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elijah23
Guest
How should we treat people who have different religious beliefs than our own, including other Christians?
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Danny63
Member
Love. That is it, Love....
If you love them Jesus can shine through that love and maybe they will come to see the truth. But we can not force someone to believe what we believe, nor should we get caught up in arguing our faith, when sharing our faith our belief becomes an argument then both sides have lost. Remember, the person you believe to be wrong, thinks you are wrong also..
SO bottom line is Love. Share you faith, prove why you believe that with scripture, and show unconditional love.
Yes, with love. Also with honesty. We have to take a stand for what the Bible says, including where it condemns the non believer or a person with the wrong belief (assuming that according to the word of God his belief actually is wrong!). Jesus was certainly honest with the Pharisees of His day! But honesty should be practiced with love, and not used for an excuse to argue just so we can "win". It's the job of the Holy Spirit to convert the non-believer, not ours. Ours is only to show the gospel to the non-believer.
Being human, things may not always work out this way. But we should strive for it anyway.
Being human, things may not always work out this way. But we should strive for it anyway.
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Nathan Kendall
Member
That's the best way to put it, but hard to implement. Honesty is a big thing for me, but it is hard to combine it with love from time to time.
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Danny63
Member
Not as hard as you may think. Love does not always mean passive persuasion, when my child would do something so out of hand that he deserved a spanking I gave it, and I gave it out of love, although at times he did not think so. We can honestly convict, discipline, or correct someone out of love in the body, outside the body it is a different story.
It all centers around how you handle any given situation, when dealing with let's say a Jehovah's Witness we need to be lovingly honest in our approach to sharre our view of the Gospel, but not to a point that it attacks them ( that will close their mind) or begin an argument. When the argument begins I just say to that person, ok we will agree here to disagree, it's been nice talking to you, and I end it there. Satan wants us to argue to get in a heated debate, then it takes away from our testimony and sometimes as we get more upset at the discussion we tend to say things we do not mean or we will regret later, Jesus never did that. He never regretted what He taught, He was honest and He was loving at the sometime He was bold and to the point.
I do believe there are certain situations we are to see the authority of Christ but we are not called to copy that, like Jesus turning the tables in the temple, He, we must remember is God, and so He was making a point there, He did not tell us go out and beat up homosexuals or beat up abortion doctors for instance but He did call us to be bold in letting them know of His gospel and also I believe to let them know in a loving way how wrong they are.
And as you said, this is not easy to practice, only easy to say.
It all centers around how you handle any given situation, when dealing with let's say a Jehovah's Witness we need to be lovingly honest in our approach to sharre our view of the Gospel, but not to a point that it attacks them ( that will close their mind) or begin an argument. When the argument begins I just say to that person, ok we will agree here to disagree, it's been nice talking to you, and I end it there. Satan wants us to argue to get in a heated debate, then it takes away from our testimony and sometimes as we get more upset at the discussion we tend to say things we do not mean or we will regret later, Jesus never did that. He never regretted what He taught, He was honest and He was loving at the sometime He was bold and to the point.
I do believe there are certain situations we are to see the authority of Christ but we are not called to copy that, like Jesus turning the tables in the temple, He, we must remember is God, and so He was making a point there, He did not tell us go out and beat up homosexuals or beat up abortion doctors for instance but He did call us to be bold in letting them know of His gospel and also I believe to let them know in a loving way how wrong they are.
And as you said, this is not easy to practice, only easy to say.
H
Hitch
Guest
I doubt there is any single manner that would always be correct. Looks like Danny has a reasonably ballanced approach.
Perhaps because I would like them to treat me as if I am always the one clearly in the right?
Just kidding
You're absolutely right. We need to always remember the golden rule!
PouringRain
Member
Nathan Kendall
Member
It all centers around how you handle any given situation, when dealing with let's say a Jehovah's Witness we need to be lovingly honest in our approach to sharre our view of the Gospel, but not to a point that it attacks them ( that will close their mind) or begin an argument. When the argument begins I just say to that person, ok we will agree here to disagree, it's been nice talking to you, and I end it there. Satan wants us to argue to get in a heated debate, then it takes away from our testimony and sometimes as we get more upset at the discussion we tend to say things we do not mean or we will regret later, Jesus never did that. He never regretted what He taught, He was honest and He was loving at the sometime He was bold and to the point.
I do believe there are certain situations we are to see the authority of Christ but we are not called to copy that, like Jesus turning the tables in the temple, He, we must remember is God, and so He was making a point there, He did not tell us go out and beat up homosexuals or beat up abortion doctors for instance but He did call us to be bold in letting them know of His gospel and also I believe to let them know in a loving way how wrong they are.
And as you said, this is not easy to practice, only easy to say.
Exactly. I remember arguing with my girlfriend at times. No matter who was right or wrong, I look back at things now, and I know things could be better now if we were still together. It's a learning experience and a hard one.Likewise, I believe we must copy Jesus as much as possible, while not going overboard. I'm sure if we did, pride would get in the way and we would just "overshoot" the Jesus mark and probably just imitate a modern-day Pharisee.
I'm sure I can sit down and think about doing it, and be all set to handle any next situation, but Satan is a master of deception. The moment I get on spot, it can fall apart unless I completely let God handle the situation in some way and let Jesus take the wheel.
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Nathan
Member
Well I am going to jump on in here and throw another love on the pile. 
Seriously. When we really understand what it is, we should really understand what it does, and then we really understand that we should do it.
"Those who are different than we are", From God's perspective that would be quite a few folk. Yet He loves.
Sometimes we think of this "love" as just a pie in the sky good feeling toward each other. But most of the time you find that when the pressure is on, that love is really not there. Its easy to love someone who is loving you back. But sometimes we totally disregard true love and replace it with 'feeling' love. But if we are going to agree, and rightly so on love, lets use the definition of it from 1Corinthians 13 for the answer to the question.
When they rain out their hate and vile spew, do You bear with it; or do you get crushed under the weight and just pour it back on them?
When people tell you of their thoughts and feelings, do you believe that it is really what they think and feel; or do you turn your ears 'off' and quit giving any credit to their words?
When people look to be completely against the truth, do you hope, truly hope, that they will come to the Lord; or do you judge and condemn them?
When people have run you down, beat you up, taken all your love and never given anything in return, do you endure it, remaining in your love to give out more; or do you turn away and shut the doors and restrict the live giving flow?
Those were just three, what about the others? True patience? True kindness? Truly not envying? Truly not being arrogant? Truly not rude? Truly not insisting on your own way? Truly not irritable? Truly not resentful? Truly not rejoicing in wrong BUT rejoicing in the truth?
See, we talk about "love". But do we actually DO it? Personally, I 'hope' so.
Seriously. When we really understand what it is, we should really understand what it does, and then we really understand that we should do it.
"Those who are different than we are", From God's perspective that would be quite a few folk. Yet He loves.
Sometimes we think of this "love" as just a pie in the sky good feeling toward each other. But most of the time you find that when the pressure is on, that love is really not there. Its easy to love someone who is loving you back. But sometimes we totally disregard true love and replace it with 'feeling' love. But if we are going to agree, and rightly so on love, lets use the definition of it from 1Corinthians 13 for the answer to the question.
When they rain out their hate and vile spew, do You bear with it; or do you get crushed under the weight and just pour it back on them?
When people tell you of their thoughts and feelings, do you believe that it is really what they think and feel; or do you turn your ears 'off' and quit giving any credit to their words?
When people look to be completely against the truth, do you hope, truly hope, that they will come to the Lord; or do you judge and condemn them?
When people have run you down, beat you up, taken all your love and never given anything in return, do you endure it, remaining in your love to give out more; or do you turn away and shut the doors and restrict the live giving flow?
Those were just three, what about the others? True patience? True kindness? Truly not envying? Truly not being arrogant? Truly not rude? Truly not insisting on your own way? Truly not irritable? Truly not resentful? Truly not rejoicing in wrong BUT rejoicing in the truth?
See, we talk about "love". But do we actually DO it? Personally, I 'hope' so.