Recent events in the city of Paris cause us to shudder and well they should. We seem to become hardened and impervious to the fighting and struggles that are going on both in Afghanistan and Syria. However when such events occur as came about in Paris last Friday night our eyes are opened again to the mean and aggressive wickedness that seem to be overtaking our world.
I find it incredible that some people just live to hate and fight. When they do it with bullets and bombs it really grabs our attention. However, it is within the same spirit of man that callous criticism and hateful defamation of character occur within the political realms of our own country. We hate and fight and send bombs of destruction at one another with the incivility of hounds. It seems that the media loves the opportunity of the “political season” and use it to bolster their ratings for the revenues they can enhance.
Through the years I have seen the same mean spirit within our churches. Hateful and destructive gossip that causes damage to souls in a fashion that is little different from the shooting and bombing that occurred last week in Paris. Our Lord spoke of these injuries as “stumbling blocks”. And He said that it would be better for a man that a millstone be tied around his neck and that he be thrown into the sea than that he should cause one soul to stumble. Just because we don’t carry Kalashnikovs, hand grenades and wear explosive vests does not mean that we are civil.
Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
We may say that “civility” begins at home.
