Christ-followers. My dear, wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ. I gotta tell ya: You're driving me insane. I'm saying this in all the love I possibly can muster. Why are you driving me insane? Oh, you better believe I'm gonna tell ya.
You know how you dis other denominations? And how you start the "Free will vs. Predestination" debate on Twitter and blog posts with other Christ-followers? And how you not-so-kindly express that, according to you, your opinion is correct and anyone who disagrees with you is just wrong? You, my fellow Jesus-lovers, are the source of my frustration.
Every time you alienate yourself from other believers because you disagree with them, you totally miss the point of the body of Christ. I'm not talking about the stuff like Jesus being God's Son or being saved by grace through faith or Jesus dying and coming back to life after 3 days. No, not the fundamentals (though if you alienate those who disagree on those subjects, you are still missing the point, but that's a different rant for a different day). I'm talking denominations and whether or not abortion or homosexuality are wrong. Things that, while important topics, do not make or break your going to heaven.
Christ-followers, your fellow believers who differ on those subjects will answer for their beliefs. And you, my friends, you will answer for how you treat them based on those beliefs. If that scares you, I suggest you have a little self-evaluation time and decide if you are mistreating those who you disagree with. It's a tough discussion to have with yourself, I know.
If the body of Christ is dysfunctional, how can we expect to effectively reach the lost? We need to be a team, united by our mutual love for and dependence on Christ. There's no time to be selfish. Every moment we spend arguing with those we should be working together with is a moment wasted. What if the time you spent being rude to your fellow Christ-followers could have been spent loving on people who don't know Jesus? Don't you realize that the rudeness you express to other believers is seen by nonbelievers and turns them off the concept of loving Jesus? They think that we are hypocrites because they look in at the body of Christ and see the hand slapping the foot and think, "What kind of body is this? I don't want to be a part of a body that purposely inflicts pain on itself."
WAKE UP. Lost souls are more important than this. We cannot afford to waste our time on thoughtless hurtful comments thrown into the faces of those we should be united with. Wake the heck up, Christ-followers. This is not Jesus' love. This is not how He dealt with things. This is how Pharisees dealt with things.
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