My favorite retort is:
Well (harrumph, harrumph) you've certainly got a lot to be sorry about!
For a moment's seriousness:
I think one of the most difficult chores of the adult Christian is to apple "[Charity] rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth,...." (Paul, under the guidance of the Spirit, really was a remarkably insightful guy!)
In my (mostly failing) efforts to live as though I Cor 13 actually mattered, it's helpful to me to remember the saying, "If it's too good to be true, it's probably not true." I guess a corollary is "If it's about my opponents and it's too deliciously wicked to be true ...."
But the real spiritual opportunity, in my view, is to notice that there's a part of me that really wants terrible things to be true about my opponents, that is disappointed when they are better people than I thought.
Children of the Lord, THAT is messed up!
INDEED. And well put.
I greatly agree. Thankfully, God is not finished with me yet.
John Wimber quoted in
EVERYONE GETS TO PLAY talks a lot about such issues.
He really was a very humble man. More so now, I’d bet. LOL.
Folks kept trying to give him titles and he always refused. “Just call me John.”