Come Let Us Reason Together

Omission and filtering your words is a form of lying and if you engage in this practice you’re devaluing your relationship/friendships because you’re in essence saying that the person you’re interacting with is not worthy of truth or can’t handle truth.  What I’m attempting to convey to you is that you should allow room for uncomfortable conversations it promotes growth on both sides. While that other party may get upset with you, if they are truly a friend, if they truly love you or know how to love, the anger or hurt will pass and they will appreciate the fact that you helped them grow.

Colossians 3:9-10 New International Version (NIV)

9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

The proper way to approach any conflict or struggle is to begin with introspection. You must begin by asking yourself, which part of my pride is impacted and why is it impacted? This must be done before you can even reach the stage of asking for forgiveness or mending a relationship….and note, it must be done on both sides. We, as believers, need practice in apologetics….read 2 Corinthians 10:5 and pay close attention to the words “everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” because isn’t that exactly what the ego does? The word say “come now, and let us reason together.” Isiah 1:18.

It doesn’t say tell yo’ mom and them, get 3 or 4 of your friends together and dog the person out tractor running their name and character through the mud.

Ephesians 4:31-32 New International Version (NIV)

31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Ephesians 4:15-16 New International Version (NIV)

15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

All this being said brings me back to my favorite passage of scripture, if it’s even possible to have a favorite, but being a romantic it just appeals to my soul….let’s just say it and leave it at that…

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Be Blessed Y’all