What to Read When…Others Disagree with You

Matthew 7:1-5 –“Stop judging, so that you won’t be judged, because the way that you judge others will be the way that you will be judged, and you will be evaluated by the standard with which you evaluate others. “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? 
Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when the beam is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” 

Romans 12:9-21 –Your love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to each other with mutual affection. Excel at showing respect for each other. Never be lazy in showing such devotion. Be on fire with the Spirit. Serve the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in trouble, and persistent in prayer. 

Supply the needs of the saints. Extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you. Keep on blessing them, and never curse them. Rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Cry with those who are crying. Live in harmony with each other. Do not be arrogant, but associate with humble people. Do not think that you are wiser than you really are. 

Do not pay anyone back evil for evil, but focus your thoughts on what is right in the sight of all people. 
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live in peace with all people. Do not take revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me. I will pay them back, declares the Lord.” But “if your enemy is hungry, feed him. For if he is thirsty, give him a drink. If you do this, you will pile burning coals on his head.” Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good. 

Romans 14:1-15:7 —Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of arguing over differences of opinion. …Therefore, accept one another, just as the Messiah accepted you, for the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21 — Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade people. We ourselves are perfectly known to God. I hope we are also really known to your consciences. 

We are not recommending ourselves to you again but are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so that you can answer those who are proud of outward things rather than inward character. So if we were crazy, it was for God; if we are sane, it is for you. 

The love of the Messiah controls us, for we are convinced of this: that one person died for all people; therefore, all people have died. He died for all people, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the one who died and rose for them. So then, from now on we do not think of anyone from a human point of view. Even if we did think of the Messiah from a human point of view, we don’t think of him that way anymore. Therefore, if anyone is in the Messiah, he is a new creation. Old things have disappeared, and—look!—all things have become new! 

All of this comes from God, who has reconciled us to himself through the Messiah and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, for through the Messiah, God was reconciling the world to himself by not counting their sins against them. He has committed his message of reconciliation to us. 

Therefore, we are the Messiah’s representatives, as though God were pleading through us. We plead on the Messiah’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God!” God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that God’s righteousness would be produced in us.