In light of the ongoing conflict between davidche and myself,
there is a need to address the issue as to why Christians have
conflicts. Such conflicts are not new, even here in EH. In the
past, there are many such issues, stemming from a difference in
denominational theories, differences in perception of scripture, or
even a simply, a clash of ego.
Biblical speaking, are the historical people of God free from such
things? Obviously not. Otherwise there will not be a record of Matt
18:15"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault,
just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won
your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two
others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the
testimony of two or three witnesses.17If he refuses to listen to
them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to
the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax
collector.
In the context of this verse, it is apparent that the offensive
brother had not seek reconciliation and continue to live in error.
This is different from what follows from verse 21 onwards where the
famous passage of forgiving your brother 77 times.
Therefore the conclusion is, if a brother seeking reconciliation,
he is to be forgiven, but if a brother does not seek
reconciliation, the brother would be treated as a pagan or a tax
collector. It should be noted here, that hard, decisive
decision has to be made, and that they are not always
pleasant.
Now, lets examine the famous confrontation of Paul on Peter in
Galatians 2.
It was done in public.
It was done because Peter is setting a poor example
to the other believers and non-believers alike.
..in other words, conflicts between Christian is real and has to be
dealt with.
Insomuch that I stand by the principle within the conflict I have
with dave, I will apologise for calling dave a turd. I
admit that it was totally unnecessary and I have become too
emotional. So dave, I apologise for calling you a turd, which
incidentally is a lot worst that calling you pathetic. But
let me state that I had become frustrated because of the lack of
desire to learn or improve on the part of this young person.
Note, however, that I did not apologise that I called him pathetic.
I think he is a sad and pathetic young man who does not know where
he stands and what he wants. I think he is pathetic in the way he
calls attention to himself with his godless chatters and incessant
whining. I think he is pathetic that he masks his lack of
confidence through loud and boastful actions.
However, I wish him well, if he is willing to, as he said, become
a better man.. then again, he has said this many times before and
until I see a more proactive approach by dave, my opinion about him
will not change.
But enough about dave.
In Eternal Hope, what do we do, what can we do. Christians (most of
us anyway) here hope to counsel, mentor, explain, and hopefully
evangelise. We deal with each other, listen to each others views,
debate about it passionately, some try to help publicly, others
work in the background. When we see a brother erring, what do we
do? We chastise, we admonish, we counsel, we encourage
sometimes
privately too.... but if a brother does not listen, inspite of an
overwhelming amount of discontentment, what can we do?
I think that this is a bigger issue than the problem between dave
and me.
And this is the one we need to answer.... because conflicts will
continue to exist. The thing I want to happen is someone misquoting
1 Corinthians 13 about love.
Most of all, I do not want Christians of protecting ourselves when
one of us err. This has happened before when overzealous Christians
step beyond the boundary of good human relational transaction and
EH had in the past been accused of harbouring such folks under the
guise of love.
