“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13
It is not my intentions to hurt anyone’s feelings with the doctrine I believe and teach. I believe that the Holy Spirit has taught them to me and therefore I intend to stand fast on them and to defend them with all the tools God has given me to do so. I have changed my thinking on the scriptures many time over throughout the years, after I reached the conclusion I was mistaken or wrong. I understand in this flesh I am not infallible and neither is any other person. When God tells us to stand firm in our faith, He is telling us to be stationary or to persevere our faith. When God speaks of what we are to persevere it is our faith which means our Christian truth, or the truthfulness of God. Therefore, I must conclude that God is telling me it is my work as a Christian and a Pastor to defend and persevere the word of God as He has taught it to me. God did not tell me in doing so to hurt, condemn, or to mock other people. In fact, God told me in defending His word with steadfastness that I am to defend His doctrine with love. “Let all your things be done with charity.” 1 Corinthians 16:14 As I have already said, I understand that as Christians who are in the flesh, we will not always agree on the entire doctrine of the scriptures, and therefore I am not to hate those who disagree with me. But as a defender of God’s word it is my job to defend the truth as I see it. If you disagree with me doctrinally and you are a believer in the salvation of Jesus Christ, then I love you regardless. We can fellowship to a point but there is a point of cut off when it comes to advancing your doctrine. God said in 2 John 1:10 "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:" I believe the Lord is saying not to let them speak in your house, nor to serve in your house as an avenue to promote their untruthful teaching. God also told us not to pray for their advancement in their doctrine when He said not to bid them God speed. In fact, the Lord went on to say in the very next verse (11.) “For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” This means if we help them, pray for them, or allow them to use our house to speak, we are taking part against our own teaching for theirs. This is as far as God has told us as believers and churches to go. We are not to fight them, hate them, or to harm them, at any point. We are all (as believers in Christ Jesus) Christians no matter what we believe doctrinally. However, as believers and as churches we must decipher Christians and non-Christians, those who disagree with us in doctrine and those who are false leaders all together. Those who teach doctrine against Jesus Christ as our Saviour are more than “one who disagrees”, those are total heretics and anti-Christ altogether. These are the ones we should never listen to and any way or any form. These are not real Christians they do not understand the scriptures in any form or understand it in very little form. God said if you teach that salvation in in any other than Jesus Christ, then you are calling God a liar. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” 1 John 5:10. The fact that salvation is in Jesus Christ is the record of God, it is not the Baptist record other than it is God’s record. God went on to say in Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Beloved, let us as believers in Jesus Christ be kind to one another, and to learn it is ok to disagree because if you are infallible then cast the first stone. If I see I am wrong then I will change my thinking, but only if I can clearly see it. But to those who hate us because of little disagreements let them answer to God for their sins. God never said for Christians to hate one another under any form. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20 All I ask of my beloved Christian friends is to think before you act, God is our Judge.
