"LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR." Sounds simple, and I've heard it a lot lately. It is Biblical, and it's true. It would be great if we all just did that, but right now there is a lot of hate being spread around.
Loving others, especially others who have different opinions or views than you do, is difficult. Incredibly difficult... but here's the thing. We are called to take it one step further. We are called to love our enemies!
With so many situations eliciting so many opinions, it is so hard to maintain unity. Especially in a world saturated with social media. Discussions on these divisive, yet important, topics can often begin feeling like battling we are battling “enemies.”
Let's dig into that for a second. Who is an enemy? An enemy is someone who wants bad for you. Someone with malintent. The definition of enemy in the dictionary is "a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something."
Yikes. Does that sound familiar to anyone else? We are certainly acting like people who disagree with us are our enemies. Fellow believers are NOT the enemy, and we’ve got to stop acting like they are. Satan is the enemy. He wants to deceive, kill, destroy, and divide. Because as long as he is doing so, believers will be too distracted battling each other to recognize the ground our enemy is gaining. This is why unity is so important.
As the Church, we are called to unity, despite opinions and beliefs, and it is not lost on me how complicated that is. We're all accessing the same Holy Spirit, reading the same book, written by the same God, and coming up with a million different interpretations. It makes my head spin.
I have been and still am wrestling through what that means and how we can reconcile that. I have no profound conclusions or answers. As believers, I don't think any of us disagree that we should be acting or believing or voting according to Biblical standards. I think where the friction comes is that there are different solutions, different ways to go about an issue to achieve the same Biblical result. We need to be fervently seeking the Lord. Not the news. Not politicians. Not even what other people are saying. And we need to give grace. To channel our anger into constructive action and seek peace.
Whether we agree or disagree, we still have to live with one another. Be kind, regardless of what you believe. God doesn't need his believers to scream people into "Biblical correctness." Life change begins with relationship. With trust being built. Through authentic love, gentle correction, sharing belief. By being an instrument used by God, instead of playing God.
God gave us the gift of our minds. We are called to love him with all our heart, soul, and MIND. We aren't called to ignore important issues. We aren't called to silence or forsaking an opinion. But we ARE called to unity, to speaking truth WITH LOVE, using wisdom and discernment from the Holy Spirit, as to what we should say and when. I think all of us need to be humble enough to admit that we are never going to get it all 100% right. None of us should be immune from evaluating our viewpoint in light of Scripture and the Holy Spirit. Robert Madu, in delivering a message I heard recently, said of Jesus' ministry: "He comforted the disturbed and disturbed the comfortable." If you are comfortable in your viewpoint, it may be worth evaluating. Hearing and listening to other viewpoints with an open mind, and then asking the Lord to search deeply and root out anything that isn't aligning with Truth. Checking it against Scripture. Against His character. And being challenged within a community of believers. THIS is what the church is called to do.
Yet, we often fight so hard to be right or to be heard or defend our position of rightness that our hearts become hardened, and we forget not only to love our neighbors, but allow the true enemy to take root and victory. No more, brothers and sisters! Satan is defeated and the Holy Spirit is at work in me and in you. No more will we let the true enemy have victory as he divides the church. No longer will I see my fellow believers as enemies. Regardless of how right I think I am, and no matter how good my intentions are, there is ALWAYS room to love greater, give grace more abundantly, and seek deeper understanding of the love of Christ. May we become a mirror of His character and reflect Christ to a very hurting, very broken world.
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