“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23
A middle-schooler once posed an interesting question.
“The other day, a friend and I were singing a Christian song at school, and a Jewish boy told us to stop singing because it was offending him. Should we have stopped singing or kept on singing, even though it offended him?”
Now, isn’t that a great question from someone so young?
I think the best response might be to stop singing for a moment and respond this way: “Well, we’re singing about Jesus, whose name in Hebrew is Yeshua, which means salvation. He is the Jewish rabbi that we follow. So, when we sing Christian songs, we’re very appreciative of our Jewish heritage.”
You can then follow-up and ask, “Would you teach us some Jewish songs? We’d love to learn them and sing them with you.”
If they have no interest, then ask them if they are open-minded enough to respect your love for Jesus. If not, you can keep singing, but not at them, out of anger, but as singing songs to the Lord.
The key is to be sure that you show them respect, while at the same time sharing your love for Jesus. But don’t be surprised at their irrational objection to the name of Jesus. There’s just something powerful and convicting about His name.
Perhaps you’ve experienced rejection or persecution because of your faith.
Fight the urge to retaliate in anger or frustration, and ask God to help you reflect HIS love in response.
Written by Bryant Wright, Founder, RFTH
