Rants on Issues that MATTER!!!
(to me)Archive for Contend
.in this tension.
So I was thinking yesterday… which is really a dangerous thing sometimes. I will never deny that we as Christians are to contend for the faith, which sometimes involves attacking wolves. Yet, in Philippians Paul calls the Christians there to let their gentleness be seen. How does one live within this tension. Sometimes with my fellow believers I need to be firm, yet gentle. With wolves how do I contend and still have my gentleness seen by all. Am I reading too much into this? It seems like such a hard place to be- contending, yet gentle. It is so easy for me to contend and throw some sarcastic punches at the person… however a lot of times this is not right. So where does the balance lie?
.the dangers of not contending.
So I have a whole other post ready to go, saved from before lunch so that I could finish it up and post it now, however I feel like this is more important right now.
Here is the thing. If I had a friend who was going to walk into an area with dangerous animals, would I not warn them? It would be wrong of me to not warn them. So when I see someone going down a dangerous path why would I not yell out “WARNING”.
Then why when someone yells out “WARNING, that person is a wolf, they are a heretic” do others say “that is so mean of him”? It would be mean and hatful for one to go “just wait they are about to go into that wolf preserve and they are going to get devoured, but at least they are on the journey”. What? How is that loving or caring? If I see a wolf that is dressing as a sheep why would I not shoot at him and warn other sheep that there is a wolf trying to act like us. If the person has beliefs that fall outside of the bounds of what has been considered orthodox since the early church then why am I not going to say “WARNING, THAT PERSON IS A WOLF, DRESSED AS A SHEEP!!!” How mean of me would it be for me to sit there and do nothing or encourage the person to wrestle with what they thought was Christianity yet was something masked as Christianity. So I will heed the warnings talked about in Jude
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that the Lord has once for all entrusted to us, his people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
I will contend for the faith and continue to fight against those who have slipped in and acted like Christians, yet have perverted the Bible to mass extremes. Call me mean, angry, hateful, spiteful, jealous or what ever you want. Yet may I not be concerned not with what the wolves have to say or what people think, rather may I seek the glory of God and the proclaiming of the Gospel to all people.
So what do you think? Am I wrong? Am I right? Why?
