I’ve always appreciated (but failed to practice often times) this quote from Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed:

It would be a good contest amongst Christians, one to labour to give no offence, and the other to labour to take none. The best men are severe to themselves, tender over others.

This is not to say that there are never times for seemingly harsh words, for there are. Nevertheless, harsh words do not have to be spoken in a harsh manner. We are not perfect like Christ, thus our hatred is not perfect like His. Beside that, we’re commanded to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. If we are to be kind to our enemies, how much more so to our brethren? The Moral Law ultimately comes down to 2 “greater” commandments:

1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

and

2. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Some may object, “But what about the Ten Commandments?” Well, the two aforementioned commandments sum up the Ten Commandments. In order to love our neighbor rightly, we must love God supremely and rightly. So the first 4 Commandments pertain to loving God and approaching him in the way He has commanded. Commandments 5 through 10 teach us how we are to love our neighbor. It’s a bit of a cycle as well, for to love God rightly also depends on us loving our neighbors rightly.

One duty found in the 9th Commandment is upholding the good name of our neighbor. It is my belief that such being the case, when I disagree with a fellow believer, I should be careful not to impute malicious intention or motivation to his heart simply because we believe something differently. For example, I should never think that an anti-paedobaptist is virulently kicking against the goads of Scripture simply because I believe he’s wrong concerning the doctrine of baptism. Neither should he think that I’m simply hanging on to tradition (for the sake of tradition) because I hold to infant baptism.

It is incumbent upon Christians to not only love their enemies, but to also charitably disagree with their brethren. This can be done without compromising one’s belief in a particular instance. There’s a difference between two Christian brethren sincerely believing and disagreeing on a matter and someone who seeks to undermine the Christian Faith with false belief. We would do well to distinguish between the two scenarios so that our language toward our brethren would be winsome and loving, whilst our language toward the divisive man be firm, yet nonetheless in love.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
Facebook - The Calvinist Vent
Board Rules - Signature Rules - Suggestion Box

It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

Well said!

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Ben
Chaplain, US Army
Ft. Riley, KS
TE Ohio Valley Presbytery, PCA

I disagree

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Adam B., Wine Country, California, PCA

"I fear not to hold with Junius, de Politia Mosis cap. 6, that he who was punishable by death under that Judicial law, is punishable by death still; and he who was not punished by death then, is not to be punished by death now."

No desert for you, buddy!

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

Josh, thank you for this challenging post. The words in bold were particularly convicting to me. May God grant me the grace to become more winsome and loving in the face of a difference in perspective/conviction.

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Kipp Soncek
Pastoral Ministry Apprentice--Grace Church of Dupage
Student--Midwest Center for Theological Studies
Illinois; 1689 LBCF
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24

I'm getting fat anyways; all that good old home cookin!

The desert I often eat is good ol' humble pie (or crow).





This is a great post Josh, thanks for posting it.

So long as it's charitably.