Jefferson Bethke on Why Christians Need to Stop Fighting With Each Other
Christians need to stop fighting and unite as children of God, evangelical speaker Jefferson Bethke said in a video this week.
Speaking in his "Why Christians Need to Stop Fighting" video posted to YouTube on Monday, Bethke encourages God's children to have productive, respectful conversations about their faith without resorting to rudely argumentative tactics.
This doesn't mean that Christians aren't allowed to disagree, Bethke notes, but rather they must participate in discussion that comes from a place of love.
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The inspirational speaker begins his talk by saying he is "exhausted" by watching the way Christians interact online, especially in the current political season ahead of the 2016 election.
"Christians, followers of Jesus, people who say they love Jesus don't act any differently online than people who say they don't follow Jesus, but every aspect of our life should be different. We should be full of love, and compassion, and grace and peace and blessings should be coming out of our mouth," Bethke says.
Instead of witnessing this grace, often times Bethke sees Christians behaving with "vitriol and sarcasm" to each other.
The young evangelical adds that when there is disunity among Jesus' followers, it hurts Christians' ability to "witness" on behalf of their faith.
The Bible 'has a ton to say" about how divisiveness among Christians can "hurt the witness of Jesus," Bethke explains.
"[…] it hurts everyone's actions toward trying to show who Jesus is," the author of Jesus Is Greater Than Religion maintains.
"One of the main things the cross did is it invited everyone in, and it was very inclusive in the sense of, we are now one family, all divisions, man and woman, black and white, rich and poor and all these different things are now crushed in the sense of they are now all equal in their access to following Jesus and having the grace of God, because it's free and it's a gift and it's given," the inspirational speaker adds.
Bethke goes on to cite the numerous Bible passages that call for kindness among Christian brothers and sisters, including the Epistles and Corinthians.
"The way we interact together as a family of God tells a story about who He is," Bethke adds.
According to the Bible, Jesus says his followers will be known "by [their] love," and therefore Christians must make a "commitment to the highest good of our brothers and sisters in Christ."
The inspirational speaker clarifies that he's not disregarding discussion among Christians as a whole, saying that Christ's followers should be encouraged to have productive dialogue on important issues, but they must also commit to their Christian brothers and sisters and say, "I'm going to stand with you, I love you, I'm here for you" because of their shared faith.
"We can have disagreement, we can have discussion, but there's a way to do that that's not like 99 percent of the way we do it, and in that, I can love that person and that person can love me and we can say we're committed to each other. Why? Because we're telling a bigger story," Bethke says.
The evangelical speaker concludes his "Monday Message" by asking the question: "What would it be like if the world saw millions [or] billions followers of Jesus and said 'wow they're different.'"
