Do you ever notice how a trend or popular belief gathers great support? It’s like there is a momentum and the trend or belief becomes bigger and bigger. 

In social media they would say something has gone viral. 

I remember getting to the edge of a field with my brother and a friend one winter’s night. The conditions were perfect for making snowballs and we tossed a few at each other. 

Then we each started rolling a snowball in the snow. As we rolled, the snowballs got bigger and bigger. We ended up abandoning two of them and together pushed one snowball. By the time we got to the end of the field, it was over four feet high. 

It was huge; it had snowballed! … That’s what you call it when something gathers steam and becomes bigger than life. 

We have seen these kinds of trends over the last several years. 

One of these trends is an attitude that is very prevalent today. I would say that this attitude has snowballed; it’s gone viral. 

It’s an attitude of, “if you don’t agree with me, I hate you.” 

We often say it in different ways though. Some might call it cancel culture. We might label it as “vaxers” or “antivaxers”. 

It gets expressed as “liberal” or “conservative”. 

Hey, this same attitude can be found in gender talk these days.

The topic may be different, but the attitude is the same: if you don’t agree with me, I hate you. And I believe you hate me.

You have to wonder how we got here, to this attitude. But more surprisingly, how did we get here so fast? 

Well, that’s the thing with a snowball or something viral – it picks up steam really quickly. 

Just look at Covid. It spread really, really quickly. We went from not knowing much about it in November 2019 to full lockdowns around the world by March 2020. 

This attitude of “I hate you if you don’t agree with me” is definitely disturbing. 

But I came across a verse – actually two verses – in the Bible that kind of stopped me. 

I read 1 John 3:16 and the reference reminded me of John 3:16. When I thought about the content of these two verses, they just dovetail together. 

They were both written by the same Apostle John, but they may have been written up to 10 years apart. Then someone else over a thousand years later added the verse numbers to the text. 

It’s remarkable that these two verses share such a connection … and a message that we all need to hear right now. It goes very much against the trending attitude of “if you don’t agree with me, I hate you.”

John 3:16; 1 John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” … “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

In these two verses lies an important truth that we should love one another, not hate each other. 

Here’s the thing: A trend is a trend because the masses pick up on them. But a Christian should follow the Bible and not the trends. If you know Christ as your Saviour, be anti-cultural in this. Love those you disagree with and show kindness to them in word and deed.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What attitude have you struggled with lately? Leave your comments and questions below.

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