Do you get tired of seeing such disagreement among fellow christians? We do not see a lot of unity and agreement at all today.
Jesus said his followers were to be known for their love for one another. Yet today it is hard to find brothers and sisters in Christ being loving and kind.
Fortunately this is not the case in every situation, but it seems a lot more common than it should be.
I am not just talking about being accepting and kind toward those who are outside the christian faith, but it is hard to find true love and acceptance among brethren of different denominations within the faith.
If we go to the same church building and accept the same doctrines, you will usually find love and acceptance. I remember when I was in the church system the first thing I would ask someone was where they went to church. If they went to an organization I liked and agreed with, I would pretty much instantly like the person. If they went to a place that was different in their way of worship or interpretation of the bible, then I would immediately be on guard and almost dismiss them as someone to get to know. This seems to be a pretty common occurrence.
It is sad that we put such walls up with people who think differently. It is sad that we have made such importance out of buildings, doctrines, interpretations and bible versions that we forget God loves each of us no matter what we believe. We are to love God and love others just as God does no matter what they believe, especially among those who are also followers of Jesus.
Loving and accepting people does not mean we are always in agreement and that we always get along. Of course there will be disagreements and differences of opinions, probably even arguments and hurt feelings at times, but that is life. We can disagree and even argue at times and still respect and accept the other person.
By the power of the Spirit within us, we can accept, respect and be loving toward others. Not only our brothers and sisters in Christ, but those who are not of the christian faith and belief. I think we can disagree and have different opinions and still act in a respectful and accepting way toward our fellow human beings.
Jesus said that they will know we are his disciples by the love we have for one another. Love draws people, but condemnation, judgment and unloving behavior drives them away. Many times, when I say we are to love and accept others I get a lot of comments about being wrong because as christians we are to point out the sins and mistakes of others. They say our responsibility is to make sure others know what they are doing is wrong….at least by their way of thought.
I personally do not think we are to be the sin police. We are not told to do such things. We are told to love God and love others. As far as I am concerned the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin where conviction is needed. That is between the Spirit and each individual as to what they do and how they respond. We are only to love others.
Love draws, God is love. Rather than judge, condemn, separate and argue, get out there among humanity and let the love of God flow out of you by the power of the Spirit. There is a whole world of hurting people, both christian and non-christian who can use the encouragement of an accepting person who cares and shows the love of God.
Done with Religion 
Thank you Carol, I appreciate your comment. Let me say I do not think we as christians are to be the ‘sin police’, those who are always pointing out what we think are sins and mistakes of others. I am talking mainly about telling others they are sinners or are doing wrong according to our interpretation of the bible. There are times, as the story you mentioned, when there is nothing wrong with stating our opinion on situations. You were not calling her a sinner or condemning her, you were merely stating your opinion on something she really needs to reconsider. Of course you can do no more than what you did. It is up to her from this point on what to do. I agree with you, I do not think you were wrong to discuss this with her especially since she brought the issue to you. Thanks again for sharing.
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I wouldn’t call myself the “sin police woman,” but a couple of months ago, a friend of mine who pastors a church called me and we started talking about how costly doctor visits and hospital stays are. I told her I had been hospitalized last October for pneumonia. My insurance covered most of the bill, but I still had quite a substantial out of pocket cost. I said I am thankful I was allowed to set up monthly payments to pay off my share of the bill. She said, “you are actually going to pay that balance off?” She said just throw it in the trash and she always throw her hospital and doctor bills in the trash. This didn’t set well with me as good advice. It disturbed me, but I didn’t argue with her. I spoke with her again yesterday and she mentioned that she had been dropped by a doctor because she owed him money and her solution was: I will find another doctor. I could no longer keep quiet. My spirit was disturbed and I told her how wrong she was for doing that and encouraging others to do the same. She became highly upset with me, which I expected. It truly bothered me that I had to tell her she was wrong. She told me I shouldn’t correct her because she’s an Elder and has been walking in the spirit longer than I have. I said I’m an elder also (lower case “e”) because of my age and Godly wisdom.
I just couldn’t let that go. I believe in that case Holy Spirit told me to speak with her about this. I still love her but she’s quite upset with me. I do believe I was right in doing this. Sorry for such a long comment.
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Hi Jack, you made all good points. We have grown up in a system where we think we have to hear from God through a man (pastor). Yet the bible tells us the Spirit lives within us and he is our teacher and guide. Like you mentioned, we do not need any human to lead or teach us. So many of us think we are unable to hear from the Spirit on our own. It is time we stop listening to the teachings of men and institutional religion and look to the Spirit to guide us. Thanks for your comment.
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Christians are not in unity, because most of them are following men, doctrines of men, or traditions of men, instead of the Holy Spirit.
See 1 John 2:27 which says in part “you DO NOT need a man to teach you … the Holy Spirit will teach you everything. Therefore, OBEY the Spirit’s teaching and (thereby) remain in unity with Christ”. The very clear implication of 1 John 2:27 is that men teach falsehoods. For profit. What do Christians think John 10 concerning hirelings means, anyway?
Doesn’t it say elsewhere, ah yes, Romans 8:14 that “all who are led by the Holy Spirit are the sons of God”. So is it right to call someone a Christian (or son of God) who instead follows a man, not Christ? Does Christ (Yeshua) ever tell a man to follow Him by proxy – i.e., follow me by following Appolos, Peter, Paul, the pope, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, et al? Many of these are sons of hell, not sons of God.
Dear Lord – please seek out the Holy Spirit – submit to the Holy Spirit your teacher – follow the leading of the Holy Spirit – obey the Spirit’s teachings – so that when the day of the Lord comes, you don’t hear “away from me, I never knew you!”
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I have seen the same with Catholics. And yes, the Gay community gets hit a lot. This type treatment should not be, but how to stop it is a quite frustrating question. Thanks for your comment.
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Division among Christians alone is a nasty thing. I’ve done a small amount of research on it, and just between Catholics and Protestants alone, it’s quite bad. One site I looked over reported that some Protestants view Catholics as non-Christians.
And of course, I’ve seen many individuals acting as the worst sin police imaginable. On social media and in real life, I’ve encountered people who go around and carry signs about which categories of people are “going to Hell”. Of course, gay people are usually high on that list. I may have even seen one declaring that Muslims are also doomed in the same manner. It’s atrocious.
There are so many problems I have with people who do that. One of them is that they might attempt to call what they’re doing “loving the sinner but hating the sin.” Without sarcasm, I see no love whatsoever in believing that an entire category of humans won’t be saved for whatever reason.
How should we best react to sin police who act in this manner? I’ve seen others attempt to rationally argue with them about how that sort of belief and speech is obviously harmful, but they never seem to be swayed.
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