The same disease that has infected the nation has also invaded the body of Christ…Hatred!
Long ago I began issuing prophetic warnings of the wave of hatred that would engulf our nation and even the world. I pled then for Christians not to participate in it. Now that wave is upon us, both in the world around us and in the body of Christ.
When each side of what should be a rational discussion begins accusing the other side of ignorance, divisiveness, racism, bigotry, wickedness, or some other label, and the discussion that could have produced understanding of real hearts and real positions becomes an argument laced with insults, name-calling and denigrating statements, both veiled and obvious, then we have succumbed to the wave of hatred tearing this nation apart. It is demonically fueled. It clothes each side in a facade of self-righteousness, at least in their own eyes, and makes rational discussion that might have led to real solutions impossible.
Looking back, I know there have been times when I have succumbed to this myself, but I’m resigning from that wave of pollution. It is personally damaging to me at a spiritual level and unbecoming a man who wishes to present Jesus as He really is. Please, let’s stop talking over one another and start listening. While we might disagree with one another over certain issues, we can certainly learn from one another by listening with open hearts, honoring even those we feel are dishonorable, and by seeking to understand, even if doing so serves only to sharpen our own position. Christian influence is not about forcing sinners to act or think like the righteous. It’s about modeling the face and nature of Jesus, even in the face of men and women whose actions and beliefs we might think wrong or even wicked. Please, let’s learn what Spirit we are of and walk accordingly.
On that note, would it not seem that at the present time, we are not witnessing a debate of ideas leading to the midterm elections in America but rather a contest to see which side shoots itself in the foot more severely than the other? It may not be which side wins so much as which side loses less badly and then calls it a win. Each side claims it has the compassionate and loving solution to the nation’s problems while demonizing the other side. How can this ever be a way to solve the very real issues that face us as a people? The progressive left is accused of being the thought police by the conservative right, while the conservative right has been and would be visiting the same on the progressive left. Romans 2:1, “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”
The same disease that has infected the nation has also invaded the body of Christ. We fight among ourselves, labeling one another heretics and purveyors of demonic manifestations over minor issues of doctrine and practice that do not touch on the core issues of salvation. Stop it! In the name of all that is holy, stop it! Honor the prayer of Jesus the night before He was sacrificed for our sins, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:22-23). Don’t you think our Savior is much more grieved over our lack of love than He is when our doctrines and practices aren’t quite right on? God forgive and help us!