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IMMATURE ONLINE CHRISTIANS

by Jeffrey Hagan
9/29/2014 / Christian Living

by Rev. Jeff Hagan, DCE, DMin, (ThD)

1 Corinthians 3:1-4 - "Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldlymere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere human beings? (NIV)."

Introduction:
I'm going to take some liberty with this passage, but I think the point will be clear and will remain intact. I know the above passage is from Paul and is directed to a specific church. However, as I was reading through this passage the first thing that popped into my mind was, "Man! That behavior sounds like 99 percent of 'Christians' who discuss and debate online!"

I know this passage is for a particular group of people within a particular church at a particular time, but the principles remain for us today. Just because we are sitting at a monitor screen and keyboard somewhere privately doesn't mean we get to treat people as rude as we want. Just because we are not face to face as we fellowship and discuss online doesn't mean we get to speak in a derogatory manner.

I mean some of the stuff I see online is ruthless and quite un-Christlike. We type to each other in ways we would never dream of speaking to each other in person. I'm not talking about "heated debate," we have taken it far beyond that. We are making issues heated just because they are OUR issues and not because they are issues the Bible tells us to be heated over.

We call disagreement "heresy." We call teachings from legitimate, orthodox, Christian denominations "doctrine of devils," simply because we hold to a different interpretation, although both are accepted within the bounds of historic, biblical, Christian orthodoxy. It's has gotten way out of hand.

I read through some of the threads, and I've been a part of many of them, and I'm left with a bitter after taste. What acidic "tongues" we have! What immature believers we are! We think we have it all figured out and if you step back and look at it all objectively, we're still sucking on teats when long ago we should have been feasting on steaks. If not doctrinally then emotionally at the very least. We are straight up being immature.

How healthy is your online communication with fellow believers? We can often learn a lot from a negative example, so let's do that now by looking at the contents of the passage this article addresses. We see in the Corinthian church at least four things we also see in the behavior of belivers online. These four things are as follows:

Immature Behavior:

1. Shallow - " I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready" (v.2).

People, you don't know as much doctrinally and/or theologically as you think you do, and neither do I. Oh, we study and think we have got it down, but that's part of the problem. We turn ourselves off to any other view regarding every other issue and become an island onto ourselves.

Not only are we stuck on milk theologically, I think we are even moreso stuck on milk in regards to our attitudes and behavior. Emotionally and relationally we are stunted and our own words support evidence of this.

2. Jealousy - "For since there is jealousy...among you, are you not worldly?" (v.3).

Not only jealous in the old fashion sense, or most common sense, "Oh, man. He's a pastor and has a family and is so happy. I wish I was a pastor. Why can't I find a wife?" We do have this in here, but I think the jealousy online is more a jealousy rooted in pride. It's a jealousy of the knowledge and wisdom other people have. We want the last word, we want to appear intelligent, we want to come across as brilliant, so if someone is able to discourse a case better than we do we won't just admit it and humbly give kudos, oh no. We keep on going but turn the thread into an attack. Name calling begins or the original argument gets abandoned as we try to save face and make them look bad some other way. This is nothing but pride and jealousy. Lose an argument every once in a while, it's healthy.

3. Quarreling - "For since there is...quarreling among you, are you not worldly?" (v.3).

We are always out for our own personal agendas. No matter how big, no matter how small, we have what we are trying to do or accomplish and that comes before all other things. Instead of "coming to the table" with preconceived agendas, why don't we just "come to the table" period?

So much pointless quarreling goes on in these Christian discussion groups. You can literally watch a thread disappear and reappear as something else right before your eyes, like a magic trick. It starts out something like this, (Person A): "No! Christ is actually present in the elements for Communion. I mean, haven't you read your Bible?" (Person B): "Ummm, yes I've read my Bible. Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean I don't read my Bible." (A): "Well, if you think it's only symbolic then you don't know God's Word. There is no way to come to that conclusion if you really know how to study Scripture!" (B): "Do you mean passages where Jesus proclaims 'this is my body' and breaks the bread?" (A): "Exactly, there's no way around that. It's black and white." (B): "How about symbolism? That explains it. The Church is also called the Body of Christ, does that mean each of us is literally Christ?" (A): "Oh symbolism? I interpret the Bible literally. You must interpret the Bible allegorically." (B): "No, once again your assuming. I interpret the literal parts literally, the figurative parts figuratively, and symbolism as symbolism." (A): "Well, your view of Scripture must not be as hight as mine. What Scripture says is what Scripture says. You shouldn't have to make it say anything."

Okay, fictional? Yes. But, relatively familiar? Yes. Do you see first, how this quickly became a matter of quarreling as opposed to discussion and or debate? Person A lets out insulting jabs. Person A makes claims equivalent to: "My way is the Bible way" meaning of course Person B's can't be; "It's black and white" which is a passive aggressive way of asking "are you stupid?"; "I interpret the Bible literally" as if recognize symbolism when it's symbolism is not taking the Bible literally. Person A's tone is accusatory and quarrelsome. And second, do you see how the magic trick occurred. The thread started out as a discussion of to which degree is Christ present in the elements for Communion. And right before our very eyes as soon as Person A had any sort of an argument building up against them they dodge it and "abbracaddabra" new topic, the Authority of the Bible. Happens all the time.

4. Disunity - "Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not mere human beings?" (v.4).

We've reached verse 4 so this will be the last one we look at. This one is seen quite frequently in a few different ways. In one extremely unproductive way in particular. It gets used online in these groups when a fellow Christian, usually a ministry leader, falls or struggles and needs support but instead, out come the claws and an attack. And this almost always happens before all of the information comes in. It's as if we're waiting for fellow believers to fall so we can act extra vicious and self-righteous. This creates disunity.

I am NOT talking about clear, indisputable, heretical, false teaching. I'll even name some names so you know where I'm coming from. I'm NOT talking about the likes of Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Oneness Pentecostals, Mormons, Joyce Meyer, etc., those people are FALSE and dangerous to the Christian body.

I am talking about people who you have more of a personality issue with, or you just don't care for their method or style, or they have a handful of doctrine you don't agree with but they are still biblically sound and orthodox. These people don't need our divisive, immature attitudes.

Another way this disunity comes into play, the way we see directly in verse 4, is people having their favorite preachers and leaders and for no other reason than "because," a world war nearly breaks out because someone likes the preaching of someone that another person doesn't like. This is foolishness.

If someone likes Tullian Tchividjian it's not up to you to convince them not to. I say again, if it is a "clear and present danger," then by all means put in your two cents. Of course we don't want our brothers and sisters in Christ being polluted by Paula White or worse. But Tullian? Come on, he is FAR from preaching a false gospel.

I would like to add a simple caution right here. Be careful of how much you honor, appreciate, support, follow, pledge allegiance to, any human being, dead or alive. There are many great preachers, teachers, authors from history and alive today, but we must remember they are just men. Don't argue about which pastor or leader is, or was, better or more knowledgeable.

Conclusion:
Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying we should stop debating. In fact, quite the opposite is true, but I think we can do it more maturely. Please focus more on the immaturity we find ourselves displaying online than on specific examples given in this article. Let's look at our four areas of immature, online, Christian behavior one more time: 1) Shallow; 2) Jealousy; 3) Quarreling; and 4) Disunity. Let us grow up doctrinally, emotionally, relationally, and in our communication as well.

So, what can we do? Here's the answer in a sentence: the best way for us to remain healthy is for each of us to continue growing in the maturity of Jesus Christ and His Word.

Jeff Hagan is the President of True Grace Ministries and Theological Institute. Interested? www.preacherjeff45.wlxsite.com/truegracetheolgical

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