Incite or Persuade

 

“Persuasion is often more effectual than force.”  Aesop

 
In one of Aesop’s Fables, the North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was stronger. While they were disputing with a lot of heat and bluster, a traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak. "Let us agree," said the Sun, "that he is the stronger who can strip that traveler of his cloak." "Very well," growled the North Wind, and at once he sent a cold, howling blast against the traveler. With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the man’s body, and he immediately wrapped his cloak tighter. The harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.
  But then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle. In the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the traveler unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun's rays grew warmer and warmer. The man took off his hat and mopped his brow. At last, he became so warm that he took off his cloak and to escape the blazing sunshine, sat down in the shade of a tree by the roadside.
  In our uncivil world too many, even too many Christians, are like the North Wind. Instead of seeking to persuade someone who disagrees with us to consider our viewpoint and change their mind, in our social media posts or verbal discussions, we only seeking to incite and further rile up those who already agree with us. That’s both foolish and unbiblical.
  It’s important as Christ-followers that we learn to interact and dialogue with those who disagree with us in a way that shows respect, yet also remain faithful to biblical truth. Ours is a society where others have deep and irreconcilable differences over the things that deeply matter. Some of these differences have always existed; others have materialized or become more apparent in recent decades.
  Pluralism is a descriptive reality, not a moral, of whether these differences are good or bad. Some differences, like your favorite ice cream flavor, are good and make life more interesting. Other differences highlight mutually exclusive truth claims. They’re often emotional yet need engagement, even with those who disagree with us.
  How are we to engage those who disagree with us and seek to persuade them of God’s truth?
 We live like Jesus. Embodying humility, patience, and tolerance are essential to our gospel witness. They’re some of the ways that we live out the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love. Our confident faith in God lets us live with humility. We acknowledge that we walk by faith and not by sight. We can acknowledge the limits of human reasoning in that we can’t always prove why we’re right and others are wrong.
  Living like Jesus means to be patient. As Christians, our hope lies in Christ and His coming kingdom, not in our immediate political moment. It’s why we can graciously listen to friends or neighbors, sympathetically looking for common ground. We’re not threatened by our differences.
  Add to that, we can tolerate each other. That simply means enduring the beliefs and practices we don’t share because of our gospel love. It doesn’t mean we accept beliefs or practices that we don’t share. Tolerance means distinguishing people from their ideas, and graciously seeking relationships with all because they’re made Imago Dei, in God’s image. Our love of God overflows into love of neighbor. It calls us to graciousness and tolerance.
  We look for common ground even when we disagree on the common good. Common ground includes the beliefs and experiences that unite us even in the midst of core disagreements. Finding patches of common ground can be difficult and uncomfortable, but it’s so worthwhile for the sake of our gospel calling to live with patience and love.
  The common good represents what’s best for a given society—its people, its laws, and its communities. It depends on ends or purposes that can be specifically named. Christians can and should name the common good for this world under the reign of Jesus. Scripture tells us the purpose of creation, but naming the common good politically is much harder. The fact of pluralism makes it unlikely that we can specify an outcome on which all members of society agree we should be directed. Yet, even when our beliefs are polar opposites on what is the common good, we must always live and speak graciously.
  A wonderful example of that is how Jesus interacted with an immoral Samaritan woman in John 4. The word “Christian” means “little Christ.” Even those who diametrically disagree with us on the common good must continually see Jesus Christ in us.
  Frequent references to conflict in the Bible lead us to conclude that God understands conflict is part of the human condition. Conflict is also a pathway to loving each other more fully. As Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). That means being a Christ-follower is recognizing that we’ll disagree, and that our work is to overcome that disagreement graciously as much as possible without sacrificing God’s truth.
  Anyone reading the Gospels sees that during His life, Jesus spoke kindly with others regardless of physical ailment, ethnicity, sex, or socio-economic status. There are no examples of Jesus being condescending or just trying to win an argument. He sat alongside people, even when He shared very difficult truths with them. Jesus—God in human flesh—told stories and asked questions. Like Him, we’re to engage those who disagree with us with kindness and respect. Jesus frequently asked questions rather than pontificating with answers. We must do the same.
  The bottom line is that we’re to love each other even when others may be disagreeable and unlovable. The Bible doesn’t describe love as an emotion. It describes it as a verb. We aren’t given the luxury of loving only the agreeable, lovable, or our “team” or “political group.” Instead, we’re told to love each other…no matter what…as we’re loved by Christ.
  Being loving isn’t “agreeing to disagree.” None of us have had spiritual experiences where God agrees to disagree with us. Loving is also not having an intense argument and giving up. To be loving is a long-term exercise in patience, listening, suggesting, questioning, looking for opportunities to uplift and affirm, guiding when it’s appropriate, meeting needs, and showing up for the other person, even those we disagree with.
  Our mission is not to win the applause of those who agree with us and it’s wrong to seek to incite anger of “our team.” Instead, we must live for an “audience of One.” We must be loving like Jesus and seek to win by love.

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