I've been told persecuted Christians in other countries are quite surprised to learn the things we unpersecuted Christians fight over. We fight over things like the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the timing of the rapture and whether we can lose our salvation or not.

It's not that these persecuted Christians don't think knowing sound doctrine is important. That's not what disturbs them. You see, after experiencing such raw hatred at the hand's of Christ's enemies, they can't understand seeing the same hatred among Christ's own people.

But this isn't a new problem. The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian believers:

And I brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of the flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. In deed, even now you are not able (1 Corinthian 3:1-2 New American Standard Bible).

The interesting thing is the criteria that Paul used to gage their spirituality. It wasn't their doctrinal knowledge -- it was their ability to love. Paul said:

For you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking as mere men? (verse 3).

In other words, if we don't have a genuine love and concern for each other, we're not much better than those misguided individuals who flew their captured airliners into the Twin Towers.

John was known as the Apostle of love. John was the one who would lean his head against Jesus' chest. And, John won a special place in Jesus' heart. John wrote:

By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous (1 John 3:10-12).

Here's my point: If we love Jesus, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And, our persecution may not be far away. It's time for us to stop fighting each other over things that don't define us as evangelical Christians. It's ok to disagree, but it's not ok to hate.

Let's not go the way of Cain.