Leadership vs Abrasive

Christianity is not liberalism or conservatism. It is not tolerant of sin. It is not a denomination. It is centered around being born again, which means that a person places all their faith and trust in God and attempts to truly live their life like Jesus would. Christianity isn't about condemning or saying that unbelievers and sinners are destined for peril.

Jesus was tactful, knowing when and how to say things according to the situation and audience. According to the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the literal word, Christian with its origin from the Greek word Christianos, means follower of Christ (Bible Hub). He who follows Christ, emulates Christ in every way and moment in one’s life. Nowhere in the Bible shows a person half-heartedly following Christ and being praised for it. The church of Laodicea was admonished by the Apostle John in Revelations. He states:

“[15] ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold (invigorating, refreshing) nor hot (healing, therapeutic); I wish that you were cold or hot. [16] So because you are lukewarm (spiritually useless), and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth [rejecting you with disgust]. [17] Because you say, “I am rich, and have prospered and grown wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked [without hope and in great need], [Hos 12:8] [18] I counsel you to buy from Me gold that has been heated red hot and refined by fire so that you may become truly rich; and white clothes [representing righteousness] to clothe yourself so that the shame of your nakedness will not be seen; and healing salve to put on your eyes so that you may see. [19] Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I rebuke and discipline [showing them their faults and instructing them]; so be enthusiastic and repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will]. [Prov 3:11, 12; Heb 5:8; 12:5-7] [20] Behold, I stand at the door [of the church] and continually knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him (restore him), and he with Me. [21] He who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will grant to him [the privilege] to sit beside Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down beside My Father on His throne. [1 John 5:5] [22] He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches’” (Revelations 15:22 AMP).

The Bible, however, condemns this action. Therefore, we should be tactful like Christ.

You can be straight to the point when speaking correction to a fellow Christian because they already know the basics of Christianity. However, you shouldn't be rude or obnoxious either. In college, I had someone, an unbeliever, ask me why Christians were so mean because someone had told her that she was going to hell right to her face. I had to explain that the person's behavior was not the epitome of Christianity. That person was woefully misguided and wrong to say something so harsh and uncaring. Just think, the time before you became a born again Christian, would you have responded positively if someone told you to repent or you will go to Hell? Or that God hates you? Absolutely not. You had someone show you the way of God. You had someone, without malice or inconsideration, speak to you. Such actions from those misguided Christians drives people away from God, and God will have to work to fix the damage that the misguided Christian has done. In other words, you were persuaded towards God, not condemned towards God.

We face persuasion all around us: on TV, through peer pressure, on the internet as a whole and, more specifically, on social media, and even in the news. Things we see and read can persuade us. Those commercials that come on TV may not be outright persuasive, but they are persuasive. That's why commercials are big business, because they work. Maybe they aren't that effective on a conscious level, but on a subconscious level, they do work. That's why we have to guard ourselves from being exposed to the wrong things. Your subconscious is vulnerable. Ever been around a person so much who had a certain idiosyncratic behavior, and you find yourself sometimes displaying the same idiosyncrasies, like uniquely pronouncing a word? Being around that person so much has affected you subconsciously. Thus, watching something continuously will also affect your subconscious. Another form of persuasion is seeing someone act contrary to conventional thinking. It could be through an example like one's unwavering work ethic or unwavering desire to do the right thing, even when it is not beneficial for that person. When you do things that defy the conventional, you will stand out and be noticed. This is achieved by just emulating Jesus. Jesus was and still is controversial in the worldly domain, and so should Christians. If the world uses persuasive tactics, why can't we Christians do the same through leadership? Leading by example.

Satan most definitely uses persuasion, and so does God. The key difference is the intent and what you are trying to persuade others towards. Satan persuades us towards sin using seductive and tantalizing tactics. God uses holy tactics that can include signs, miracles, and displays of undeserved kindness, grace. Jesus healed the sick and once fed multitudes of people using only a small quantity of fish and bread. That act alone is a show of kindness, a caring nature, and a miracle. Jesus never once wanted anything in return. He didn't say to the people he helped that they owed him. This clearly shows that intent is key. You don’t do kind things just to persuade people. Remember, your intent is important. You do kind things to be kind. The act of caring has power to persuade. It should not be our desire to manipulate people through our actions, but to lead by example like Christ. Someone would be persuaded to find out what is making one act in such a way, especially if one goes out of their way to be kind. Jesus was carrying out those acts of kindness and caring through undeserved favor and grace. If we are to emulate Jesus, then we are to show kindness and a caring nature to unbelievers, even the ones who are rude and vile and are undeserving. You may scoff at this, but Christians are not deserving of God's salvation. We aren't deserving because of our sins. We all sin, albeit we may not sin willfully, but we still all sin. Therefore, our salvation is predicated on the grace that God bestows upon us, not due to our might or good works.

Sin is anything contrary to God. A sin can be lying, gossiping, unforgiveness, jealousy, covetousness, murder, stealing, unrighteous anger, unrighteous violence, greed, gluttony, lust, unrighteous thinking, unrighteous language which includes cursing, sexual immorality, marriage not being between a man and a woman, unrighteous fear, and so on. Keep in mind that everything that God has created is good. Anything that is used in a manner that is contrary to God's ways and values is a sin. It's the intent that matters. Take for example, language. The words in a language are not inherently bad. But when they are used to attack, defame, condemn, ridicule, offend, or be crude, it is a sin. The word for a donkey is not a sin, but when you use the same word to describe a badly behaved person it is a sin. It's the same word, but it has different intents with its usage. It's the same with the word for a female dog. And it is the same with the word [H]ell, which is not a sin if you are using it to refer to the antithesis of Heaven. The Bible talks about this ad nauseam. Here is one scripture which warns us about such sins. “But now rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene (abusive, filthy, vulgar) language from your mouth” (Colossians 3:8 AMP). Again, despite our sin, God has bestowed upon us His grace and undeserved favor. In turn, we all should bestow grace on our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and on our fellow brothers and sisters outside of Christ in the carnal realm on Earth. Ideally, we should all bestow grace on everyone, whether we are Christians or not. Christians especially should bestow grace on everyone, as God has bestowed His grace on all of us, Christian or not.

1. 5546. Christianos. Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/greek/5546.htm.

2. Revelations 15 | AMP Bible | YouVersion. (n.d.). In www.bible.com. https://www.bible.com/bible/1588/REV.3.AMP.

3. Colossians 3 | AMP Bible | YouVersion. (n.d.). In www.bible.com. https://www.bible.com/bible/1588/COL.3.AMP.