Life Without Strife
Strife is the enemy’s weapon of choice in today’s world. If we haven’t renewed our minds enough to the word, we will go along with it.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
We have to understand the severity of strife.
It kills, steals, and destroys.
It also grieves the Holy Spirit.
29 Let no foul
or polluting language,
nor evil word
nor unwholesome
or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good
and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need
and the occasion, that it may be a blessing
and give grace (God’s favor) to those who hear it.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin).
31 Let all bitterness and indignation
and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).
We have to magnify our oneness and not our differences.
Unity is key to the anointing.
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2 It is like the precious ointment poured on the head, that ran down on the beard, even the beard of Aaron [the first high priest], that came down upon the collar
and skirts of his garments [consecrating the whole body].
3 It is like the dew of [lofty] Mount Hermon and the dew that comes on the hills of Zion; for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, even life forevermore [upon the high and the lowly].
Unity requires humility which can be difficult to develop but is extremely rewarding.
Genesis 13:1-2, 5-9, 14-17 AMPC
So Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South [country of Judah, the Negeb].
2 Now Abram was extremely rich in livestock and in silver and in gold.
5 But Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.
6 Now the land was not able to nourish
and support them so they could dwell together, for their possessions were too great for them to live together.
7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land [making fodder more difficult to obtain].
8 So Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife, I beg of you, between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are relatives.
9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself, I beg of you, from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if you choose the right hand, then I will go to the left.
14 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had left him, Lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
15 For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your posterity forever.
16 And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if a man could count the dust of the earth, then could your descendants also be counted.
17 Arise, walk through the land, the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it to you.
God rewarded him richly for it.
Strife begins in our thoughts
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person,
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters.
Notice being a busybody is listed alongside being a murderer.
But refuse (shut your mind against, have nothing to do with) trifling (ill-informed, unedifying, stupid) controversies over ignorant questionings, for you know that they foster strife
and breed quarrels.
15 But if you bite and devour one another [in partisan strife], be careful that you [and your whole fellowship] are not consumed by one another.
Notice the words: bite, devour, consume. We should be actively harming the kingdom of darkness with good instead of harming the body of Christ with evil.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
Get on the proactive side and be a blessing to someone else.
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
All the little differences between us and others don’t matter. What matters is you living by faith and you walking in love. The two things I want everyone to take from this message is
God commands the blessing upon those who live in peace.
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