When Christians Fight

I heard a wise pastor say once that the problem is not that Christians fight—it’s that we don’t fight like Christians.

There’s a passage from Colossians chapter 3 that I like to read at weddings:

As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (3:12-14)

I like to read this at weddings because you will never share a happy, fulfilling lifetime with another person without compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love. And in any relationship, humility about our own mistakes, compassion for the other person’s position, love that’s willing to take the L for someone else—these heart habits can always take the edge off of times of tension and conflict.

But when Christians crash into some point of bitter disagreement, whether it’s over interpretations of scripture, church finances, things going on in the nation, or divisive public figures, do we respond to each other with gentleness? How about patience? Humility?

When we fight, do we fight like Christians?

Or think about another popular scripture reading for weddings services, from 1 Corinthians 13:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (13:4-5)

When there’s a conflict between Christians or within a congregation, are we easily angered? Do we keep a record of all the ways someone has wronged us? (You know, all those grievances you air when you’re in the car by yourself?)

Of course, even though Paul is writing about Christians living together in the Church, these words apply just as well to our lives together outside of church: with our friends, co-workers, parents, spouses, kids. (That’s why we read them at weddings!) Disagreement and conflict are unavoidable. However, you and I can dramatically alter the outcome of a dispute by changing our behavior in the middle of it. The key is approaching those moments committed, above anything else, to the kind of Christlike love Paul’s talking about here.

Because the real problem isn’t that Christians fight: it’s that we don’t fight like Christians.

We fight just like the rest of the world.

You can listen to this week's devotional below:

Informed... or Opinionated?

Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

Do you check the news every day?

Maybe you keep cable news on in the background while you’re at home, or watch the videos your friends share on Facebook, or just scan some headlines on your phone or in the paper each morning.

Staying informed is good. We need to know about things happening in our local community, the actions of our elected officials at the state and national levels, and situations happening around Mississippi, the US, and the world where Christians could be a blessing. The news is important.

But, if you’re like me, staying informed isn’t the only thing—or maybe even the biggest thing—that you get from the news.

Because so much of what passes for news today is really pundits’ commentary, it’s easy to come away with just a little more information but a lot more opinions. Opinions about who’s right (us), who’s wrong (them), about what to celebrate (our thing), what to be furious about (their thing), about who’s telling the truth (our side), and who's lying (their side). The talking heads don’t always do a great job of informing us, but they are great at telling us who are the “good guys” and who are the “bad guys.” And we can come away more entrenched, more suspicious, angrier, and more smug.

That is dangerous stuff for Christians.

It’s dangerous, for starters, because none of that is going to help you love your neighbors more. But it’s also dangerous because that whole us-versus-them outlook will have you courageously and passionately fighting the wrong battles.

The commentators will tell us that certain people are our enemies, yet scripture tells us that, “We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens.” (Eph 6:12) The enemies that we should be focused on aren’t our neighbors—they are the powers of darkness out to separate us from God and destroy our souls. (Think the devil and demons, though the Bible mentions others, too.) These spiritual forces are also out to get those very neighbors you’re butting heads with. In fact, sometimes conflicts with Christians are what they will use to push people farther away from God.

Don’t allow the worldly squabbles that the pundits are so preoccupied with to consume you and distract you from the real enemies and the real battle. It’s not a coincidence that the very next verse in Ephesians 6 says to “put on the full armor of God” (6:13). Truth, righteousness, faith—we’re going to need it all to overcome the temptations, lies, and challenges being hurled at us.

But your neighbors, whom Jesus has called you to love and be a witness to, they desperately need you to overcome.

Listen to this week's devotional right here:

Old Man Caleb and the Giants

In Joshua 14, the Israelites have taken over the Promised Land, Canaan, and are beginning to divide it up among the 12 tribes. In the midst of all that, an 85-year-old man by the name of Caleb asks Israel’s leader, Joshua, to grant him some land in the hill country. He says it was promised to him by the Lord. (14:12)

If Caleb’s name sounds vaguely familiar, it’s probably because he was one of the twelve spies that Moses sent to do reconnaissance in Canaan after the Exodus from Egypt. When most of the spies warned against invading the land, saying “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”, Caleb insisted, “Let’s go at once to take the land! We can certainly conquer it!” (Numbers 13:30-31) Joshua and Caleb, because of their confidence in the Lord in that moment, end up being the only two Israelites in their generation who survive the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and eventually enter the Promised Land. And, because of Caleb’s faith, the Lord tells Moses, “I will give to him and his descendants some of the very land he explored during his scouting mission.” (Deut 1:36)

Forty-five years later, this is the promise Caleb is reminding his old friend of.

There’s just one problem: the last time Caleb and Joshua visited that region, it was occupied by giants living in fortified cities. Remember the spies who didn’t want to invade Canaan? This is why. Back in Numbers 13, they reported that “the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! …Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” (13:28-33)

But, for his part, Caleb never has seen giants in walled cities as much of a problem. He had counseled Moses to attack a generation earlier, and now he tells Joshua,

Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then… You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said. (14:10-12)

At 85, Caleb still has the same faith he did in his prime. Now, maybe he really is still as strong as he was then, but that’s not why he’s so confident here. He’s so confident because his faith is not in himself and his abilities.

It’s in the Lord. “If the Lord is with me,” he said, “I will drive them out of the land.”

For Caleb, the question is never “Can I do this?” The question is always “Can God do this?”

And the answer is always “Yes.”

Whether you’re 85 or 40, stay close to the Lord through today’s challenges. God can do this. And, if the Lord is with you, you can do this, too.

You can listen to this week's devotional right here: