I too can easily get set in my ways and refuse to learn from others. But sadly with this fellow, I could not have any further discussions with him since he got upset and cut me off. It seems he was angry because he was being called out over his rather obvious double standards. All I can now do is keep him in prayer. Hopefully he will spend a bit of time with the Lord and see if he may have some areas in his life that need to be dealt with. But we are always in a bad place when we think we know everything and have no need of the rest of the Body of Christ to share with us and to teach us.
A lot of my recent pieces have been on politics and elections, so some folks might appreciate something a bit different. There is never a shortage of other topics to write on, and often my daily experiences on the social media provide plenty of things worth commenting on.
One thing I have written about before is how outfits like Facebook can present you with both the best and the worst of Christian behaviour. Plenty of debates and fights take place there, and too often lots of decidedly sub-Christian behaviour and attitudes are found there as well.
So many times the real person – not just the outward Christian image – will come through in their posts and comments. Often they get more and more angry with you, all the while claiming to be terrific Christians. Sadly I have had to deal with far too many cases of this over the years.
Consider one that took place just moments ago. I had some guy chewing me out for ‘name-calling,’ telling me how unchristian it is. When I pointed out to him that he was actually guilty of calling me and others names, he got even more upset, called me more names, and then unfriended me!
Hmm, gotta love these paragons of Christian living. Oh dear. No wonder Jesus got so upset with hypocrites and the self-righteous. But let me speak to one aspect of all this – that which is found in my title. But to do so, let me more fully detail this sad encounter.
This fellow commented on one of my posts, and appealed to Matthew 5:22. He thought I was out of line, and made it clear that Christians should not resort to any form of name-calling. In my reply I said that there is a place to be angry with sin and evil, and suggested he have a look at this piece: billmuehlenberg.com/2020/06/21/anger-prayer-and-the-justice-of-god/
I also reminded him that strong rhetoric is found throughout the Bible, whether used by the prophets, Jesus or the disciples. I said he could check out this piece for more detail on that reality: billmuehlenberg.com/2007/04/18/rhetoric-the-bible-and-the-believer/
