Why Persecutest thou me?

As I've mentioned in some of my earlier posts, I have been doing a study on the questions that Christ asked in the New Testament. It's taken a while, but I finally completed step one of the process. That is I finally finished compiling a list of all the questions he asked. Today I'd like to talk a little about the last one. 

Unless I've missed something, the last recorded question from Christ in the New Testament is "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Acts 9:4 We don't have a record of Saul giving a direct answer to this question. But based on what we know about Saul, I think he would probably have answered something along the lines of "Lord, I did not know I was persecuting thee." 

Saul's purpose in persecuting the saints was to serve God. He truly believed that he was doing God's will. He did not know that Jesus Christ was the son of God. He was doing what he thought was right, but was completely in the wrong. 

Perhaps we don't go around persecuting those that believe in Jesus Christ, but that doesn't mean we don't make the same mistake Saul did. In our efforts to stand for what is right and defend our beliefs, whatever they may be, do we ever overstep our bounds? Do we ever exercise unrighteous dominions? Do we ever take our personal opinions and treat them like gospel truth? If this is the case, we may be giving cause for Christ to ask us the same question he asked Saul so many years ago. "Why persecutest thou me?"

Like Saul likely would have, many of us may answer "Lord, I did not know I was persecuting thee." 

Christians of all denominations can get a bad rap for how they treat those who are not christian. This is sad, because the essence of Christianity is that of pure love. But I believe that, not all, but many of the poor interactions between people are caused by a lack of understanding of what one is doing. Therefore, if we desire to be good examples of Christians, we must strive to understand what we are doing and follow Christ's example when standing up for our beliefs. 

We should remember:

•  Those who have the spirit of contention are not of Christ. Although others may contend against us, we should not contend against them. 
• People are agents, not objects. It is our desire to teach so that they may act correctly of their own choice, not restrict them according to our desires.
• We do not know as much as we think we do. Only God know's all things. Thus we should be careful in our judgments.
• We should seek to understand others, rather than forcing others to understand us.
• It is best to loving, merciful and forgiving in our thoughts, words, and actions.
• Our opinions are opinions, not facts.

The point of this blogpost, for those of you who made it this far, is to invite you to reconsider how you act when you are trying to do what is right. To ponder on how those around you might feel in response to your actions, and to modify your actions accordingly. I am not asking you to stop standing up for what you believe in. Anyone who has read the New Testament knows that Saul mended his ways and continued on with the same fervor for serving the Lord. The difference was that he began to do it in the Lord's way. And that is what we all should do.