Ep. 16 How Do You Respond to an Unkind Christian?

Shows Main Idea – How do you deal with people who claim to be Christians yet they are brutally invasive with their tactics by forcing religion down someone’s throat and condemning the other person based on their past experiences and choices.

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Show Notes

For example, one person was pregnant and not married, and now the Christian says the baby was a child born out of wedlock so the unwed mother and the baby shouldn’t be around her child because of the mother’s sin getting pregnant and not being married to the baby’s father.”

Christian counseling is neither Christian nor counseling if it is done with without tears. – Wayne Mack

If you do not have affection and compassion for the person you are confronting, you should not confront them. That kind of needed compassion is born in the heart, given by God because the disciple has previously spent time with God before confronting the person. (See 1 Corinthians 1:1-9).

Whether they’re saved or lost, you should have “faith for the process” that the Lord has you in with the person in your care.

1. If the person is a Christian, you know God is going to complete what He started in that person (Philippians 1:6).
2. If the person is not a Christian, you want to persuade them to come to Christ, which is not done by arrogance, harshness, or unkindness.

Core Issue: The root problem you’re talking about here is self-righteousness.

1. You must understand them, which begins by understanding yourself, who experiences similar temptations.
2. You seek to build a relational context to care for the unkind Christian.
3. You possibly seek out the shunned woman to give her a better version of Jesus.
4. You make sure you provide a better version of Jesus within your sphere of influence.

Call to Action

1. Am I for this unkind Christian?
2. Do I have compassion for this misguided Christian?
3. Am I modeling the very thing I’m critiquing?

You should not refrain from assessing people, but you must be striving to be the very thing you are suggesting others to be, or you’ll be a hypocrite.

Rick Thomas

Rick Thomas leads a training network for Christians to assist them in becoming more effective soul care providers. RickThomas.Net reaches people around the world through consulting, training, podcasting, writing, counseling, and speaking.

In 1990 he earned a BA in Theology, and in 1991 he received a BS in Education. In 1993 he was ordained into Christian ministry, and in 2000 he graduated with an MA in Counseling from The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, CA. In 2006 he was recognized as a Fellow of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).