Ranking Responses (Hateful to Loving).

A rank list of the most hateful ways I can respond to someone who is doing something I believe to be morally wrong:

(1 being the most hateful & 10 being the most loving)

1. Affirm them in their behavior

2. Murder them

3. Rally a mob against them

4. Physically assault them

5. Verbally assault them

6. Give them a hateful look

7. Make a snarky comment about them behind their back

8. Ignore them completely

9. Try to understand them (via conversation), but be critical of them in a rude manner

10. Try to understand them (via conversation and time spent) and speak with them in opposition and boldness while maintaining a genuinely loving heart and demeanor for them—all while understanding that they get to make their own decision and will experience the consequences that come with it, whether positive or negative, immediate or delayed—and sustaining a present consistency of truth and love for them for the remainder of their/your life.

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For my brothers and sisters who claim to follow Christ, know that to follow Jesus is to BE WITH Him, BECOME LIKE Him, and DO what He did... Anything other than option #10 is to stray from His path.

P.S. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

- 2 Corinthians 5:17

So responding with “that’s just how I am,” “I’ve always been this way,” “that’s how I was built,” etc. is not an acceptable excuse.

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“As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ,”

- Ephesians 4:14-15

“You know this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for a man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.”

- James 1:19-20