God never told us to strike back; just the opposite. People who are bullies themselves like the idea of hitting back and having someone to blame.
A family member undermined me one day when he counseled our son, in front of me, to hit back if a bully bothers him. I was telling my son not to retaliate.
This family member was supposedly a Christian, but he was also a terrible bully himself, mostly with his mouth, to cause others to become angry. Then, when the victim of my bully relative lunged at him, he blamed the one who hit him but never admitted his part in it with his mouth.
Sadly, adults in the family praised him for beating up the bully when he was the bully with his mouth and should have been punished for it.
If someone claims to be a Christian but cannot express their broken state before they were a Christian, then perhaps they were never saved.
The more we walk in Christ, the bolder we become. We do not fear being found out because we already told on ourselves. Those who fear being judged by others are hiding something.
When we can freely admit our failures and express our desire to be transformed by Christ, He does all the work in us. What used to be unnatural for us becomes natural, that is doing what is right without having to ponder it first.
Christ changes our character on the inside; when this happens, then we automatically do what glorifies Christ or at the very least we are deeply wounded and horrified when we do not obey God.
Ephesians 2:10 "…9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life. "
Psalm 100:3 "Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture."
2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!"
Colossians 1:16 "For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him."
Colossians 1:10 "so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,"
1 Peter 2:12 "Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us."
There are so many things the organized church system taught that were wrong according to Scripture. Study to show yourself approved does not mean look up seminary educated men and just believe them.
The Holy Spirit can remove all the lies we were trained in and show us the truth, all we have to do is ask Him to show us all the things we were taught that were wrong and replace them with the truth.
John 8:32 "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
1 Thessalonians 5:21 "But test everything; hold fast what is good."
2 Timothy 2:15 "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."
Notice that God never tells us to go to educated men who have titles to ask for truth. He told us to depend on the Holy Spirit, willing to discard anything that men taught us that was not His truth.
John 16:13-14 "13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you."
John 15:26 "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me."
John 14:17 "the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you."
John 14:26 "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you."
The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is our Advocate; we can depend on Him to tell us everything He wants us to know.
1 Corinthians 2:10-13 "But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. / For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. / We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us."
Hallelujah for the Holy Spirit Who tells us everything we want to know if only we will ask Him.
Those who have Christ living in them are stronger because of trauma; I have seen it and experienced it.
John 16:33 "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
James 1:2-4 "2 Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
Those who have Christ living in them are the ones who become stronger when they are in trials because their strength comes from Him.
Some people will quote all day long the phrase for athletes, "no pain no gain", but will not believe it for trials in their lives. They understand that breaking down muscles for them to grow back stronger is a principle all athletes practice, but do not believe it for emotional pain.
Only those who have trusted in Christ will fully understand the strength they receive from Christ in the middle of their trials.
We can weep and maintain joy at the same time. We know that all trials will bring lessons and mental resilience because of Christ Who lives in us.
James 1:19-25 "19 You know this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;
20 for a man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;
24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
25 But one who has looked intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and has continued in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an active doer, this person will be blessed in what he does."
I never do "ifs"! "What if this had happened?" "Perhaps it was this way or that." "It could have been this or that."
These are useless phrases that are fodder for gossip and false doctrine.
If we cannot say for sure that something happened, never saw it for ourselves, or never had two or three witnesses, then we should not repeat it.
If we didn't see what happened and only had the testimony of one person, then we should never repeat it.
Never base your actions or attitude on things you cannot prove or that are none of our business.
Never base your actions toward someone on the conversation between two other people when you were not a part of it. Holding grudges against people based on one testimony or interaction that you were not a part of is gossip and useless except to destroy relationships.
Proverbs 16:27-29 "…27A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire. 28A perverse man spreads dissension, and a gossip divides close friends. 29A violent man entices his neighbor and leads him down a path that is not good."
Gossip that divides people is considered violence in God's eyes.
Proverbs 6:12-14 "A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth, winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers. With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord."
James 3:16 "For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice."
Proverbs 17:9 "Whoever conceals an offense promotes love, but he who brings it up separates friends."
Proverbs 11:13 "A gossip reveals a secret, but a trustworthy person keeps a confidence."
If you have confided in a friend a struggle you had and that friend gossiped to someone else about it, then that friend cannot be trusted ever again, unless there is confession of sin and true sorrow over the transgression.
James 3:5-6 "In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest ablaze. The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell."
James 3:8-10 "but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be!"
Romans 16:17-18 "Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Turn away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive."
May each born-again believer seek to follow God's Word, not just know it or use it to justify their haughtiness. When we confess in our hearts before the sin in our heart becomes an action we will not have to confess it to anyone but God.
After the sin in our heart becomes an actions then we have the embarrassing work of confessing it openly to those we have offended in order to reconcile a relationship. The relationship cannot be mended until there is confession. Admitting ones flaws and sins is the only way to Spiritual and emotional growth that moves us toward greater holiness.
1 John 1:9 "9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
If we want to be free from guilt and full of joy the only way to do it is to keep close accounts when we mess up, confess to be cleansed and start again without the sin we confessed.
Hebrews 12:1-17 "Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
A Father’s Discipline
4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are punished by Him;
6 For whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He punishes every son whom He accepts.”
7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
11 For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,
13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is impaired may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14 Pursue peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
16 that there be no sexually immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.
17 For you know that even afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears."
