Then they cease to be Christian, as they follow some other spirit and not the one true God. Like it is written they will kill you and think they are offering God a service.
Sadly, those who are Christians and Muslims who are devoted to a sect or leader, will even kill their own people over religious disagreements….and feel justified. Religious fervor can do that to people and so can political differences, with patriotic sentiment overshadowing Christian obedience to the teachings of the “Prince of Peace”.….civil wars are anything but civil….family members have slaughtered their own kin over those differing ideologies or support for a political leader.…and still assume that they are Christians….(1 John 4:20-21)
The two World Wars of last century saw Christians on one side killing their Christian brothers on the other….on whose side was God, when Jesus told us to “love our enemies”?
A true Christian will take their cues from the apostle Paul who was angry about the idols worshipped by the Greeks, but his address to the “men of Athens” was masterful…rather that take the high ground, and level harsh disagreement over their use of idols, and their alters….he saw one with the inscription…”to an unknown god”, so he used their own idols to tell them about a God who was unknown to them….the God of Jesus Christ.
If he had attacked what was sacred to them, he would have been rejected outright…so this is how we ought to address those with beliefs that are not like our own….with a measure of respect as we would want others to respect us. We can defend our faith without spewing hatred and personal insults, just because they believe differently. God gives us all that freedom.
In today’s world, people do not understand the difference between a “peacemaker” and a “peace keeper”….
but the difference is monumental.
Jesus said we had to be “peacemakers” which is a conscious effort not to disturb the peace of others by treating them harshly, but to seek to find common ground like Paul did, if we can.…never being the first one to provoke anger by a thoughtless comment.
In today’s world a “peace keeper” comes in a military tank with weapons and a uniform….these are peace enforcers but that is not the kind of peace that Jesus taught….an absence of war because someone has bigger weapons, leaves hatred and war simmering under the surface until it erupts again one day.
The peace that Jesus brings comes into the heart and removes the animosity and hatred. Even if Christians are mistreated, they don’t retaliate, “returning evil for evil”. (Rom 12:17-21) They endure even under the harshest conditions….