Are we being Deciples of Christ

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
1 Peter 3:15‭-‬17 NIV
There is so much packed into this verse that you almost have to take it piece by piece to make sure you heed it properally. Lately. And I don’t mean the past month, I mean the past few years. The word ‘Christian’ has lost it’s meaning. Christian used to mean Christ follower, like Christ. It used to mean changed and a better person, yet the word has lost it’s meaning as people have claimed it as an excuse for un-Christlike behaivior and speach. We are under a banner that used to represent the living Church and the living Word of God. Now we are being strangled by a banner that people have crawled under to hide their sins but have not repented or changed from them. To verbally assault people on the internet and then spew a Bible verse is heracy to say the least. To rebel against and speak offensively about our police and military who are trying to do their jobs and protect us is wrong. We are to live in a way that cannot be brought up before a court. We are to be humble and kind yet unrelenting, unrelenting in our belief in God not in our own opinions. We are seen as evil because of false christians who don’t even try to be like Christ. People then claim that they are right because Jesus was a rebel against injustice. That one makes me slap my forehead. Who was Jesus a rebel against again people?
If I randomly choose a raised hand in the crowd the answer will be the same as every hand out there. He was rebel against the Church leaders and the government.
Okay. You mean the leaders who were making it so that they were seen as higher than God and were opressing those who were already suffering? (Quick disclaimer: We have to realize that not all the church leaders of Jesus day were like this and when He chided them He was speaking to the ones who were being sinful and caliming it as God’s will, like what we have been seeing in our own ‘Christian’ people over the past several years)
You mean the government who was beating and slaughtering His people? I see a wave of nodding heads. Okay.
How did Jesus respond? Please don’t mention the table throwing thing, that was a one time event. How did He respond the rest of the time?
With words of rebuke some days, with shows of His might as healed people and spoke the thoughts of those who stood against Him, but mostly He responded with love. He loved them. He loved the begger by the pool of Bethsaida, He loved the guard who was raising a whip against a slave, He loved the phairasee who was praying out of habit but no substance for the million time. Thier siffering, the suffering they caused, and the indeferance broke His heart but He still loved them. All of them. All of us. Jesus wasn’t burning people in the comments section and then claiming to be praying for them, He didn’t hate one people group and love another, if He had He would have only saved the Jews and we as the gentiles would have been left in the cold, He certaininly didn’t cause violence and claim it as His right to stand against opression. He caused healing and generosity and, wait for it, LOVE.
You can be bold and powerful and meek and gentle at the same time. The Holy Spirit fights for us. The devil got into the church and made us become our own worst enemy. Take it back to the Bible. What would Jesus do?