Winning souls, not arguments is our goal

Decide today, will you listen to your thoughts, worldly ideas, what is popular, or listen to God’s direction?
“But He turned and says to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.” Matthew 16:23

All Peter wanted to do was help. He didn’t want Jesus to die and it seemed a good thing to him to set Jesus straight about being killed (v.21) and then raised up on the third day. I wonder if Peter ever heard the last part of that sentence after Jesus said “be killed”. Jesus said many times He would be raised up on the third day, but they never really heard it and understood until it had happened.

Jesus mind was on obeying the Father.
Aren’t you glad Jesus listened to the Father instead of Peter?
Without the cross and the resurrection, there would be no Salvation!

Jesus said in John 13:12-16 that by being a servant to His disciples He had “given you an example so that you also should do just as I have done to you”. We are to serve others, but too often we want to serve by doing what we think and many end up going against God’s plan when it doesn’t make sense to us, like dying didn’t to Peter. We need a total commitment to love and obey God.
William Sloan Coffin said, "We (mankind) have learned to soar through the air like birds, to swim through the seas like fish, to soar through space like comets. Now it is high time we learned to walk the earth as the children of our God."
Will you love God, obey Him and let Him work through you to give people a new heart and then disciple them and be a part of God changing behaviors rather than you? You can condemn and argue or you can let God love others through you and get to be a part of His work; “walk in the works that God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them”. Ephesians 2:10
People who are lost will be defensive if attacked, but if you show them God’s love, God can give them a new heart, a new birth and then that new person will have new behavior. Consider following Jesus example and serve by obeying God.
Yes, stand firmly on the Bible and never compromise on the Word and what is right, but do it motivated by love with the goal of redemption. Otherwise Jesus may have to say to you that “your mind is not on the interest of God”.
Not every argument needs to be won; the person does and only God can do that!