Read Titus 3.
Today we read something that every Christian who uses social media should : “Remind the people… to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.”
Why? Because there was a time when each of us was a sin-sick fool. As verse 3 says, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.”
Pretty ugly, right? But that’s where we all were. Christ saved some of us before these sins were in full bloom, but they were all there within us, agitating to be expressed. The difference between you and any unbeliever is not your high moral standards or your profound insight. The difference is the grace of Jesus Christ: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” (vv. 4-5).
So when people do sinful things and brag about them, when they are unwise and unashamed of it, when they are disobedient to God’s word, the proper attitude we should have is not moral lecturing. The proper attitude should be “to be peaceable, considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone” (v. 2).
I hate how politics have been injected into everything. It turns every event and activity into some kind of argument. Those arguments, in my observation, often turn to “slander.” They lead people who profess love for Jesus Christ away from being “peaceable and considerate and… gentle toward everyone.”
But that is how God wants us to be, according to verse 2.
If someone’s sin bothers you, recognize that person is caught in the grip of a depravity from which only Jesus can rescue them. That won’t change your opinion of what they are doing but it should change your thoughts about the person and your approach to speaking to that person.
Christ has rescued us from the damage that our sinful hearts long to create; look at others who are sinning not as objects to be argued with, slandered, and intimidated. Instead, look at them as people caught in sin’s grip. Then, pray and ask the Lord to release them.
