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The goal of every born-again believer should be to become more like Jesus. We cannot be more like Him if we do not know what He taught. There was a time when a popular phrase was, “what would Jesus do”. It is always a good idea to take a moment to think about this when confronted by a toxic, hateful person. With the advent of social media, we are faced with this occurrence more frequently.
Just yesterday, I shared an experience on a social media site that serves my neighborhood. It wasn’t anything that should have been controversial. I was letting people know that the local shelter was no longer sheltering cats; I found out when I went to try and get one. I closed my post by saying that I hoped that would change in the near future. I was careful not to write in a way that was denigrating the shelter. There were several comments of surprise, concern, agreement. Then there was one that was just off the charts. It was late on a Saturday night when it appeared, so it could have been caused by weekend activities (if you know what I mean). Anyway, the comment said… I should educate myself on how difficult it is to care for animals. How dare I cast shade on this government establishment. I should not even be allowed to adopt a cat.
My first reaction was surprise, followed by disbelief, followed by incredulousness, followed by amazement. I wrote, “this makes no sense”. Then I felt the Lord wanted me to respond further…So, I wrote, “ I do not think you read my post and if you did you did not comprehend it. Your response does not warrant me defending myself to you as it is so ridiculous.” There has not been a response since my writing. Then this scripture come to mind…Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the LORD”.
This does not mean that we should respond to every hateful thing that is said to us. Sometimes, we may need to ignore it. Jesus often answered a question with a question. We can also do this when someone tries to question us in an accusatory manner. We often feel obligated to answer a question when asked. We do not have to. When we respond in the Spirit and not in the flesh, we have clarity of thought and will respond appropriately. It takes a lot of self-control to not respond in anger when provoked. It is a lot easier to lower our standards and engage in a tit-for-tat situation.
We are called to be the light of the world. We cannot be the light of the world if we are like the world. We can even say to someone, “I will pray for you” and mean it as an insult. For in our heart we may be thinking “you are so wretched you need all the prayers you can get”😊We cannot fool God because he looks at the heart. The Bible tells us that even sinners love those who love them. We are called to love our enemies. To pray for those who despitefully use and persecute us. They may never know that you prayed for them, but God knows.
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