Spiritual Bullying - Are we evangelizing or winning an argument? - From the Field and Around the WWW.
Spiritual bullying…yes, you read the title right. That is exactly what it says.
What does it mean, though?
Let’s take a brief look and try to understand it better and resolve to help ourselves not become spiritual bullies!
Spiritual Bullies are everywhere!
We attend worship services with them, we engage in social media with them, we see them in stores and public activities, and we may even be married to one!
So, just who is a spiritual bully? Well, there are probably many ways to look at this question, but a few that come to mind are: those educated in scripture that never want to be wrong, those ignorant in scripture that never think they are wrong, those not humble enough to study scriptures and have a change of mind and heart when they are wrong, those who force their traditional beliefs or customs on others, and those who are just plain mean and unkind in their approach to most anything.Spiritual Bullies were in the early church!
A few passages come to mind when I think of spiritual bullies.
1 Timothy 1:20 records Paul’s calling out of Hymaneus and Alexander because they have made shipwreck of their faith. Now, don’t misunderstand, there is no mention that they were bullying anyone, but it seems to me that they had this type of an attitude considering that our brother Paul was also the same person who wrote Ephesians 4:15 and other passages in which we find that he would approach kindness in restoration. Were they being bullies? Evidence is not clear, but their attitude toward their own faith may be certainly evident of that.
3 John 9-10 names another spiritual bully. A man by the name of Diotrophes is recorded here by John. The bullying that we see from Diotrophes is one that may be all too contagious in our society today. Narcissism might be the easiest and best description. Diotrophes had an attitude that he was the greatest and that others needed to agree on all things or they themselves were wrong.
There are many other passages and individuals (or groups) that we can list and think about. We can even remember when Paul himself prior to his own conversion was a spiritual bully for the wrong things! Jesus said that the Scribes and Pharisees wanted the center of attention in Matthew 23:1-7, and of course in Matt 7, Jesus spends a lot of time addressing false prophets/teachers that also bully their way spiritually into sound congregations and taint pure-hearted Christians.Spiritual Bullies may be closer than we think!
As we looked at Diotrophes, I had to take a break for a few minutes as I reflected on my own spiritual behavior and conversations with others. There are probably times in which all of us may find ourselves with too much pride or arrogance to carry on a fruitful conversation, teach an edifying lesson, or evangelize the lost in denominations or the world. I can think of past times in which I had studied with someone and they never obeyed the gospel. As I reflect on these conversations, I am reminded of some statements that I may have made, an opinion that I may have forced, or even an attitude of Diotrophes in wanting to always be right and the greatest.
Spiritual bullying is sometimes hard to spot when we look in the mirror. The reflection sometimes in a mirror may not reveal the closest of things in our imperfections on the outward body, but they never ever reflect all of our imperfections of the heart! That takes a deeper looking into your and my own lives in order to find that attitude, identify how to overcome it, repent, and transform those spiritual bullying concepts into spiritually edifying ones that lead to growth and not disembodiment.
Have you been a spiritual bully? I know I have. If any of us has, we need to be humble enough to admit our wrongs and repent. Pride is a sin that is listed multiple times, and pride is a symptom of spiritual bullying as much as anything else. Turn off the prideful look and look into your own heart today and see if there is a bully lurking around that could change to glorify God better, ease your own burdens, and encourage others.
One last scripture on this thought comes from the wise writer of Proverbs -"Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18)
From the field…
Our field rep program has kicked off to a great start this year. We have been in 4 different states meeting with congregations to talk about the program and to introduce congregations to this great work. It is encouraging to meet so many Christians across this great land and to know how we can pray for you and to have you pray for us.
If you have not had a field rep visit to your congregation, we would love to see if that might be possible. Scott Furniss is our Field Rep in the Texoma (Oklahoma/Texas) and would be happy to meet with you. I can meet with congregations in many different areas as well, especially Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and other surrounding areas. We would love to hear from you about scheduling a date! Email joey@thegospelofchrist.com for more information.
Around the WWW
Lots of exciting things are happening in our digital world. We have added more stations as you can see in this newsletter, continue to break statistical records on our website and social media sites, and have added some internal programs to better help our team manage content and contacts.
We hope you are still finding that our resources are as valuable as ever on the website, social media sites, our apps and our FREE Media program. As we continue to strive to reach the lost, we encourage you to tell us how we can do just that…and how we can do it better.
Until next time…
~Joey
Director of Operations & Public Relations
Field Rep Coordinator