TOXIC PEOPLE:

The Christian Response & One Tough Lesson!

Without disclosing the whole story for reasons of practicality, as well as for the sake of the privacy of my family, I will attempt to illustrate a hard and surprising lesson that a certain individual has inadvertently taught my family over the course of this past year, not in a teaching capacity, but one that comes from living life with tough people, who tend to inspire nothing but disgust in everyone they come into contact with, but especially those who have had the unfortunate displeasure of living with them.

This video made me cry tears of relief and thankfulness to God. For, in the aftermath of this experience, my family and I finally see the Truth that has been hiding beneath the surface; some people are manipulators whose only intention in life is not to fulfill God’s calling, but to ride on the free train of laziness—off the backs of others, especially those in their own households….. Furthermore, they focus only on what they can take from everyone else, without even so much of a thought of offering help, or anything in return, or even a sympathetic ear…

Learning this lesson means so much to us because we have had to live with enormous stress as to what this man has put us through, which this video reiterates verbatim as to what the Bible teaches on this vital subject, that so many of us get wrong because of guilt—

And, oh yeah, guilt is something Satan uses against us; it’s not even from God—

I do believe I needed to hear this message a thousand times more than any of my prospective readers will when they hear it! I do feel a little slow and stupid for going through this experience with someone of this thinking for a whole year before coming to the realization that this is REAL and IT IS exactly what we’ve been dealing with—a man who calls himself a believer whose only real goal is to manipulate God and other people as much as possible and then have the unmitigated gall to declare to everyone that his gain came as a ‘Blessing from GOD!”

This is such an important lesson, most particularly for the time in which we are living, because our society has been overcome with this victim mindset, just as the devil did plan for this confusion to set in-

Because, most especially for believers, this is a tough lesson to learn, because of the guilt that ensues whenever we detect this problem in someone else……..AND especially when that person claims to be a believer—

“For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” (2Thessalonians 3:10)

This verse is important to this conversation because it exposes the ‘tough love’ theory that in certain cases, helping someone out of a problem, like hunger due to refusal to work, only reinforces that problem of laziness. And this action, although well-intended, only stands in the way of what God is wanting that person to learn, that he or she is in need of accepting responsibility and that manipulating others for self-gain is immoral and goes against GOD.

Just as Jesus warned, there are people in this world that only seek to use and take from those in whom they may readily manipulate; never intending to keep their promises of repayment, lending or favors, but will in fact say anything necessary to get others to do for them—

“Behold, I will send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)

This can come as a vital lesson for believers!

It may also be helpful for us to discern this understanding as a parallel to something the world calls “Tough Love,” as it holds to this concept of not allowing those who live with entitlement to advantage of us….

Another parallel we can point to is narcissism. We have probably all met someone at some point who demands everyone else’s attention at all times. So if you were to be talking to someone with this personality disorder, you would quickly realize that at first mention of anything you say in conversation, that person will respond with his or her own experience that you just reminded him of. For example, if you were to mention that you didn’t feel well, instead of an empathetic response, all you would hear is something that starts with ‘I,’ in utter and complete disregard for your situation—

NKJV