11 The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. 12 He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.” 13 Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. Mark 8:11-13

The Pharisees and other leaders were always testing Jesus but never really wanting to know the truth. They were testing Him to try to trap Him. You’d think a few of them would get the hint that this Jesus wasn’t playing their games and that He was on to their ways. These leaders were only embarrassing themselves with their traps (but providing content for people 2000 years later).

You will always have detractors in this world, people who tear you down and never try to build you up. Some will even try to intimidate you about your faith.

As believers, it’s important for us to remain focused and not get caught up in word games or semantics about the Gospel. Stick to the cross and Christ crucified, and you should be fine because those are what separates Christianity from every other religion. Address the know-it-alls politely but don’t take their bait of trying to argue with you, especially if you sense they are trolling your or arguing you just for the sake of intellectual argument. People want to trap you as they did Jesus. He was clever enough to push back. We are not that clever. We could hold our own, but we’re nowhere close to being divine-level clever.