Dear Debi

Dear Debi,

I enjoy our brief conversations. They always get me thinking and encourage me to do better and be better; even when we disagree, I feel that your opinions are heart felt and made out of love. I was discussing with a coworker a few weeks ago a concept I've believed for decades which I am about to share with you; and, I was able to put it into new, and hopefully better, words using different scenarios:

The spirit of contention is of the devil - If you take two people who each understand the Doctrine of Christ 99% and they constantly focus on and argue about the 2% they don't understand and disagree on, eventually, they will lose all the understanding they had including their belief in God and Christ. On the other hand, you take two people who each only understanding 1% of true doctrine and have 99% misunderstandings and wrong opinions about all kinds of things, but they approach each other with love, a desire to know and understand more truth, reject the spirit of contention, and invite the Spirit of God, they will eventually know 100% of what God wants them to know about His truth, gospel, and kingdom. The Spirit of God will soften hearts, promoting humility, allowing each to accept that they are wrong when they are wrong. He will teach line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. As they are ready to receive more truth, they will be willing and able to receive it. They won't be or feel attacked by the other because the spirit of contention will be put out from among them and the spirit of love and of God will prevail. They will allow the other to be wrong and stay wrong as long as they are not ready for more truth but will constantly persuade and encourage though love and mercy.

These scenarios show the basics of what I was thinking about. I started to think through other scenarios where one person knew more truth than the other and where the spirit of contention either was or was not present and how each person might approach the other in either scenario. Some would attack the other's beliefs and knowledge of truth and others would show love. Some would humbly absorb the rebuke, true or false, without attacking back and others would allow hatred to fester in them over how wrong they perceive the other person to be. But either way, as in the parable of the talents, God will open the minds and understandings of those who humble themselves before Him and show love to other people in thought, word, and deed; and He will close the minds and understandings of those who do not, or more likely, they will close their own minds to anything that comes from anyone else, including from God Himself. If we pridefully believe that all others are wrong and only we are right, that pride will carry us to the point that we will be too prideful to believe God is right.

I personally have been on both sides of contention and love and both sides of being right and wrong. I've been screamed at and rebuked for what I know to be true and for other things I only had strong opinions about. Sometimes, I stayed humble and took it as a follower of Christ should, and other times I fought back. I've also verbally attacked people who would not accept truth and other times I let them continue believing something that is false and promotes misery. I know God supported me when I was falsely accused and stayed humble; and He was not pleased with me when I couldn't let a subject go when the other person was not willing to accept the truth or my opinion. I'm still learning how to apply these concepts and to give love and remain humble and its not always easy but I trust that God will open our minds and understandings as we continue to discuss things in the spirit of love and of God. When Christ comes again all truth will be revealed and all error will be made known and God will show mercy to all those who are merciful to others and save those who try to lovingly help others to be saved, whether they know the right way to be saved or not.

Love,

Vince