Can we make MN less hostile?

[Bootstrap]

To me, if we don't want a fight and we do want to learn about Scripture, the Kingdom of God, critical thinking skills, etc., we need to get the focus off of who the good people and bad people are, promoting claims about others that are often false, etc. In other words, turn the attention AWAY from the food fight. And on MN, you can rarely do that by giving someone an example of what you think THEY did wrong. I think I just illustrated that by responding to Nett's request for an example. I rarely, rarely see anyone apologize for anything here.

I see you quite regularly saying your opinions on who bad people are, you are just couching it with pillows. You are more Mennonite then Nett or Josh by that.

That's not my intent. I really don't want to be tearing people down.

But I do want to do the things I say above.

[Bootstrap]

, I have a bad eye and can easily miss things.

We have plenty of folks available here who are experts at removing moats from eyes.

[RZehr]

, I have a bad eye and can easily miss things.

We have plenty of folks available here who are experts at removing moats from eyes.

Ah, just great. Now we have someone putting moats in our eyes too.

[Sudsy]

I believe Romans 8 has the key to living less hostile toward one another. We have an obligation to live by the Spirit and not according to our flesh. But this can only happen if the Spirit lives in us.

So if I am being hostile toward another believer, do I, first of all, have the Spirit living within me ? Am I born again of the Spirit ? One can be quite religious and not be born again. Or do I recognize, when I am not living by the Spirit (as the fruit of the Spirit is described), that I am giving way to the flesh (my pre-born again nature).

To live according to the Spirit is a life of peace with God and others. It isn't a life of trying to follow a list of what is living by the Spirit and what is not living by the Spirit but rather a sensitivity to the Spirit that lives within us as He guides our ways.

Would be glad to read other views on this.

[nett]

I believe Romans 8 has the key to living less hostile toward one another. We have an obligation to live by the Spirit and not according to our flesh. But this can only happen if the Spirit lives in us.

So if I am being hostile toward another believer, do I, first of all, have the Spirit living within me ? Am I born again of the Spirit ? One can be quite religious and not be born again. Or do I recognize, when I am not living by the Spirit (as the fruit of the Spirit is described), that I am giving way to the flesh (my pre-born again nature).

To live according to the Spirit is a life of peace with God and others. It isn't a life of trying to follow a list of what is living by the Spirit and what is not living by the Spirit but rather a sensitivity to the Spirit that lives within us as He guides our ways.

Would be glad to read other views on this.

I have see a lot of Christians throughout my life who all claim to be living by the spirit having a distinct lack of peace with one another. So the question becomes, who has the actual Holy Spirit?

[Sudsy]

I believe Romans 8 has the key to living less hostile toward one another. We have an obligation to live by the Spirit and not according to our flesh. But this can only happen if the Spirit lives in us.

So if I am being hostile toward another believer, do I, first of all, have the Spirit living within me ? Am I born again of the Spirit ? One can be quite religious and not be born again. Or do I recognize, when I am not living by the Spirit (as the fruit of the Spirit is described), that I am giving way to the flesh (my pre-born again nature).

To live according to the Spirit is a life of peace with God and others. It isn't a life of trying to follow a list of what is living by the Spirit and what is not living by the Spirit but rather a sensitivity to the Spirit that lives within us as He guides our ways.

Would be glad to read other views on this.

I have see a lot of Christians throughout my life who all claim to be living by the spirit having a distinct lack of peace with one another. So the question becomes, who has the actual Holy Spirit?

I believe there is scripture support for being born again and having the Holy Spirit residing within us yet not living filled with the Spirit, which I understand means living under the control and guidance of the Spirit. Paul called the Corinthian believers mere 'infants in Christ' (1 Cor 3:1) and referred to the jealousy and quarreling among them as a sign of this immaturity/worldly acting.

We can claim to be living by the Spirit but if the fruit of the Spirit is not obvious in our experience then are we not just kidding ourselves ? Jesus said there will even be many at judgment day that will claim to have acted as His follower and He will not recognize them as such. He will say He never knew them.

And although being raised Pentecostal, I don't believe speaking in an unknown tongue is a required experience to being filled with the Spirit. Rather being filled with the Spirit is an on-going giving oneself over to the Spirit's direction and empowerment. I believe this also to be an on-going, learning experience where the fruit of the Spirit becomes more evident more often throughout our day as one grows spiritually. We learn to not give way to our old nature, our ego, that gets us into trouble such as not living at peace with others.

We are offered a wonderful life here with all the fruit of the Spirit being experienced but to live this way we must consider our fleshly/sinful ways as dead. Don't give these ways any life. The Spirit is given us to guide us as to how to have our differences and not become hostile but we must have an ear to listen to His direction. I know for me I let my flesh/ego get in the way too often and scripture says we can grieve the Spirit when we ignore Him. We need to always be seeking His guidance and surrendering our ways to Him.

Regarding your question who has 'the actual Holy Spirit', I don't think I could accurately judge that in everyone but I think it is much more obvious in some areas, such as hostility with other believers, that this is not coming under the control / being filled with the Spirit.

[Robert]

When dealing with a person who has decided we are wrong or we are in violation of scripture, our response, according to Paul, should be in kindness and self reflection.

First, consider the input. Are there ways we could be doing better?

IF we, and using others to help consider, feel we are in line with Jesus' calling and commandments, we should not retaliate and press hard, but respond in kindness and hope that we can build a better connection with others.

Only after one on one, then taking someone along to help, then going to the congregation, should be look to shunning, or banning.

I am not seeing that happen. I am seeing a challenge, then retaliation and attacks. This is not what our faith, through scripture from Jesus and Paul guides us to do.

So maybe there are some truth in the words of challenge.

[Franklin]

I just read the last few weeks of this thread with amusement.

I am not Christian, but I have a question for you Christians. How do you think Jesus would be received on the internet today? How long before he would be banned on social media and on most Christian forums? I mean why was Jesus crucified? I think it was basically for "hate speech". Imagine if Jesus posted Matthew 23 on the internet replacing "Pharisees" with "rabbis". ("Pharisees" and "rabbis" are synonyms, "rabbis" just being the more modern term.) Jewish and liberal groups would call Jesus an anti-semite and call for his crucifixion. Not much has really changed in 2000 years.

[Sudsy]

When dealing with a person who has decided we are wrong or we are in violation of scripture, our response, according to Paul, should be in kindness and self reflection.

First, consider the input. Are there ways we could be doing better?

IF we, and using others to help consider, feel we are in line with Jesus' calling and commandments, we should not retaliate and press hard, but respond in kindness and hope that we can build a better connection with others.

Only after one on one, then taking someone along to help, then going to the congregation, should be look to shunning, or banning.

I am not seeing that happen. I am seeing a challenge, then retaliation and attacks. This is not what our faith, through scripture from Jesus and Paul guides us to do.

So maybe there are some truth in the words of challenge.

My view is that a forum is not the place for this process of shunning as described in Mathew 18:15-17. That process is when a 'brother sins against you' and in the setting of a local church. These forums, imo, are not a local church environment.

However, the use of shunning, as refusing to fight over some doctrine or belief and just walking away in a forum setting, is obeying the command not to quarrel. At a certain point in disagreement (which as you indicate should reflect the fruit of the Spirit) the topic can be dropped and one should 'wipe the dust off their feet' so to speak and let it die. Some have done just that in the past whereas others who like to quarrel and win arguments show frustration with this 'walking away from a fight'.

I think we all are able to know when we cross that line into quarreling and not just kindly searching out truths if we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us. And some of us may have more trouble with the flesh (old nature) than others do in this area.

Anyway, my 2 cents on this.

[Robert]

I think we all are able to know when we cross that line into quarreling and not just kindly searching out truths if we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us. And some of us may have more trouble with the flesh (old nature) than others do in this area.

This, too, shall pass and become a distant memory.