Faith Matters: Understand that there are more important things than always being right

What’s the dumbest thing you’ve argued about? Should the toothpaste be squeezed from the middle or the end? Who’s responsible for the position of the toilet seat?

One time I argued with someone about the color of my car. I thought I had bought a blue car. My coworkers at the time said it was green. I’m color blind. They were right.

But the dumbest argument I’ve heard about was between a couple in Lake County, Illinois, who argued over who had left the coffee pot on. Karen Lotz accused her husband Larry of being the guilty party.

The argument went on for so long and got so heated it was finally settled the way logical, calm thinking individuals settle arguments.

Larry shot Karen. Three times.

Larry currently is in prison serving his sentence of 10 to 20 years.

Seems Larry may have overreacted.

But that’s indicative of where our culture is today. We don’t seem to know how to disagree anymore. We’re not allowed to have differing opinions. Our culture believes the best way to settle a disagreement is to argue the other party into submission.

Maybe you yell at them, degrade them, label them, belittle them or simply wear them down to the point where they give up.

And if you’re really good at it, you run for public office.

I think we’ve come to expect this type of behavior from the news media, politicians and social media. The problem we run into is when Christians behave the same way.

I think Jesus has different expectations for how His people are to act. Shoot, I think our culture has different expectations for how Christians are supposed to act.

People in our culture may not know much scripture but they know that Christians are supposed to be loving and kind and gracious. And yet, here we are lost in social media feed fighting with someone over whether kids should get vaccinated or the pros and cons of homeschooling versus public school.

We end up personally attacking people based on the fact that they share a different opinion than us. I don’t think this is the way it’s supposed to be. I don’t think this is the way Jesus intended for us to act.

Jesus said in Luke 6:27: “I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

A wise man once told me that if God hadn’t intended to give me some enemies, He wouldn’t have commanded me to love them.

Loving people who believe differently than us will never be easy. But at some point we have to come out from behind the anonymity social media offers and just be kind to people.

We have to take the words of Jesus seriously and be gracious to people. We have to understand that there are more important things in the world than being right.

No matter what color you think your car is.

Dr. J. Phillip Hamm is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Palmetto. Reach the church at 941-722-7795 or visit fbcpalmetto.com. Faith Matters is a regular feature of Saturday’s Bradenton Herald written by local clergy members.