What do you call people who are wrong?

I have been writing in my last few blogs about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in contemporary America’s political environment. I do not want to get stuck in this discussion—being disciples of Jesus certainly involves much more than our response to political issues. However, I believe it is important to have one more discussion regarding how disciples of Jesus are to live in the midst of political turmoil.

For this discussion, I assume the reader is Christian, and holds his or her allegiance to the King of Heaven and Earth above all else. If you do not, you will not accept what I say here. But if you do, you must ask yourself what the Lord and those the Holy Spirit has inspired have already taught you.

In Paul’s letters we see a discussion arise in a few different places—notably in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 and 10—of how to relate to those with whom we disagree. Now, Paul was not exactly mild-mannered. He was brilliant, and he knew it. So, in these passages he finds himself in disagreement with others in the Church regarding eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols (Paul said it was no big deal) as well as some other “religious” practices. Knowing his views were right, Paul referred to these people as “weak”, “weak in faith” or “weaker brothers”. This wasn’t like our politicians mocking one another. He was simply stating facts as an apostle of Jesus. All this was in the context of discussion.

But when it came to behavior, Paul’s attitude seems to be different. In our world, when one person calls another “weak”, that label is usually followed up by attacks on the person, his character, or his actions. But Paul’s response was different. Even though he knew and had stated that he was right, when it came to his behavior Paul noted that eating the meat we spoke of could cause some who were weaker in faith to do the same when they actually still thought it was wrong. For such a person to do this would be a violation of his/her conscience and would be spiritually dangerous.

So, what did Paul do? He told his readers that these people were wrong—that their faith was weak. He told them that he was right, and presumably strong in faith. You would think that would be the end of it. If it were us, we’d say that these people need to grow up. And if it were in the political climate of today, we would be tempted to come up with some derogatory label—a put down to make sure everyone knew they were weak and wrong!

Paul did come up with a label. He called them “people for whom Christ died” (1 Corinthians 8:11). Then, understanding the gravity of the label he just put on these people, he said “if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again! (1Corinthians 8:13). Paul so revered the sacrifice of our Lord that, to harm someone for whom that sacrifice was made was unthinkable!

So, what do we call those with whom we disagree? Snowflake? Libs or Cons? New Hitlers? Or maybe more personal slurs? What if we thought about each person the way our King does? If we are willing to do that, our attitudes, our words and our actions will change. And when that happens, others will notice. If they ask why the change, you can tell them you are simply being faithful to the priorities of your King!

Know Jesus and Be Faithful!

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