Mean Girls (and other mean people)

Chapter 29...
I bet that title got your attention. Who doesn't know mean girls (and other mean people)? There are mean girls in every middle school and high school and in every other age group too. Mean girls shun other girls and try to turn other people against you. 

I am only going to say this once: I hope you are never a mean person. In this life, it is far far better to be shunned and disowned than to be the one doing the shunning and disowning. 

Do you know what Jesus says about disowning him? He says that if you disown him, he will disown you before his Father! But that is a whole different thing than disowning people, isn't it? Let's look at the whole passage from Matthew 10: 

32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36     a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[c]

37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 

Jesus is telling his disciples that how we treat other Christians is how we are treating Christ in our hearts! If we accept and welcome others, we accept and welcome Jesus. But if we disown others who are Christians--watch out--because you are also disowning Christ. 

Because we are the beloved Bride of Christ, we are one with Him and whatever somebody does to his Bride, they do it to Him. Here is another passage that says it more clearly. Matthew 25 says

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Do you see that how we treat other Christians shows how we treat Christ? If we accept other believers and treat them with kindness and love and acceptance, then we are accepting Christ and loving him. But if we treat other people meanly, if we ignore them, if we don't invite them in, if we don't visit them when they are sick or in prison, if we disown them, then we are disowning Christ before men. Jesus even goes so far as to say we should treat our enemies with this same kindness. Because just maybe our enemies belong to Him or will be drawn to him because of our kindness.

And if we disown Christ by our treatment of others, then He will disown us before his Father. Look again at that last line: "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." 

Here is one last passage from John--just in case you are still shaking your pretty heads about this:

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

There  is never any excuse for someone who calls himself or herself a Christian to be mean or cruel. It takes great courage to be kind and welcoming, but your reward will be very great:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 

Because God in Christ has shown us such grace in our lives, we can become people who show grace to others. That is why we are here. 

Here is a link with a true story about how it feels to be excluded by mean girls.  Learn from this!
https://www.lisamccrohan.com/2014/09/raising-girls-who-are-includers-instead-of-mean-girls/

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