We are gluttons for controversy. Drama and controversy are everywhere in our culture. We eat it up like it is our last meal and once we are done, we throw it away and look for the next big headline to consume and rage about. I would love to say that as Christians we are immune to this ravenous desire or avoid it altogether, but that is not the case. Rather, we love a good controversy as much as the secular world does.

Sadly, much of Western Christianity has adopted this love for drama. We might roll our eyes at what the latest online controversy is meanwhile our favorite so-called “discernment ministries” function as baptized tabloids. They search for the heretic of the week, stir up their YouTube audience against them, “call them to repent” on X, and then move on looking for the next person their audience is ready to pick apart.

It is important to stand for the faith, especially in this day, but how should we react when it seems like the tools that have been given to us to build up the body are being used to smash and dismantle our brothers and sisters? The Bible is not silent on this issue. 1 Timothy 2:22-26 says:

²²So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. ²³Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. ²⁴And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

ESV

In our righteous pursuit of orthodoxy, we must be careful not to fall into the snare of foolish controversies. According to Paul this only breeds arguments. This is true for all believers, but especially for pastors. Pastors and ministers should be “kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.” Do the people in the ministries you listen to or your pastor(s) exemplify behavior like this? Are dissenting opinions treated with kindness? Do you exemplify these behaviors?

Jonathan Edwards said:

“There were earnest longings that all God’s people might be clothed with humility and meekness, like the Lamb of God, and feel nothing in their hearts but love and compassion to all mankind; and great grief when anything to the contrary appeared in any of the children of God, as bitterness, fierceness of zeal, censoriousness, or reflecting uncharitably on others, or disputing with any appearance of heat of spirit.”

Jonathan Edwards, “Works of Jonathan Edwards”

The desire for truth is not bad, and sometimes issues in large cultural movements inside the church need to be called out, but are they called out with a fierce zeal and uncharitable spirit, or are they corrected with gentleness and patience? Gentleness, kindness, and patience are fruits of the spirit, and just as much as ministers of the Word need to shepherd and correct people with these behaviors, we are all called to exemplify the same love and humility. Even when our brothers and sisters in Christ are in error. Maybe God will grant them repentance, only time and love will tell.

Next time you are confronted with the latest issue in evangelicalism I hope that you will remember 2 Timothy 2:22-26 and the words of Edwards. I hope they will spur you to think and act with grace and humility and that you will lovingly pray for those in error.