I have now spent some time on social media, such as FB and I´ve noticed in different threads, especially during covid, a lot of fuss. Many Christians use personal attacks, or they start with namecalling, sometimes these are really unpleasent. I´ve seen this before in different groups I´ve been part of in FB. This isn´t attractive, especially when it comes for those who claim to be Christians.
Since I created a FB acount I´ve always disliked it, yet I have not deleted my accounts, I´m still there. But these social media, in addition to the timeconsuming of it, the tone is not always so pleasant. And honestly, this annoys me, especially when it comes to those who claim to be Christians.
Maybe it's the fact that we can´t see each other when talking, that causes some to attack others. And in some cases, one wonders if the person even has a full understanding of what he/ she has read. Because often they add their own interpretation, in what they read, and thus change what the person has actually written into something completely different. And if they do not understand, or read it incorrectly, then they bite like a snake, and these don´t ask those they attack for forgiveness either.
Social media can probably be good many times, but they can also be tools for Satan himself, if we allow it. This is pretty sad.
We Christians should try to read properly, and if we do not understand, ask if we have understood what we read correctly, before going to personal attacks. But the truth is that you see very little of that, if at all.
I´ve now been nagging repetedly about guarding our lips and the bands of our tongues. But the truth is that we need to guard what we write as well, and check before responding and not go to personal attacks. Personally, I think it is at least as difficult to overcome this problem, as to guard our lips and tongue.
Eph 4:17-27 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
How many times does the scripture have to explain to us how to behave, what to say and do, etc. before it enters in to our sculls? As Christians, we must grow up to full maturity and that is in everything. Eph 4:13. We must show love for each other, because it is by doing this that the world will see that we are different. Another important thing is that we represent God, not ourselves.
Do not bite or eat at each other and be eaten by each other are included in the Bible verses underneath. Isn´t that exactly what we do when we quarrel or get involved in personal attacks?
Gal 5:14-26 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Walking in the fruits of the Holy Spirit is not easy for us fallen people. It is not the first thing that comes up in us Christians, rather it´s the fallen Adam who first makes his voice heard, when someone says something we don´t like. It is quite clear that Paul is right that we need to crucify our flesh, (our self, the fallen man) and we need to do it on a dayly bases. This falls under; Do not tempt us, in the Fathers prayer.
A long time ago something happened that hurt me, do not remember what. I then wrote a little chorus that I sang over and over, until it became true to me, that I really felt that I had forgiven the one that had hurt me.
// If I hold something´against someone else, help me fix my gaze on you. So that what´s hurt me, doesn´t mean a thing´, let it melt away of the love from You. So that I can appear clean and spotless, when I forgive what others done to me.//
The words of the choir speak for themselves, but it is an important truth here when others use a personal attack, that is to focus your eyes on God. Our Father knows what we are going through, and why. But what often happens in personal attacks is that the person who is attacked goes to counterattack.
That's not how we should behave, but that's how many of us react. I myself have been one of these, so I am no exception. But anyone who has read any of what I have written before, knows that it is now thatI have this in me, how we are in, our speech, our actions, and now also the way we behave.
Sanctification is about growing up to male maturity, realizing that we need to get our own self, the fallen Adam, in under the Holy Spirit in us. Maybe not the easiest thing for us to do. But a spiritually mature person should let love be at the top, and constantly think about how he/ she behaves, what he/ she does, says, writes and how they respond to what others say, write and so on.
As spiritual adults, we can not be impatient, jealous, exalted, make ourselves remarkable, and so on, which Paul also addresses in his 1st letter to the saved in Corinth;
1 Cor 13:4-11 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
This is also important from another perspective as well, namely that we should really constantly ask God if there is something we need to forgive others, but also if we have something we need to ask for forgiveness for. This should also be a matter of fact for us.
Many times we may not even be aware that we have said or written something that may have hurt someone else. Everything we say or write does not have to be meant as evil, but the effect of what is said / written, may have resulted in us actually hurting someone.
To have a healthy relationship with God, we need to deal with things that are in the way. The same applies to all relationships. Not everyone will automatically forgive us for what we have hurt them with or through. And asking for forgiveness, or I forgive you, clears the air and makes it easier for genuine forgiveness to take place.
In short, we need to put away everything that is childish and start behaving like adults.
I which you who read Peace from God. Ingemo
