As 2025 begins, we need to make an adjustment. We need to adjust how we respond when people attack us for having a differing opinion. These attacks are especially painful when they come from within the Church. 

Those who speak such things will eventually bring shame upon themselves thinking what they have said is from God, but it is not because it holds no redemptive tone, only a correction masked under the influence of a spirit of deception. Their words are a dismissal of what you said without deeper examination thinking they are correcting you for the sake of God. Their words can sound insightful and wise to the spiritually naïve. 

The Passion Translation brings out this point with unique clarity, “Shame on your own people who reject you and hate you, claiming they do it for my sake. For they mock you saying, ‘May Yahweh be glorified; let us see you rejoice’” (Isaiah 66:5 ). The rejoicing they ask for is the sound of your agreement with their thoughts, not with the mind of Christ.

During the pandemic, many spoke up to dismiss those who dared challenge and even defy what we were being told was true. They thought they were speaking the words of God, but they were not. Anger and mockery overcame them and had them utter mocking words against you. This deception continued during the recent election cycle when you did not follow the dictates and lies of the corporate media and those who aligned with their crafted lies who became their puppets. 

2025 will offer us a chance to move past the impact of those negative attacks and deepen our faith. The assault of the mocking words came from the flesh, not the Spirit. We were once all fools before the Lord redeemed us thinking we knew the right way to live. Our lives changed when the Lord made Himself known to us and revealed a better way to live. That new way offers us an opportunity to extend mercy to those who have mocked and dismissed us.

The criticism and mockery that came your way must be seen and discerned in a redemptive light. You were being tested to determine the substance of your heart.  These negative attacks should never become a license to respond in the same as the ones who mockingly dismissed you and your position. What came against you will become a spiritual tutor revealing how you should respond when such acts come your way or when, in a moment of frustration, you are tempted to follow the same path as your angry mockers thinking what you say as a negative response is for the sake of God and His Kingdom, when it’s not.