Friendly Fire

"For all the law is fulfilled in this one word"

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

BUT

"If you bite and devour one another,

watch out that you are not consumed by one another."

Immaturity expressed in the insecurity of Christian in fighting is a spiritual epidemic among far too many believers. Evil communication done in the name of "setting the record straight" and "defending our reputation" is the carnal man's warfare that only serves to corrupt good morals. One way to detect whether you or I have been corrupted by evil communication is to see if we have "taken sides" against a brother. There is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. The unity of the Spirit is preserved in refusing to allow evil communication to corrupt this unity of being one. We must not be against our brethren.

We do not wrestle with flesh and blood - therefore let us not war against our brothers. The very real danger of carnally immature Christian infighting is "death by friendly fire." How long will it be before we become spiritual mature and experienced enough to make sure we are firing at the enemy and not our own family in the faith? When we allow the enemy to exploit our fear and insecurity, we end up defending ourselves to the point of wounding our own brethren.

Why not rather be wronged! Why not rather be cheated! Instead, in the carnal impulse of self-defense we wound our own - always justifying ourselves in our own eyes out of "the need." How much pleasure the enemy must receive from watching us step right into his schemes to divide us against each other? The accuser of the brethren is always there to keep the supply of factual ammunition available. He especially delights when the infighting becomes intense and ever bigger weapons are called in to reinforce our "carnal self defenses."

One of his favorite weapons is called "the past". The past is especially effective in involving others to rally to our defense. Carnally immature believers who have been hurt by others are suckers for joining in the fray to protect a wounded comrade. Often times the reinforcements are far better fighters than the first one who came under attack. The factual past is a powerful weapon to neutralize the opponents we face. It is very effective to bring up the former days and to nourish the old grievances. Old wounds can be effectively used to stir up fresh passions.

I believe Jesus our Lord is inviting us to become slaughter lambs. Who is willing to be the one trampled upon unjustly? Who are those willing to remain silent as their own reputation is trashed and they are crucified with evil men? Where are those who suffering unjustly can commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good? Where are those who can rejoice when they are evil spoken of? Where are those who like their Lord, when they are reviled - revile not in return? Where are the true Christians? How sad to see the fresh wounds on brothers and sisters - the teeth marks of their own kind.


 "Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life."~A.W.Tozer


"One of the first things which a physician says to his patient is, ~Let me see your tongue.~A Spiritual advisor might often do the same."  ~Nehemiah Adams








Above written by Alan