Anger to Love

A couple days ago a friend called me to tell me about his western civilization professor and what he was teaching. It turns out this professor of history was using his stage to disprove Jesus Christ as King. My buddy was angry and so was I. I thought this was very cowardly and spineless of the professor to use his class to push points of inaccuracy on a bunch of impressionable kids. Just like Peter, my friend and I first reaction was to cut to someone’s ear off…to fight! But is this what Jesus would want us to do? No way!

It seems like we as followers always get angry when someone tries to verbally deny who Jesus Christ is. But do we as believers get so angry when we deny Christ by our own lifestyle? This should be a far greater source of anger for you. I feel like we followers need to take this passion against non-Christians and instead direct to our own
sinful flesh. Christ made it clear to us that we must love instead of argue and hate. Jesus was asking for forgiveness for the men who were nailing to Him to the cross. What more of an example do we need? Instead of fighting others who don’t follow Christ, we need to fight our sinful desires so we can be better examples of Christ for those same non-believers. Stop looking at others so harshly but look at yourself with that same harshness. Wage the war against your flesh not atheist’s. Remember how enraged Peter was in the garden of Gethsemane? When those Romans came to arrest Jesus, Peter was so mad that he pulled his sword and tried to kill one of them. That’s passion for Jesus! But what if Peter would have used that same passion 2-3 hours later against his flesh so that he would not have denied Christ three times? Use your passion for Christ the way He wants you to use it…loving others unconditionally. Christianity is not about looking outward but looking inward.
I hope my buddy who had this professor will pray for the ability to love this professor. You never know who you can or will be a light to. Reflecting Christ’s love, not hateful attacks will change people. Pray for the ability to sincerely love those who persecute us and Jesus.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

Fighting other people, arguing with other people will get us no where. Jesus made this clear to his disciples.