THE BODY OF CHRIST!

What’s Our Approach To Opposing Views On Certain Topics?

God is more real than a lot of us, even Christians, can comprehend. I watched a movie a few years ago, and it shifted my mindset on how I thought God perceived a particular thing.

I stumbled upon a video on social media, and it was addressing a particular topic but so rigidly, in my opinion. It led me to even start up a conversation on the matter with said person and it began to feel like, to me though, the person had come to a conclusion on the matter and nothing could deter this person.

(P.S mind you I say ‘feel’ and ‘to me’, I could have misinterpreted the person’s intention. But I’m learning how to get familiar with how God uses my feelings to speak to me so I can’t dismiss my observations just yet.)

So, it became a ‘I must say it the way this person is saying it and accept it entirely’ for me to be considered right in this person’s eyes.

How did I come to this conclusion?

Well, for one, I was not disagreeing with the person’s point of view. Only challenging it. 

Life is not linear. We want it to be most of the time but we don’t have access to all of the pieces. We don’t have access to the full blueprint. Only God does. And ever since I had this blueprint picture painted in my mind, I make sure that as much as I have an opinion on a matter and I choose to be dogged and unwavering about it, I still give room for God to interrupt and in fact disrupt my dogged opinion, this allows me to remain teachable, correctable, and open to God being the only one who is ‘All-Knowing.’

Why? Because we don’t have the full picture.

So what should a Christian do? What should a Christian not do?

In my opinion, the word of God is enough. Anything that isn’t in the word of God should not be drawn from something else that was written. Only the Holy Spirit in my experience is capable of using His own words to explain other more contemporary and modern topics. He is wisdom. He gives us the full picture where necessary. He tells us how to go about certain things.

So let’s dive into the purpose for this newsletter.

How do we Christians handle controversial topics, topics that bring about varying perspectives and thoughts? 

I personally don’t think we should take to social media. In fact, qualification for going to a public space like social media to address certain issues I believe takes proper experience with God. 

For example, you’re new to the faith. The fire within you is burning, you want to share the gospel. Beautiful!

Share the gospel!

Every other thing, still leave it, don’t take on a position of being ‘knowledgeable’ for things that require experience with God’s way of viewing things, to fully understand.

There’s so much about our faith that mere knowledge is not enough. Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom work hand in hand for a reason and all of this can only be possible by the Holy Spirit and consistency and experience (this requires time) with Him. 

Meaning, a baby in Christ who has been consistent with God and is growing strongly and powerfully, is still a baby in Christ if he or she still has a year under his belt.

Drinking milk and eating meat is deeper than we realise. Especially when we start walking with God in every area of our life.

It’s not necessarily restricted to a person’s length of time in the faith, but a year is still a year. Just like a one year old physical baby is still a baby, a one year old Christian though knowledgeable and sound, is still a baby in the faith. Now, this is not to say he or she shouldn’t speak or have an opinion or address things, but there’s a way to do different things in our faith and it takes discretion from the Holy Spirit within us. 

Now this is not only to those who are new in the faith, but even those who claim to be old in the faith. We never stop learning. We never stop being babies to God, but we do change formula 😂. We change food. Let me use a family situation. No child will ever be older than their parents. In other words, they are always learning, no matter what age they get to. Their parents, being first in their lives, have a buck load of wisdom that the children cannot lay claim to. God is our parent. And He is constantly teaching us, renewing our minds, and more than anything revealing things to us in a new light. 

So in my view, topics should be addressed within a controlled space, firstly, for us in Christ. We should learn to first take certain things in-house to fellow believers and debate for as long as possible. What this does is it opens our minds and hearts to multiple perspectives. And then there’s the light that will shine through because it’s a meeting of God’s children, so best believe He is present. 

You receive light, all well and good, the next thing is not to go straight to the public to talk. No. It’s too early for you to have an opinion and be so dogged about it that you go to a public space and begin to dish it out like it’s doctrine. 

Now don’t get me wrong, have your views, have your thoughts on a matter, in fact, believe in it, speak about it when asked. But I don’t think it’s wise to be the captain at the front of that ship, steering the discussion, and in such a way that you’re pushing your opinion, as opposed to having a proper debate where you are also listening and understanding other perspectives, on that matter, to broaden your scope of understanding.

Calm down. Christians need to calm down. 

There’s a reason Paul wrote letters to churches. There’s a reason he addressed those letters specifically and gave clear instructions on who and who needed to hear what and what. I strongly believe that he would use the same method in our day and age. 

What does that mean?

He won’t take to social media immediately. Instead, he would send a direct message, or mail to the people he wants to address and meet up with them within the confines of the body of Christ, and discuss what’s necessary, for as long as is needed.

I say this because our sole purpose and mission is to know Christ and make Him known. Having opinions and thoughts on certain topics is inevitable but we should know when we are speaking to the body of Christ and how to do it and when we are speaking to the world and how we go about that. Two different audiences. We cannot approach the same way. No.

So don’t think you know and think you have a clear answer to address the multitude. I’ve been there before so I know. I’m still learning a great deal, but I’ll say this, you don’t know the whole picture, and you may have access to one piece. That piece may be right, but that’s not the only piece. It’s humility, to take your piece and instead of running with it as truth, go out first and investigate. Find out!

So for me, conversations that even the body of Christ cannot agree on, should not be made public. That’s why unbelievers talk. Because we don’t know how to address one another and speak to one another without dragging the world into our business. And we never ever come from a place of love but instead focus on who is right and who isn’t. It eventually becomes a problem of ‘everyone has something to say and has an opinion’ and ‘every other person’s view is wrong if it isn’t yours.’

I’ll buttress on this a bit more……..