• Home
  • About Off The Grid
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Thursday, June 19, 2025
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
Off The Grid News
Home Worldview

Christian Conflict, part 1

by Joanna H
in Worldview
Print Print
Christian Conflict, part 1
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on TruthEmail Article

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.—1 John 4:20

If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.–Matthew 5:23-24

The greatest commandments tell us to love God wholeheartedly, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The verses above show clearly that our love for God is tested and made real by our love for the people around us.

Without neighbor-love we can easily fall into the error of worshipping a God made in our own image, confusing God’s wrath with our human anger, God’s call with our own ideas of what ought to be done. Or we can enjoy an imaginary love for God that is full of fine feelings and well-expressed thoughts but that never translates itself into real life.

Life with our neighbors requires a real, active, difficult, persistent love. It’s hard to idealize the people we live and work with day after day after day, or to convince ourselves that they agree with us about everything that matters; evidence to the contrary comes up so frequently!  We need to see them as the main characters of their own stories and as characters like us in the great story of God, rather than as bit-players in our own dramas.  We need to support what is good in them, lovingly challenge what seems wrong, and humbly acknowledge that we might not understand what God wills for them.  We need to be willing to see ourselves through their eyes and thus be open to uncomfortable truths.  We need to learn to delight in them as they were created, not to try to shape them according to our will. Such honesty, perseverance, humility and gratitude with the others we encounter every day enables us to enter into true relationship with the great Other, God.

Such true relationships with other people are not easy or tranquil. They necessarily include misunderstanding, disagreement, disappointment and anger. The Bible and the Christian tradition are full of stories and precepts for dealing with anger and conflict in a way that leads us deeper into true relationship with our neighbors and with God.

ShareTweetShareSend

Related Posts

The War Against Authority

The War Against Authority

by Bill Heid

The Breeding of Anarchy and Destruction of a Nation Exodus 22:28 declares, “Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse...

Why Tyranny Always Replaces Justice in Lawless Nations

Why Tyranny Always Replaces Justice in Lawless Nations

by Bill Heid

The Modernist Assault on the Concept of Treason Liberal seminary scholars have long insisted that the Pentateuch is a patchwork...

Why Christ Must Be Lord Over Reason

Why Christ Must Be Lord Over Reason

by Bill Heid

The Lordship of Christ Begins in the Mind When Christians speak of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, they often think...

Next Post
Minnesota Accused of Billing Taxpayers for Abortions Not Allowed for Under State Law

Minnesota Accused of Billing Taxpayers for Abortions Not Allowed for Under State Law

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Understanding Urinary Tract Infections, Their History, and How to Prevent Them

Understanding Urinary Tract Infections, Their History, and How to Prevent Them

The 'Forgotten' Homestead Crop That Can Yield $10,000 Per ACRE ...

The ‘Forgotten’ Homestead Crop That Can Yield $10,000 Per ACRE …

homemade knife

How To Make A Survival Knife You’ll Brag About For Years (Part 2)

TRENDING STORIES

  • bubonic plague

    Is Another Bubonic Plague Pandemic On The Horizon?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion & A Look Back On The “Waco Massacre”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Make Yourself 3 Times More Likely To Survive A Heart Attack

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • AI Surveillance Of Shoppers: Walmart’s Newest Tool To Grab Your Data

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Apocalyptic’ Microchip Implants Are Here – And Being Inserted Into People’s Hands

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Subscribe to our Insider Newsletter

Huge discounts on off-the-grid gear and life saving supplements.






‘Off The Grid News’ is an independent, weekly email newsletter and website that is crammed full of practical information on living and surviving off the grid. Advice you’ll never hear from the mainstream media.

  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Extreme Survival
  • Survival Gardening
  • Off-Grid Foods
  • Worldview
  • Natural Health
  • Survival Hunting
  • Privacy
  • Financial
  • Current Events
  • Self Defense
  • Home Defense
  • Pain-Free Living
  • Miscellaneous
  • Off Grid Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.

Privacy Policy   Terms & Conditions
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
  • Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.