Weariness
I have felt it since 2015. The weariness of the arguing between Christians over politics. The weariness of seeing professing believers treat other believers with almost shameless contempt in areas of disagreement. There is a lack of respect, kindness, or even curiosity as to why a fellow believer might take a different position.
Over the years, I have seen brothers and sisters going at each other and have tried to intervene and bring attention to the unblblical ways they are approaching one another. Frankly, it only created more anger and resentment—toward me. All of this is so draining. People trying to “own the libs,” people continually posting either mocking or angry rebuttals on almost anything their perceived political enemies say. Don’t you, like me, feel a weariness of it all?
So, if this resonates with you so far, I’m sure you are wondering what the solution is. As they used to say about intractable problems, it’s a tough nut to crack. Yet, I think we need to try if we’re going to extricate ourselves from the constant bickering and slandering.
Like all sin problems (I hope you see terrible treatment of brothers and sisters in the Lord as a sin), we have to start by looking at Jesus if we are going to find a solution. Jesus demonstrates the way our lives should be conducted. He is the truth. And he is the source of true life (John 14:6).
So let us imagine that Jesus lived in our time. How would he be responding to social media or to the political issues of the day? Can you see him typing out posts or posting memes designed to “own the libs” or put MAGA folk in their place? Would he be going on Fox News or CNN to pitch his political views? Would he be trashing those who disagree with him?
I have a feeling that few if any of you could see him doing these things. And that, my friend, is a step in the right direction. You see, it is easy to get caught up in the way the world does things and lose sight of what approach Jesus would take. If we are to solve our current problem of treating one another unlovingly, we must put ourselves in the sandals of Jesus and mimic how he treated others. He associated with people he disagreed with. He didn’t make fun of them because they believed or lived differently. Instead, he had compassion on them because he understood the addictiveness of the sin nature.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul gives a list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-24). These are what should naturally flow from us if indeed the Holy Spirit is in control of our lives. But that control comes from our will to submit. God will never force us to do what we don’t want to do. The fruit Paul speaks of describes Jesus to a tee. Imagine if we all would allow the Spirit to control our lives. Would there be all this acrimony between believers that we wearily endure now? I don’t think so.
To put it simply, our way out of this is to submit ourselves fully to the Lord, humbling ourselves and confessing our arrogance and pride (don’t we think we are always on the right side of an issue?), and repenting of it. As the Hebrew writer says, we must fix your eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2) if we are going to move past this and be shining examples of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus.
The world has plenty of acrimony, warring factions, unkindness, meanness, and a lack of empathy. Let us as believers, instead of adding to it, rather fill our circles of influence with modeling the way of Jesus. Wouldn’t that be a refreshing change!
© Jim Musser 2025 All Scripture references are from the New International Version, 2011.
