DEADLY DISPUTE

Neal Pollard

A few years ago fifty miles southeast of Indianapolis in Andersonville, Indiana, two neighbors were found dead of gunshot wounds.  The bizarre finding of police investigators is that they fatally shot each other.  Indiana State Police Sargeant Noel Houze Jr. explained, “They just shot each other in an exchange of gunfire and both of them died of fatal gunshot wounds.”  She was 29 and he was 64.  They knew each other, but no one has come forward with any details about motives or explanations.

The imagination runs wild, though facts do not follow behind it.  What makes two neighbors mad enough to draw guns and engage in a gun battle?  What could be serious enough to escalate a dispute to this level (AP wire, 8/17/07)?

Conflict is an inevitable part of human relationships.  Normally, the better we know someone the more likely disputes will be and the more heated or passionate they can become.  The hope is that civility and courtesy can prevent hostility and homicide!

Luke records a dispute among the apostles, that “an argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest” (Lk. 9:46).  The same Greek word translated “argument” in that passage Jesus  modifies with an adjective to teach that “…from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries…and defile the man” (Mk. 7:21,23b).   Arndt and Gingrich, since this noun is used, suggest that the idea is stronger than merely bad thoughts, but “evil machinations” (186a).  Thus, schemes and plots that begin in the heart, that are fed, nursed and stoked, can play out in all the ways Jesus enumerates in Mark seven.

From these two passages come a warning about two areas of life–motives and heart.  A bad motive and evil heart open the door which allows conflict to escalate and grow.  These conflicts may not end in shotgun blasts, but estrangement, divorce, isolation, division, or character assassination.  In trying to deal a hurtful blow to our opponent, we may find ourselves mortally wounded, too.   What a needed reminder to guard our hearts, watch our motives, and control ourselves!

SUBDIVISIONS

Neal Pollard

One of my favorite bands (Tony Raburn’s definite favorite) is Rush.  One of their songs, “Subdivisions,” talks about how much peer pressure is a part of life.  Conform and be cool or be cast out, they sing.  The world certainly works that way.  I went to high school in coastal Georgia, a very large school in a military town.  Did we ever have “groups.”  We had goths, headbangers, preps, jocks, rednecks, geeks, and a large number of ethnic groups.  While some were harder to pigeon hole and felt at home in multiple groups, there was much “subdivision” in the high school halls and shopping malls.  The worldly way of thinking is to divide, group, alienate, and pit one against another.

Through the cross, Jesus died to eliminate enmity and division. Jews and Gentiles were divided, but the cross was God’s tool of reconciling them back together.  This place of unity is called the “one body” (Eph. 2:16).  That “one body” is identified as the church (Eph. 1:22-23).  This means that God designated a place where subdivisions do not belong.  The church is to be a people who are united (Eph. 4:1ff).  We come into Christ from so many different places.  Perhaps we were goths, headbangers, preps, et al, but when we come into Christ we are one body.  This can be uncomfortable and unnatural, but it is what sets apart God’s “set apart” from those who conform to the world.  In Christ, we are transformed (cf. Rom. 12:2).  Our effort is to be toward oneness.  It must be to eliminate all barriers, race, education, income, background, and whatever other distinctions the world is prone to make.

It is one of the great blessings of Christianity!  Let the world prejudge, make distinctions, and isolate.  The church is to be a welcoming, loving, and uniting group!  May this ever be our focus and desire.  Jesus was willing to die for that ideal (cf. John 17:20-21).

SPLINTERS HURT

Neal Pollard

It was late summer, 1980, about a mile south of the thriving metropolis of Glenn, Georgia.  Our family had just bought some land and brought in a Jim Walters home, and with this there was some minor construction work to be done.  That is why there was some rough sewn lumber laying in the backyard.  Coupled with a sturdy sawhorse, the board was irresistible for two young boys.  My brother and I were blissfully seesawing for several seconds when he decided to make a sudden departure.  The shift in weight was enough to make me shift on our makeshift playground toy.  The end result for the soft inner part of my left leg was a sliver of wood that seemed twelve feet long. An initial reaction of disbelief was quickly followed by involuntary hopping, hollering, and howling.  I didn’t want the splinter to stay there, but I dreaded pulling it out of me.  Finally, after a seeming eternity, we were able to extricate the small tree from my chubby gam.  For a few days, the leg stayed tender to the touch–a reminder of the last time I ever got on a homemade teeter totter.

Paul wrote the Corinth church, a body that was hurt by splinters.  Paul gives a vivid description of the wound in 1 Corinthians 1:10-13.  Members were splintering into different groups, lining up behind men rather than THE Man.  Paul pleaded with them not to let that occur.  The basic reason was that these splinters hurt.

Division hurts the church.  Feelings are hurt.  Spirituality is hurt.  The promotion of truth is hurt.  The church’s purpose is hurt.  Babes and weak Christians in the church are hurt.  The innocent as well as the guilty are hurt.

Division hurts the world.  They are offended. Or they feel vindicated in staying in the world.  They are repelled and repulsed.  They are confused.  They lose interest.

Division hurts the Christ.  The church is His body, and splinters bring Him pain.  The Christ that once hung on a rugged piece of wood is more wounded when that for which He died is splintered.  Read John 17:20-21, and see how strong Christ’s feelings about unity are.

Truth must be defended to honor the Christ, even if those in error fight and resist.  Beyond that, though, what is so precious and dear as to make us prone to splinter His body?  The answer is in the question.

Strife Spreaders

Neal Pollard

Who couldn’t use more of any number of things–money, time, opportunities, friends, etc.  Our families would be blessed with an increase of precious memories, traditions, vacations, and even those glorious, ordinary moments together?  The nation could use more politicians with courage, public figures with proper, moral convictions, and ordinary citizens whose believe in and love for the God of the Bible were strong enough to turn the tide.  The church could use more volunteers, more holiness, more qualified elders, more preachers with backbone and compassion, more programs to accomplish God’s purpose on earth, and that list could go on for a while.  But, the church does not need more “strife spreaders.”
“Strife spreaders” are those who spread strife.  They may do so openly or clandestinely.  They may do so directly or even through innuendo and insinuation.  They may do so by peddling their side of a two-sided story.  They may do so by stirring up the discontent or dissatisfaction of other members.  They may do so through gossip or lying.  They may do so through assassinating the character of others, whether elders, deacons, preachers, teachers, or other members.

But, they that do so, do so at a tremendous price!  Solomon describes a worthless person as one who spreads strife (Prov. 6:14).  Then, he follows that up by speaking of “the seven deadly sins,” things done by man that are hated by God.  Last in the list is “one who spreads strife among brothers” (Prov. 6:19).  Solomon strikes hard at “strife spreaders.”  It is fueled by hatred (Prov. 10:12).  It is fed by pride and arrogance (Prov. 13:10; 28:25). It is fired by a hot-temper (Prov. 15:18). It is a feature of perversity (Prov. 16:28).  It flies from a fool’s lips (Prov. 18:6; 20:3 says, “Any fool will quarrel”).  It is a feature of sinful anger (Prov. 29:22; 30:33).  None of those verses mentions adultery, fornication, murder, theft, or false teaching, but strife will have done much harm to the souls of men when all is said and done.  It is easy enough to spread strife, but it is exceedingly and eternally unwise.  Paul warns that those who practice the spreading of strife will not inherit the kingdom of heaven (Gal. 5:20-21).  That should be enough warning for all of us to continually be on guard against spreading strife, instead choosing to be those who sow the seed of peace and produce the fruit of righteousness (Jas. 3:18).