see a friend of mine doing all he knows to do to live for the Lord now.  

  Your entire post was well put and to the point. However, truth cannot be compromised.  At the end of the day, the truth of the gospel cannot be entangled with other false doctrines and compromised be reached for the sake of compassion and sympathy.  Paul admonish us to fight the good fight of faith .

Matthew 10:16 .   we are to be wise as serpent and gentle as doves.   Yes, we have to be civil, caring and the rest, but the gospel truth cannot be twisted to accommodate the lies of the enemy who is clever in his schemes to keep men captured into false doctrines and slavery.  

That conversation with your friend can be nostalgic and mutual on many fronts, but he has to know that purgatory for example is not a part of the gospel and which he may be placing his hope in.  He can be shown this, however in  gentle ways.  If, however you left there without letting him know that salvation is found only through the Lord Jesus Christ ,then it should prick your conscience that your witness was not complete.

This is one of the reasons that suffering is part of the Christian walk, as it would come to very hard decisions that would mean loosing family and friends as you stand firm in your witness to the gospel.  It would pain the heart to be separated from loved ones, because they think you are too pious and preach  the gospel.  It would sometimes cause a believer to question his faith as he sees the gulf.  The enemy feeds of that and the believer must stand firm in his witness as a weak and compromising one  would be the same as none.

Please note, this is not a reply to state what you may or may not have said to your friend, but just a general statement about our witness to others .

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by warrior12

[pg4Him]

Aaaaand there it goes. That goodwill lasted 7 replies.

[enoob57]

Satan desires to make his place among us...

Ephesians 4:27 (KJV)

[27] Neither give place to the devil.

Our place is to give him no place....

[Hidden In Him]

4 minutes ago, warrior12 said:

Your entire post was well put and to the point. However, truth cannot be compromised.  At the end of the day, the truth of the gospel cannot be entangled with other false doctrines and compromised be reached for the sake of compassion and sympathy.  Paul admonish us to fight the good fight of faith .

Matthew 10:16 .   we are to be wise as serpent and gentle as doves.   Yes, we have to be civil, caring and the rest, but the gospel truth cannot be twisted to accommodate the lies of the enemy who is clever in his schemes to keep men captured into false doctrines and slavery.  

That conversation with your friend can be nostalgic and mutual on many fronts, but he has to know that purgatory for example is not a part of the gospel and which he may be placing his hope in.  He can be shown this, however in a gentle ways.  If, however you left there without letting him know that salvation is found only through the Lord Jesus Christ ,then it should prick your conscience that your witness was not complete.

I was waiting on a post like this coming from someone eventually, LoL. And I take no offense to it. But I doubt if I would come away with my conscience convicting me anymore than his will convict him. One of the first things I shared with him was that part of what eventually caused me to turn to God was EWTN (indirectly), and that's the truth. I used to play in heavy metal/ thrash bands until I was 21, and I quit the last band I was in and came back to live with my mother. She put me up in a room with nothing but a couch and a little TV that caught two channels, EWTN and some sports channel that played nothing but hockey 24/7. Eventually the Catholic channel started rubbing off on me enough to where I asked my mom if we had a Bible. None of my family were religious, but she did happen to have a Bible. As I began reading it, and after a while I thought to myself, "If people lived by this Book, the world would be a much better place." So I started attempting to, and eventually received the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior through faith.

But along with sharing this with my friend, I also shared numerous things that indirectly shine light on how much of Catholicism is lacking in some areas (especially where manifesting spiritual gifts is concerned). At the same time, he pointed out how some Catholic leaders down through history have indeed walked in true supernatural gifts of God. So what ended up happening was I was planting seeds branching away from Catholicism while he was demonstrating that Catholicism has produced some great saints down through the centuries. 

I have met people from all different Christian denominations that I enjoyed fellowship with, because the Spirit within them was kindred with the One in me, regardless of the doctrinal differences. Likewise, I have met those who appeared to believe nearly all the same things I do, yet had a very critical and judgmental Spirit that was far from the One in me. So in the end, for me it boils down not to doctrine but to the Spirit that is within us. If we have that same Spirit, He will lead us into unity eventually. If, however, we do not, even the unity we may think we have will eventually be torn apart by strife.

I appreciate your reply and I understand your response. The conscience does indeed need to be obeyed. You are absolutely correct in that. I had another occasion a few months back where a dear sister of mine was steeped in sins and demonic oppression (very bad case, with very powerful and evil spirits), and the Spirit within me could no longer tolerate sitting idly by and saying nothing to her about some of the things she was doing. So I chastised her over it, not with words intended to condemn but to warn. She ended up rejecting me completely and telling me I had demons in me and that "God" would no longer allow her to communicate with me. It broke my heart, but I had to say what needed to be said.

So I do know when the Spirit convicts me about someone, and I will indeed chastise them if the Spirit of God leads me to, even if it means being rejected by people I love, and even being kicked off of Forums that I enjoy being a part of.

I just don't feel any such convictions in this particular case.  

God bless,

Hidden