What should Christians fight about with each other?
What are some subjects that Christians should fight about? The answer is important to understand in regard to discipleship, starting small groups and starting churches – especially when different Christian groups interact with each other.
The following are some essential Christian beliefs:
There is one God. He is both one essence and three persons at the same time – He is a triune God, at the same time Father, Son and Holy Spirit .
God is good, and He is a rewarder of those who seek him.
6 Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6 WEB
Jesus the Messiah has come in the flesh .
Jesus was born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit and is therefore both God and man.
He died on a cross for all of our sins, and our individual, eternal forgiveness can only come if we ask Jesus Christ the Messiah to be our Lord and Savior.
He rose again on the third day to give us new life.
If we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus Christ the Messiah as our Lord and Savior, receiving the gift of righteousness, we will be born again, know God, and be with Him forever.
Jesus is the only way to salvation , and a Christian cannot follow Jesus and another belief system, person or religion – it is an exclusive relationship. No other religion means that we will follow and obey Him as our sole source of salvation. We will follow no other way of approaching or knowing God or having eternal life in heaven.
Jesus Christ is coming again and will come and get living Christians, resurrect dead Christians, give us new bodies, marry His bride, the church, and spend eternity with us.
The above beliefs unify Christians, and form the basis for our relationship with God, and thereby with each other. There are many other beliefs and doctrines, all of which are important but non-essential for unity in Christ. Those non-essential things should not be fought over — there can and will be disagreement, but it can be discussed without fighting. The essentials are what make us Christian, and are accepted by Christians, so fighting over them is not even needed.
From the above, it can be seen that Christians can disagree but not fight — or at least should not. John 13:35 indicates that non-Christians will know that Christians follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior by the way that we love one another.
The world is watching us. When I was a non-Christian, I watched Christians, and most did not love each other well. They fought over almost anything. They did not fully support each other, much less love one another. I saw no reason to believe their claims about Jesus. However, when I saw Christian love truly expressed — not to me but to fellow Christians, I finally saw credible evidence for their claims.
If Christians are going to have a credible witness to those watching, we must not only stop useless arguments and in-fighting, we should replace our bickering with the kind of love that was and is being shown to us by Jesus our Lord.
Keywords: Love, fighting, credible witness
How long should an MBB wait before leading?
Ideally, longer is better, but MBBs rarely experience ideal circumstances. Paul warned Timothy to not allow new believers to become leaders because they might become prideful. Yet, Paul selected leaders in churches after sometimes knowing them for a few weeks to a few months. His actions seem to indicate that he expected rapid growth.
MBBs may have no Christians around them, and they may be used by God to lead Muslims around them to the Lord. Leaders would then be needed for small groups and even churches. MBBs may need to assume responsibilities earlier than some Christians feel is appropriate. The key is, as always, to follow the Holy Spirit. Paul did that. Even so, some leaders made mistakes in his time that needed correcting. The growth of the church has never been error-free, and there are always messes.
Some say that the key to leadership selection is to see who keeps showing up. There is certainly merit in demonstrated faithfulness as a qualification for leadership, but please do not discount the role of discernment. A wait-and-see approach may leave an MBB church without needed leadership and stifle growth. Also, note that leaders may not always continue doing what they were doing previously – Joseph was in jail one day and helping run Egypt the next; David was anointed to lead Israel while tending sheep; and Saul was on a quest to imprison Christians when he was called to lead. Please do not be too dogmatic about process because God does not always require a specific process, as can be clearly seen in the life of Joseph.
If you are an MBB leader and need to appoint people to leadership, trust God to guide you to the right people through prayer. Use the biblical qualifications for elders and deacons to guide you when looking at character, and be prepared to monitor the progress and growth of your leaders. If you see areas needing correction, address them supportively and with the goal of finding God’s best for those leaders and those they are leading.
To do all of the above, MBBs will need to study leadership in the Bible, and the writings of Paul are especially helpful. My book, Discipling Muslim Background Believers, covers selecting leaders as well as having an intimate relationship with God in which you can grow in your own ability to hear the Lord and to lead and select leaders.
Keywords: MBB, leadership, selecting leaders
One of my favorite discipleship passages
31 Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:31-32 WEB
“Remain” has the sense of “living in” or “continuing in”. It does not simply mean reading the Bible, but rather reading it, understanding it properly through study, and living it out as God would have us do – following Him as Lord, loving Him, and loving others.
Keywords: Bible, discipleship, John 8:31-32, truth, freedom
You’re not an MBB, but you led one to the Lord. Now what?
You know that your friend will face disorientation and great risks (please see my last two posts), and that errors could be very costly. You want to help your friend prepare for what’s to come, but you don’t know how because you haven’t been down that road. Your friend is leaving soon, and you do not have time to read entire books written by MBBs — you need answers quickly because your MBB friend has an urgent need for information and advice. Your friend also may be prevented from contacting you again, and there are no churches or Christians within several hours of your friend’s home.
You need a book that will tell you how to help your friend follow Jesus; tell family and friends about conversion to Christianity; prepare for and react to persecution; learn to evangelize; learn to set up small groups; learn spiritual warfare; and learn to survive in the midst of perilous changes. You need to also tell your friend about being a secret believer for a period, if need be, and how to not mix Christianity with other beliefs. To gain all of that knowledge in a short time would be impossible unless the book was organized into short, easily referenced, biblically-based sections. The sections would need to be intentionally written by an MBB to answer questions like yours as well as help your friend through discipleship.
Such a book exists, and there are accompanying Bible studies to help the new convert disciple others. It is called Discipling Muslim Background Believers, and is available on the home page of this website.
Keywords: MBB discipleship materials, Discipling Muslim Background Believers