Be Careful About Your Attitude Toward People

Luke 7:2-9, “And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”

I love this wonderful true story. This Roman centurion (a commander over 100 soldiers) was a good man. The man's servant was sick unto death the Bible says. He had heard about a man named Jesus who had the power to heal. So the commander called the elders of the Jews, to send them to Jesus with a humble request that Jesus heal his servant. The Jewish elders told Jesus how good this centurion was, mentioning to Jesus that he even built a synagogue for the people to worship God. I love this guy! This man loved people. Jesus was moved by the positive praise that He heard from the people regarding this good man. But the thing that mostly impressed Jesus was this man's faith. What I want you to see in this passage is that the Lord regards what other people have to say about us. How do you treat people? What would your enemies say about you?

The Holy Bible is full of real life examples of how saint's negative thinking backfired on them! Here is one such example:

Genesis 29:29-31, “And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.”

Jacob's mother had a brother named Laban. After Jacob cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright, Jacob fled for fear of his life from Esau. Jacob's mother (who had instigated him deceiving his father Isaac) told Jacob to go live with his uncle, Laban. So Jacob did. Jacob fell in love with Laban's daughter, Rachel, the moment that he met her. Jacob agreed to work for Laban for 7-years to marry his daughter (which the Bible says were as days since he loved Rachel so much).

But just as Jacob deceived Esau and cheated him, so did Laban deceive and cheat Jacob. On his wedding night Jacob thought he was in bed with Rachael, but the next morning he was horrified to see that it was Leah. Laban connived a plan to keep Jacob around working for an additional 7 years for both wives. The Lord saw that Jacob and Leah despised and hated Leah, so God made Rachel barren as a consequence. Malachi 3:6 teaches that God never changes. In theology we call this “immutable.” God is immutable! That is, He cannot change. Hence, the same Lord sees men's hearts today as He did thousands of years ago. Dear reader, be careful what thoughts you choose to harbor in your heart toward others, because God is always watching our thoughts and attitude.

In another Scriptural example: God made a bet with Satan regarding Job. The Lord bragged on Job, but the Devil said that Job only obeyed God because all things were good in his life. So God allowed Satan to ruin Job's happiness and life. Satan murdered all of Job's ten children. The Devil murdered Job's servants, stole his flocks, burned his fields, and then with God's permission Satan destroyed Job's good health, afflicting him with boils from head to toe. 

Then to add insult to injury, Job's three rotten hypocritical religious friends all condemned him, blaming him and his children for the evils that had befallen the family. What jerks! Look what poor Job said about his judgmental “friends” in Job:16:1, “Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.” It is human nature to ASS-U-ME that bad things always happen because of sin. In John 9:1-5 the disciples asked Jesus who did sin, the blind man or his parents, but Jesus said that neither had sinned. That dear man was born blind on purpose (Exodus 4:11), so that God could be glorified.

Dear reader, carefully notice from the Word of God when the Lord turned the evil captivity of Job. Job 42:10, “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” God cares about our attitude toward other people! Biblically, our prayers can be hindered by hatred, envy, ostracizing, ignoring, slandering, holding a grudge or mistreatment of others.

Senior pastor Jeff Redlin mistreated me in 2021 when I attended Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College (PCC). I attended there for a few months. I tried to reason with Jeff Redlin, but he is a difficult man because of his pride as a wealthy man (he gets paid a lucrative 6-digit salary at Campus Church). I felt that he was insensitive toward my broken life, divorce, living our of a suitcase in a cheap local hotel, my health problems, et cetera. I felt that Redlin was insincere and didn't care about me as an individual human being (and he clearly didn't). So in frustration I left Campus Church in late 2021.

But I was lonely in 2022, having no family or friends in Pensacola, so I humbly pleaded in 2022 during the summer three times for Pensacola Christian College (PCC) leaders, and the pastors of Campus Church at PCC, to please forgive me and simply allow me to attend Campus Church, but they cruelly refused. I kindly tried to reconcile three times with PCC, but they refused. God sees their hatred, prejudice, grudge holding, hypocrisy and unwillingness to reconcile with their Christian brother (Romans 14:10-12). SHAME on PCC!

God will not bless the PCC camp until they repent of their ungodly bad attitude and unchristian behavior and try to make peace with me (which I am still eagerly willing to do). I would appreciate of some of my blog visitors kindly email Pastor Jeff Redlin at jRedlin@campuschurch DOT com to let him know that he needs to forgive his Christian brother, and allow me to come back to Campus Church. I haven't been to church on Sunday night all year, because the only church that I know of that has Sunday evening services is at Campus Church. PCC are not right with God. But please don't feel pressured to email Pastor Redlin. I only want you to do it if you feel comfortable doing so. There is strength in numbers.

PCC is too big for their own good, untouchable and insensitive just because they can be. When you are the biggest religious organization in town, you don't have to care about people because you already have worldly success. But PCC is not a success in God's sight, they are as the LUKEWARM Laodicean church that made God vomit (Revelation 3:15-17). And if you do choose to email him, THANK YOU in advance. I am not trying to cause trouble, God knows my heart, I just want to attend Campus Church.

I have shared a few examples from the Bible, where bad attitudes by saints brought God's judgment upon them. God cares about how we treat other people! Proverbs 24:17, “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.” The Bible warns that if we rejoice when our enemy falls, God's anger may be turned against us instead of them. God unconditionally loves people!!! That doesn't mean that the Lord approves of sin, nor that He looks the other way for some people but not others. The Bible teaches repeatedly that God is NOT a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; 10:12).

I am always reminded of these and other Scripture passages, so that I may guard my heart against sinful thinking toward others. We should pray for those who despitefully use us the Bible says. Pray changes things. One way or another, you are NEVER wasting your time when you pray. I don't know about you dear reader, but I decided a long time ago to JUST LOVE EVERYBODY. People just want to be loved. I encourage you to do as Jesus does, to look beyond other's faults and see their needs (Philippians 2:3-5). We are all needy sinners in the hands of a good, loving, caring and fair God. Just decide that no matter how rotten people may be, you are going to let God love them unconditionally through you. If you do not love everybody, you cannot love anybody. That is why Jesus, even after Judas horribly betrayed Him, addressed him as: “Friend.” God is love and those who walk with Him love everyone.