John 8:44 "…43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me!…"
Many people will focus on the chaos that is created by calling someone out for their sin, rather than the sin of the perpetrator.
How many times have we heard in the news media, a scathing report against Israel for attacking someone, when the real attacker were those who bombed Israel, while all Israel was doing was defending themselves.
How many times have we spoken truth only to be mocked and demeaned for it, while the evil doer is comforted because they were "attacked", through a challenge for their sinful behavior.
Amos 5:10
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Galatians 4:16 "So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?"
The devil is the father of lies, he will attempt to ruin anyone who speaks truth, often by accusing them of the very thing he is doing and his victims are not.
1 Peter 5:8 "8 Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.…"
Do you think we have escaped this in America? Think again, the same mentality that becomes angry at hearing truth in family and community of this country is the same mentality in Islam that stones to death a woman because she was raped.
The mentality that, if we said something that made others angry, we must have provoked them, justifying any contempt for us, is just as alive and well in America as it is in Islamic countries, it merely takes a more subtle and devious form.
It is easy to see and expose the acts of a particular religion burning and beheading people. It is far more insidious in a country where there is an appearance of reasonableness, however covertly executing petty bad tempered attitudes and actions.
"Plausible Deniability" has become the means by which many people operate. They make their covert actions so far under the radar that others do not notice it or others choose to give the perpetrator the benefit of the doubt because they are not sure of what they are seeing.
We all see people, including ourselves, acting badly on a bad hair day. However, when someone makes a practice of using covertly mean tactics regularly under the radar with only those for which they have contempt, but loving up to those they wish to impress, we know we are encountering a deceitful person, one who only loves those who measure up to their god like status.
Godly people act the same with everyone, even those who think a little differently or do not accept all we believe. It is one thing to disagree, it is quite another to mock and demean in ways that others can't see, in an attempt to control the emotions of another person.
Love tells the truth, but love never seeks to crush another person through manipulative intimidation. The love of Christ wants to convince someone, it has no desire to dominate and crush anyone. The purpose of covert meanness is to crush and destroy the spirit of another human being.
Proverbs 18:14
"The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, But as for a broken spirit who can bear it?"
Psalm 34:18 "18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit."
Isaiah 57:15 "15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite."
It is pride that motivates an unkind person to covertly demean and mock to control them. These people never think of the heart and spirit of the one they seek to destroy, their only concern is to dominate and harm.
John 16:33 "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.”
It is clear that the more depraved the world becomes the more we will experience the tactics of ungodly people. We should not allow it to control us. It is Christ in us that we should seek to control us.
Romans 8:9 "8 Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit gives you life because of righteousness.…"
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