Proper Debate: A Biblical Way Forward (Part 1)

Today’s climate, in many ways has become toxic as it pertains to disagreements in the church. This is especially true when it comes to political disagreements. Please understand, this is not a “political blog” but rather a proposed guide to proper debate. As believers, we are the picture of Jesus the world gets to see. We alone have the Holy Spirit to live and love as the Father does. I am ashamed of the way Christians (and sometimes whole churches) have behaved all in the name of debate, or worse yet “God’s side” of the aisle. I am guilty of improper debate on social media and in person, I am aware of that. I’ve decided to step back and seek to engage debate in a healthy, Biblical manner. This is my attempt at seeking to outline how we as Christians should engage in a proper debate. There must be a way forward in this my friends. We cannot continue to allow the Enemy to win the day in dividing the bride of Christ. Do not be confused, this division is caused by the Enemy and we’ve all, myself included, have allowed him to use us as pawns to weaken the church and the faith of young, budding Christians. I will take several blog posts to flesh some Biblical ways forward for proper debate. These are my opinions and convictions based off of my personal study of the Scriptures. You may disagree with me and that is fine. The first and foremost Biblical Way forward is through LOVE...

Love (1 Cor. 13; John 13:34-35; 1 Peter 1:22-23)

First and foremost, we are called to love. The oft-quoted passage in 1 Corinthians 13 is not an ode to marriage but rather an explanation of what loving your fellow Christian sibling ought to look like. When we debate, disagree or even have a heated discussion, these principles of love should guide us. Patience and kindness usually get tossed out of the window in disagreements, especially online disagreements. When we debate something as heated as politics, I see very little patience or kindness occur within these discussions...especially amongst Christians. We are easily offended when someone doesn’t agree with us or at least attempt to see things our way. We lose our patience and then end up spitting venom at the other person. Many times we seek to label them in some way and so justify our anger and bitter words. Even on my post about “what to blog on” people were frustrated and offended by topics to discuss and avoid; some folks responded without kindness or patience. 1 Peter 1:22-23 has really struck me of late. It states: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God…” (1 Peter 1:22-23 ESV). Our obedience to the truth is for sincere brotherly love, and we are to love with a pure heart. The Biblical way forward when it comes to debate is to do so with a pure heart filled with brotherly love. Jesus states in John 13:34-35 that all men will see Him and know Him by our love. The flip side of that is that by our unloving, or dare I say hate for one another, we actually push others away from Christ rather than lead them towards Him. The world does, in fact, stand back and watch these debates transpire. Our words should be laced with love. If we disagree, there has to be a way to lovingly share our side while listening to the other person's side.

Some might say: "I'm just speaking the truth" as Scripture tells us to. Well, the rest of that verse states: "...in love". We must all wrestle with truth, but we cannot do so without love if we expect to move forward. When you look at the debates happening amongst Christians today, those debates have not helped win someone to their side. In fact, I've noticed that it only engrains a person deeper into their stance. I've seen friendships broken, people leave churches, families hindered and personal faith lost all in the midst of improper debate. Name calling, backbiting, labeling, bigotry, false narratives and shut ears with loud, open mouths have become the norm...this is not love, it is hate.

Some have said: "Jesus and John the Baptist both labeled and name called when it came to the Pharisees! I am just following their example". This case has merit to it, BUT it cannot be the excuse any of us use to malign one another. Both John and Jesus were using the language they did in order to wake up the religious tyrants. It wasn’t about “hot button” issues but rather their rejection of Jesus Himself because he failed to meet their standard and follow their lead. Jesus rejected them because they couldn’t see HIM through their religious mask. The religious spirit is about control and it can operate on either side of the debate all the while feeling justified for its “holy stance” whether liberal or conservative. To love means we journey with. To love means we come alongside. To love means we sacrifice self, comfort and our desire to be right. To love means we seek to understand, rather than brutally retorting some half-brained, un-thought-through response. Maybe ask someone what it is that makes something such a passionate topic for them. Don’t do so in a way that is accusatory or treats someone as less than, but genuinely cares. Maybe there’s a place of pain, maybe you have a place of pain that causes such a visceral reaction in you...take time to wrestle with that rather than using that pain as a platform to rip a brother or sister to shreds.

The question we must all ask is: do I care more about being right and proving I’m right or do I care more about winning this person's heart? I’ve seen when I’ve won hearts through loving debate they are much more prone to give a true hearing to my side. They may still disagree but at least they took time to truly listen.

There is a way forward for proper debate. It needn’t stay the way it has been. We must love and not always think we know all there is to know on a given topic...


This leads me to a second Biblical way forward- Humility.

Politics in Church

  As a young Pastor, I can confidently say that one of the most divisive things within the church in America are Politics.

  No matter what, this topic ignites fight after fight within the church and causes people to choose sides, all the while wounding their brothers and sisters in the process.

  It, to me is sad that so often in the church we choose our Political Party over our brother and sister in Christ.  The reality is one day political parties will be destroyed and there will only be God and our brothers and sisters.  Why would we choose anything that has a time limit on it over eternal things?

  I know I have had my own political blogs, one not so well received discussion about Osama Bin Laden and others about Obama.  On neither of those topics though did I claim sides, nor political parties I simply expressed what I felt and asked for dialogue, as I am attempting here.

  My opinion on politics in church is that it is a destroyer of community and unity within the body.  If we are believers in Christ, and are made new by the Spirit, it doesn't matter what your political background or party is.  I find it a sad testament to the church itself when people will judge your salvation based on which candidate you vote for or which political party you belong to.  I know this happens, because my salvation was judged by someone I deemed a friend when I told them I voted for Obama in the Presidential election.  Some of you may not like that even today.

  Here again, it may seem I am taking a "political side" but I am not, because all of my other votes in that certain election were for all Republicans so as the power wouldn't fully rest with one party.  Let's not rest here, because it could deter from my point.

  My point is that politics in the church are dangerous.  Dangerous because we simply can't contain our zealot hearts from backing up our beliefs with arguments.  If we were a place where understanding and love flowed, people could open up about who they voted for or what their political bent is.  As the American church is today however, one wouldn't dare for fear of being "labeled" and out casted.

 Some of you may wonder why I am bringing this up during a "political lull" where little political things are being done and spouted and my answer is because it's low tension season which will SOON swing into high tension season...

  In my heart, I truly believe we as the Body of Christ need to remain united more than ever in this tumultuous time.  I fear our political party has become more god to us than God himself, partiotism has covered over our vigor for the church and our campaigns for certain candidates have over shadowed our evangelism for Christ.

  Sure we have a duty to lead this country for Jesus and we desire the most "Christ-like" candidate to take the Presidency but we must stop fooling ourselves: we no longer live in a Christian nation.  Christ does not reign in the hearts of many in office.  The nation we desire to have we will never have until Christ returns.  God will bless this nation through us, his church as we serve this world through our love of one another and the lost and we've been lacking hoping out candidate and the country will do what we are supposed to do.

  The world around us has changed and we've been stuck thinking its the same.  If we truly believe the Scriptures, everything will get worse before it gets better as it pertains to world leaders.  This doesn't mean we stop praying for our leaders, it doesn't mean we stop voting and trying to get the best person in there it simply means we need to change our hope from the leaders of this world onto Christ.  It also means we need to be more active in the healing of this world rather than hoping our vote is enough.

  Let's stop the fighting over which party we belong to and start fighting for the Lord to reign in our hearts and live his love out through us.

 I may be off on this subject, so I desire some feedback. What do you think about Politics and church?  Is it safe?  Why do we attack one another?  I will be doing a radio show on this topic in a couple of weeks and would love some feedback and maybe some callers on the subject!  Thanks friends!


Marv Nelson
ACAC Student Ministries Pastor