Battles Among Christians

I found this interesting post at Answers For Life entitled, When Christians Disagree, that I believe is correct on many levels.

In giving us good valid reasons to why Christians disagree, one particular point caught my eye, which the author subtitles The Former Kingdom Factor.

Another reason Christians develop strong convictions on disputable matters is because of differences in pre-conversion lifestyles. When God saves people, he takes them out of the kingdom of darkness and transfers them into the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:13). During membership in the kingdom of darkness, unbelievers develop lifestyles fitting to that kingdom. After coming to Christ, however, it is very common for believers to repudiate practices associated with their former lifestyle. The trouble often begins when those believers meet Christians who do not seem as concerned about the issues they have repudiated.

Sometimes, for example, believers who were very involved with rock music and dancing before coming to Christ, are horrified to hear about a Christian dance with music sounding similar to their former music. They cannot identify a direct statement of Scripture on the subject but are “sure” it must be wrong before God. Associations with our life before faith in Christ generate strong feelings.

Again, it must be emphasized, the desire to please God and avoid practices that lead us away from our devotion to Him is a non-negotiable. The Scripture teaches that God works in his people to create this desire (Philippians 2:13). Yet Some believers have difficulty understanding why different perspectives concerning what pleases God exist among equally sincere Christians.

I wonder if this could be a reason why there are some who are in constant battle mode. Dancing? Drinking? Smoking? the list goes on. Could it be that these were issues in their lives pre-Christ? But we have to ask ourselves, is the issue Biblical. Are the passages used in context with the actual intention of the writers?

The author of this post, whose name I do not know, gives many more reasons and mistakes made when Christians choose to battle over issues that in reality, are not Biblically mandated issues at all.

I encourage the reading of the entire post in order to put all of this in context. I think this piece should be on every church table and pastoral office. It’s that good. I hope it makes us think next time we want to judge others by causes.