But in your
hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone
who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with
gentleness and respect (I Peter
3:15 NIV).
We must always be ready to defend the Gospel of Christ, but that
does not give us the right to be harsh or disrespectful of people with
different beliefs than ours.
He is another one of those Moonies I said to myself with
disdain. An Asian looking man had
approached me in a parking lot and started to tell me what he believed. His literature indicated that he was a follower
of Sun Myung Moon, who founded the Unification Church whose beliefs were
inconsistent with orthodox Christian doctrine.
Most Christians considered this group cultist. I impatiently waited for him to finish his
spiel and then I let him have it. I told
him in no uncertain terms that he was a part of a cult and I used scriptural
proofs to validate my case. I walked
away thinking, I guess I got him told. I
was pretty sure I had defended the Gospel, but for some reason, I had a sense
of unrest in my spirit. I pondered as to why I was troubled. It became apparent that I had not even come
close to dealing with this man with gentleness and respect.
I knew what I had to do.
I searched the parking lot for this man.
As I approached him, he must have been thinking, not this guy
again. I simply told him that I had
talked to him in a way that Jesus would never have spoken to him. I asked him to forgive me for my attitude. In
our first encounter, it is interesting that all my theological arguments were like
water off of a duck’s back. They are trained to counter to these kinds of
responses. In our second interaction, he
was visibly shaken. He had no comeback to a little bit of humility. We should share the truth with people, but
our theological truths need to be validated by the love and respect we show to
those to whom we speak.
As the poet, Emerson once said, “What you do speaks so loud, I
cannot hear what you say.” That just may
have been true with that Moony that day.
Image used with permission by Microsoft.
Ken
Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places” YWAM Publishing
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/
Podcasts: http://kensblogpodcast.blogspot.com
