Insults

Romans 1:41says, "Do not quarrel over opinions."  Scripture is clear on insults:

Titus 3:2 Speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 

Disagreements will happen. They are to be resolved in a gentle manner. Disagreements usually happen over differences in opinions. Opinions are viewpoints which either may or may not be based on fact. Rash people often have baseless or selfish opinions. Thoughtful people use evidence to establish their opinions. Thus, the rash person's opinion is based more on emotion, and the thoughtful person's on reason.

I personally get emotional when one trivializes or insults God. He is precious to me, and I will defend Him with my life, if comes to that. Of course, I talk bravely right now, but hope I never cower in the face of persecution as St. Peter did. I use scripture on which to base my opinions. 

Romans 12:2 (ESV) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I test my opinions using scripture to see if they hold up under scrutiny. My opinions are compared to divine wisdom, and sometimes I must change my viewpoint, but oftentimes not. Why? I have studied scripture for 56 years. I know God's word thoroughly. That doesn't make me a righteous person because the flesh is weak, but a willing recreated Christian who endeavors to do God's will.

As such, I am a "peculiar" person (1 Peter 2:9) in that I am not "conformed to this world". The world seldom agrees with my perspective on life. I wasn't always peculiar, but over time God has renewed my mind. At one time, I too had the attitude, what's in it for me? My spiritual gift has always been discernment. I don't like my gift sometimes because I don't enjoy obedience as most people do not. It's not entertaining to be a non-conformist, which Christians are called to be!

As such, I have a basis for my opinions. I have experienced life, and experienced God. I choose God! My goal was easier not to harmonize my will with God's will. That came with time.  I don't care what others think. My will is to please God. When I don't, I feel miserable. However, when I do, I don't blame others for ruining my disposition. I blame me!

Those who are "emotional" have baseless opinions. Those are worthless as teats on a boar to use the world's vernacular. People don't like to be around those with factually based opinions, but what they hate worse, is being around those with baseless opinions. With that, we should keep our opinions to ourselves - unless, of course, they are generalized so as to not offend, and supported by evidence. The evidence which I use is truth. That comes from the Word of God. Others prefer their baseless opinion over God's Word.

Let me give an instance. God detests tattoos (Lev 19:8), yet even Christians get tattoos. Of course that is not reprobation, but neither is it the will of God. Trivializing God's will is flaunting disobedience in His face. That is my opinion, but is based on God's Word. Most people tempt God by drawing worldly things on their skin anyway. Their opinion is selfish. They do what is right in their own eyes without regard to God's commands.

Their opinion in this case is merely, "It's okay for me to get a tattoo." It is a baseless opinion in the divine world of truth, but holds water in the world: Most people get tattoos, so it's okay. That's the world's standards, and not Gods. Baseless opinions are the rationalization to do and say things which are wrong in God's eyes. God accuses lawless ones of doing what's right in their own eyes (Jud 17:6).

Frankly, I don't care whether people get tattoos or not! They stain themselves, and it is none of my business. This commentary is not about tattoos; it's about insults - to God and others. Disobediences are insults to God, not to me.

On the other hand, personal insults offend me, and offend God. That's not part of the Christian love we are to demonstrate! Let me present how insults evolve:

We each live in our own worlds. That is us and our personal space. When people have different opinions one "world" bumps into the other and the "two world's" collide. The kind person will see that coming and avoid the collision. I dodge other worlds all the time for time has taught me the wisdom in doing that! It's okay, in MY world, for OTHER world's to have wrong opinions. However, I want them safe, so I write to the world (global community). In their own little world, they have the choice - to read my opinion or not to read. If they fear being convicted, they need to stay away from "Larry's world" because I write God's will. God offends most people, so to avoid offense, stay out of God's world, and mine!

I am convicted every time I read scripture. I would rather God convict me than to live the way of the world (global community) because the earth's world is made up of billions of individual worlds. Conviction comes when I am shown I'm wrong using God's standards. That is a spiritually healthy place to be. When convicted, it becomes emotional. There are four major emotional outcomes: contriteness, apathy, guilt, or anger.

I don't enjoy feeling guilty. Usually my choice is to change my opinion and actions to the satisfaction of God. That's how balanced people operate - with contriteness. Psychopaths do not care. They are apathetic to God's will. They become reprobate with time. The other response to conviction is anger. Many Christians leave the church when God's Word is out of harmony with their opinion. That is the ultimate insult to God. It's indicating to the messenger - the preacher - you are ruining MY day!

That attitude is selfish thinking. No day is YOUR day. They all belong to God! You merely are leeches using life that He provides - sucking the lifeblood out of God. Yet you think your world is divine. You are in for an unpleasant surprise when you learn discernment - your way is not the Way!

Sometimes I preface my commentary with: it will be offensive to some. I don't want those who get angry easily to be offended, so I provide that warning. My rating system is M (Mature audiences) because I don't want anyone to start shooting at my world with insults. Immature people are those who without valid arguments resort to insults or cursing.

The courteous thing to do is to be kind. A relative of mine had many and strong opinions. Few were fact-based. I learned never to argue with this irrational person because he was the supreme source of knowledge in his own eyes. I earned to smile and placate him so as to not collide our worlds. You see, that's what the gods of these individual worlds want - they want to be appeased! The truth angers small gods, so in my world I want peace. I let my relative be wrong. That didn't hurt me one bit, but was self-destructive on his part! His world was destroyed by his own actions! I took him without firing a shot or exploding his myth.

Christians are to avoid quarrelling. Although some live in their own world where they always have things their way, that is not the real world! In truth, we are all in this world together, and God's will is we all are to get along. We are to love and serve Him, not be self-serving and self-loving. The way we have of demonstrating our love for God is to revere His will, and loving his Creation. God created "the large selfish world" and our small selfish worlds. His will is that he wants us to collide with the world but not with the world of each other. We are not to conform to the world, but conform to God. If we all conform to God, our individual world's would  never collide.

How are we to avoid hurling insults at the worlds belonging to others? It's easy, if done God's way: "by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." 

Insults are angry people's futile attempt to explode the world of others. That's not nice!