We tend to get worked up whenever someone criticizes God or Christians. We want to run to God’s defense—or honestly, much of the time, our own—and say just the right thing that will shut that other person up. But God can defend Himself far better than we can. We are called to stand and deliver, then take what comes, just as Jesus did.

And consider that for a moment. For just a few moments, take off the table the idea that Jesus was the Son of God—that Jesus is God. Look, for a few moments, purely at the human Jesus of the gospels. Look at how much He loved God, and had to present the Kingdom of God and defend it—including very often against those who claimed to speak for God and clearly did not. And even how He spoke to those who truly desired to know God but got it wrong—a lot. Here was someone who actually knew the right answers. How do you think Jesus felt during when he was assaulted verbally—and later physically and beyond—by those who didn’t want to hear those answers?

But how did He respond? Certainly there are examples of anger—pretty much reserved for those who insisted they could represent God better than Jesus could—but there is also patience. Love. A desire that the people He responds to do somehow hear it.

And if that’s the model of a Christian response, who are we—who are still a hopeless jumble of spirit and flesh being sorted out through this process called sanctification—to respond any more pridefully?