How to communicate during this time of agitation

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:9-21

I am writing to Christians. I can’t expect those outside the household of faith to agree with what I will say now. They are not committed to the Lordship of Jesus over their lives – which Christians are, at least in theory. If you consider yourself a believer in Jesus and find it hard to swallow that description of how you are to live your life under the Lordship of Jesus, then I implore you to reexamine your life and your faith commitment. Romans 10:9-10 says, “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” There are two elements here: a heart-level faith in the resurrection of Jesus and a confession of the Lordship of Jesus in your life. Without either of these, there is no salvation, according to this passage. Now you know my presupposition as I address how we communicate in this present time of agitation.

There are multiple dimensions to the present agitation in U.S. social interaction. The two big elephants in the room are COVID, and all of its implications and race relations in the U.S. and particularly the Black Lives Matters movement. Add to the mix a Presidential election, and we have the makings of lots of fights. Some of them have become violent attacks bent on overturning our form of government a little bit at a time. So, these are dangerous times.

Can Christian people impact the conversation? (“Conversation” may be a rather polite word to use to refer to our efforts at communications.) I have to say, “Yes.” I believe that only Christians can bring the solution to the table. Only the implementation of a Biblical worldview can bring peace to this world’s strife.

Inside the church, we also have some verbal wars raging on. Should the church cooperate with the governing authorities’ call for shutting down worship services to protect members and the public-at-large from COVID? Are we being asked to relinquish our First Amendment rights? Are we failing to obey Scripture if we fail to gather in our church buildings to worship? I know of people who have left their church because of disagreement on these topics. Do you truly love Jesus if you don’t take a hardline stance on your position?

Paul has given us some sobering admonitions when we place them in the context of our current state of agitation.

“Let love be genuine.” Are you now able to look back at your conversations, particularly those about one or more of these topics, and tell yourself that you verbally expressed genuine love?

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” How did your discussions about Elder so-and-so, who doesn’t agree with you, stack up with showing him honor and brotherly affection?

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” I have read lots of Facebook posts that violate this admonition when they are talking about Governor Gavin Newsom of California. I’m not sure that his actions qualify as persecution, maybe they do. But the appeal to us is how to live when we are persecuted. Do we bless our persecutors? Do we bless and curse not? I admit this one is indeed hard, but it is a command from Scripture.

“Live in harmony with one another.” Those who have left your church over one or more of these issues or you are contemplating moving, can you say that you are doing all that is in your power to live together in harmony?

“Never be wise in your own sight.” If you’ve not felt like a failure at any of the earlier admonitions, I think I gotcha with this one. Can any of us ever say we have never felt like we were wise in our own sight? Those Elders don’t have the sense God gave a goose! Those Elders don’t have any courage to stand up as Christians. I could teach them a thing or two. How could those Elders ever have made that decision? They don’t know what they are doing. These sheep are so stupid (sheep are stupid, but I’m not sure that is what Jesus wanted to illustrate when referring to us as his sheep). Why can’t these sheep understand that we Elders are making decisions for their good and under our accountability to Jesus? We have been ordained as Elders. We know best. Ever thought you were wise in your own sight?

“..give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.” When taking action, have we taken the time to think about the broad implications of our decision? Are we doing things that will be understood as “honorable among all?” Of course, sometimes, it is a no-win situation. We are called upon as followers of Jesus to do things that will be denigrated by the world around us. They will not think us honorable. But that can’t be an excuse not to try to act in a way that will bring honor to our King even from those who live in rebellion to his reign.

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Since Paul prequalifies this admonition with “If possible,” he knows it will not always be possible. But then he brings it back home with, “so far as it depends on you.” Never allow it to be your fault that you and your neighbors do not live peaceably. You may not be able to find peace with someone, but make sure it’s not because you were a jerk. I think this brings us back to the admonition to “love one another.”

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is a little longer admonition, but I see two points. Don’t avenge yourself, leave that in God’s hands. And second, overcome evil with good. This goes beyond just verbal conversation and gets into other actions, actions of love, or hate. When we pursue vengeance, it is out of hate (even though we may call it justice). The best vengeance is to allow God to do it. Do you not think God can issue sufficient pain on his enemies, so you want to do so yourself? If you question his ability to bring judgment, then I suggest you read the book of Revelation. God will avenge himself, big time. If you believe God, that is walk by faith; then, you will leave vengeance up to God, who will do a much better job than you will. Another possibility for why you don’t want to leave it to God is the Jonah Syndrom. Jonah didn’t want to prophesy God’s word to Nineveh because he knew they might repent, and if so, then God wouldn’t destroy them. Is that your problem? You know God is merciful and may grant repentance on your enemies so they will receive mercy instead of the vengeance that you so crave?

During these times of social upheaval and disruption both in the world at large and inside the church, let us be persons of love, harmony, and faith in God to be the Sovereign that he genuinely is.

If you find yourself convicted by the Holy Spirit of failure to obey Scripture that has been addressed above, then I encourage you to take action on another Scripture.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:8-10

I’m not pointing fingers at anyone in particular. I see the Facebook posts and hear the conversations that go on around me. I will just say, “If the shoe fits, wear it.” If it doesn’t fit, then it’s not your shoe, and don’t worry about it.

My heart is to see the one and only body of Christ live as one body and not many bodies. We are to do our best to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Notice, “maintain” the unity, not create the unity. We are only one.

Love one another in Jesus’ name.