Titus 3:9 (ESV)
But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and
quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
I read an article recently discussing the question of whether Goliath was
really nine foot six or was he really only six foot six. It’s an interesting
scholarly article, but if we decide to argue about it in the local church, we
have become divisive. “Avoid foolish controversies.” I wonder how many church spats
God would categorize as foolish controversies.
How little of what we think is important enough to fight over is really
insignificant in the eyes of God? If a person is offended by the abrasive
manner of another believer, and they demand that the abrasive believer be
disciplined, which one is being divisive? If we leave a church unless they
change the music, who is being divisive? If we chase off a pastor because he
doesn’t do all the things a previous, beloved pastor did, who is being
divisive? If we insist on getting our way concerning the color of the carpet,
the time of the church service, the number of Sunday School classes offered, or
some other issue to which the Scriptures do not speak, who is being divisive?
In my experience, a large percentage of church fights have nothing to do with
anything of consequence. In other words, most of what we fight about God calls
“foolish controversies.” What if we actually humbled ourselves and actually served
one another? How might that affect church life? How might that change our testimony
before the world?
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