The following was originally preached on March 30, 2025 after revising my previous outline over Judges 20 to focus more on practical application for waging peace through sanctifying scrimmages.
Christ Church Leavenworth
Judges 20
March 30, 2025
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OT READING: Numbers 25:1-13
NT READING: Romans 12:9-21
"Wage Peace"
READING OF THE TEXT
Our text this morning is Judges chapter 20, these are the words of God
Then all the people of Israel came out, from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mizpah. And the chiefs of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 men on foot that drew the sword. (Now the people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the people of Israel said, “Tell us, how did this evil happen?” And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, “I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They meant to kill me, and they violated my concubine, and she is dead. So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed abomination and outrage in Israel. Behold, you people of Israel, all of you, give your advice and counsel here.”
And all the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, and none of us will return to his house. But now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot, and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand of ten thousand, to bring provisions for the people, that when they come they may repay Gibeah of Benjamin for all the outrage that they have committed in Israel.” So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man.
And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What evil is this that has taken place among you? Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the people of Israel. And the people of Benjamin mustered out of their cities on that day 26,000 men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered 700 chosen men. Among all these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. And the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered 400,000 men who drew the sword; all these were men of war. The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, “Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?” And the Lord said, “Judah shall go up first.”
Then the people of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin, and the men of Israel drew up the battle line against them at Gibeah. The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and destroyed on that day 22,000 men of the Israelites. But the people, the men of Israel, took courage, and again formed the battle line in the same place where they had formed it on the first day. And the people of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until the evening. And they inquired of the Lord, “Shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin?” And the Lord said, “Go up against them.”
So the people of Israel came near against the people of Benjamin the second day. And Benjamin went against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed 18,000 men of the people of Israel. All these were men who drew the sword. Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And the people of Israel inquired of the Lord (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days), saying, “Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?” And the Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.”
So Israel set men in ambush around Gibeah. And the people of Israel went up against the people of Benjamin on the third day and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. And the people of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city. And as at other times they began to strike and kill some of the people in the highways, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, and in the open country, about thirty men of Israel. And the people of Benjamin said, “They are routed before us, as at the first.” But the people of Israel said, “Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.” And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar, and the men of Israel who were in ambush rushed out of their place from Maareh-geba. And there came against Gibeah 10,000 chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was hard, but the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was close upon them. And the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and the people of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword. So the people of Benjamin saw that they were defeated.
The men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin, because they trusted the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah. Then the men in ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah; the men in ambush moved out and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in the main ambush was that when they made a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city the men of Israel should turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about thirty men of Israel. They said, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.” But when the signal began to rise out of the city in a column of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven. Then the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was close upon them. Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them. And those who came out of the cities were destroying them in their midst. Surrounding the Benjaminites, they pursued them and trod them down from Nohah as far as opposite Gibeah on the east. Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell, all of them men of valor. And they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon. Five thousand men of them were cut down in the highways. And they were pursued hard to Gidom, and 2,000 men of them were struck down. So all who fell that day of Benjamin were 25,000 men who drew the sword, all of them men of valor.
But 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon and remained at the rock of Rimmon four months. And the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, the city, men and beasts and all that they found. And all the towns that they found they set on fire.
The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.
PRAYER
Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. Your Word is the standard for unity, clarity, charity, and authority. Speak to us now that we may know how and when to wage war and how and when to hold our peace. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see that we may behold wondrous things in Your Word and be equipped for every good work which You have prepared beforehand for us. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
INTRODUCTION
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.” (Ecc. 3)
War and peace are a part of life. There will be war and there will be peace. So, this then begs the question: with whom will you be at war and with whom will you be at peace? There are wars worth fighting and peace worth keeping, but there are also unnecessary conflicts and sinful compromises. That said, war and peace are not equals. They are not yin and yang. A good peace is better than a good war. But it must be pointed out that you cannot have a good peace without a good war. A good war, by God’s standard, is one aimed at producing peace. A bad war, on the other hand, is one that merely sets the stage for the next war. It does not want a final resolution, it craves the next revolution. So, peace is better than war, but only if it is produced by godly means. This is why the birth of Jesus was proclaimed as “Peace on earth” and the preaching of Jesus was, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” As Spurgeon once said, “Christ is the great Peacemaker; but before peace, He brings war.”
Now, because a good peace is better than a good war, many Christians have concluded that any peace is better than all war. As a result, many now pursue peace treaties with sin instead of being in conflict with it. (but enough about the Gospel Coalition) If you contend that any peace is better than any war, you will end up with sin in your camp. If you are on good terms with sin, you are at odds with God. As James 4:4 points out, “Friendship with the world is enmity with God” and “whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
So that doesn’t leave much room for playing nice, right? Well, yes and no. According to Christ, peacemakers are blessed by God. So, which is it? Wage war or make peace? Scripture smiles back and says, “Why not both?” Christ did not say that pacifism would be blessed, but that peacemaking would be. And peacemaking, as it turns out, is often a violent endeavor: blood, sweat, and tears are often needed. Look no further than the Lord Himself. Jesus did not make peace with God for us by holding up peace signs with His hands. No, He made peace by having His hands pierced. He did not say, “Just give peace a chance, man,” He said, “It is finished!” as He hung on a cross. Peace is not achieved by indifference, it is acquired by conflict. Peace, therefore, is not the absence of conflict, it is the absence of sin.
Where there is sin, there will be conflict. You can try to make the conflict go away by compromise, but the sin will continue, and that simply means that a future conflict is coming. Too many in modern evangelicalism have sought to make peace with sin in order to try to keep the peace. But the biggest problem with that kind of peace is precisely that it does not keep. Compromise is the armor bearer of conflict. It does not beat the sword into a plowshare, it simply holds onto it until conflict asks for it back. Tolerating the presence of sin simply kicks the can of conflict down the road. Wickedness, for all its faults, does not forget that it is in a fight. If it accepts a ceasefire, it is only to reload. Psalm 55:21 His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Evil will sign a peace treaty, but only as an act of aggression, and modern evangelicalism, unfortunately, has all too often been all too eager to take the bait. It pays the danegeld and is shocked to find more Vikings in its midst.
Therefore, in a world full of sin, peacemaking means war. We cannot make peace with anything without bringing some other things to justice. Chesterton said it this way, “If we have accepted everything, we have missed something—war. This life of ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable truce.” Paul’s first letter to Timothy begins by instructing him in 1:18 to “wage the good warfare,” and ends by reminding him to “fight the good fight of the faith,” in 6:12. Thus, his letter is literally bookended by battleplans. The Christian life is a fight from beginning to end. J.C. Ryle said it this way, “Every baptized churchman is by his profession a 'soldier of Jesus Christ.’ He is pledged to fight under His banner against sin, the world and the devil… We have no choice. We must either fight or be lost."
Consider our OT reading this morning. Phinehas was not content to coexist with sin. He had to do something about it. Many were distraught about what they were seeing. They sat and wept. But Phinehas stood up. He stood on the Word of God and ran towards the roar of the battle. And God rewarded his warfare with a covenant of peace and credited it to him as righteousness (Ps 106:30). Phinehas’ good war gained him a good peace.
This life, like eternity, is binary. Recall what God said to the serpent immediately after the Fall in Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring: He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Because of sin, there was conflict. God declared war on sin and established a clear antithesis: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This is why egalitarianism in all forms is a Christian heresy. It seeks to erase the distinctions that God has ordained. To be at war with the distinctions is to be on the side of the serpent. So, we receive the world as it is, and that means accepting the fact of warfare. Spurgeon summarized it well when he said this: “Better a brief warfare and eternal rest, than false peace and everlasting torment.”
With that all in mind then, let’s review this morning’s text.
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
All of Israel assembled as one man at Mizpah after hearing the shocking news that came out of Gibeah. They gathered to hear the story firsthand and from the source. The Levite who sounded the alarm retold the story and then begged the question, “What should we do now?” All of the men, again as one man, stood up and declared in one voice that they would not stand for this kind of thing and vowed that they would not go home until this sin was confronted. They made peace with each other and pledged a tithe of their people to make war with Gibeah. And then, for the third time in our text, the Scriptures testify that they were united as one man in pursuing this plan.
The people of Benjamin, however, contradicted the assembly and decided to stand with the city of Gibeah. Gibeah was, after all, in their territory and rather than acknowledge that this evil had happened on their watch, the Benjaminites refused to deal with the sin in their own camp and doubled-down on defending the sins of their kin. They choose peace with perverts over peace with God. They picked war with the Word of God over war with wickedness. The people of Gibeah were not just perverts, after all, they were family… and they were excellent marksmen to boot. So, confronting them would certainly be very uncomfortable and more than likely very costly. So, they determined to cut their losses by cutting themselves off from the people of God in order to bind themselves by compromise.
The respective armies assembled in opposition: Benjamin, on one side, rallying to defend rebellion and Israel on the other, gathering to confront it. In keeping with their commitment to His Word, Israel sought the Lord and asked Him who should lead the charge. As per usual. Judah was selected to lead. In this first conflict with sin, however, Israel came out the worse. They lost 22,000 men. Despite this discouraging setback, however, the men of Israel took courage and took their stand against sin the very next day by redrawing the same battle line in the very same place.
Again, the men of Israel inquired of the Lord. Previously they were confident in the going, but unsure of who should go first. This time, after the defeat the day before, they asked if they should go back. God confirmed their zeal and commanded them once more into the fray. Round two, however, proved no better than round one. This time Israel suffered the loss of 18,000 men. So, between day one and day two, a total of 40,000 men of God had given their lives in the fight against sin.
As a result, the men who survived day two sat before their God and fasted. They offered sacrifices for their sins and sought peace with God as they once more committed to make war with sin. Phinehas, who was, as we discussed before, no stranger to taking sin seriously, inquired of the Lord once more and begged the question: “Shall we continue to battle our brothers?” The Lord said, “Yes,” but this time He added that this would be the last time: He would give Gibeah into their hands. So, on the third day, Israel rose again to engage Gibeah. This time, however, Israel had a plan. They prepared an ambush. Most of the men engaged Gibeah head on and then turned tail and ran. These made themselves vulnerable and were willing to look like cowards in order to give their brothers in ambush a chance to end the war.
Gibeah took the bait and chased the retreating men, assuming that they had again won the day. As they chased, however, the ambush behind entered the unoccupied city and set it on fire. The smoke of that wicked city served as a signal. It told the retreating men of Israel to reveal their courage in turning back and it told the boastful men of Benjamin that they had been tricked. None of the Benjaminites of that age understood that they had brought this destruction upon themselves. Compromise had clouded their vision. The ambush only worked because Gibeah took the bait. Their sin, as it always does, found them out. It took them further than they wanted to go, faster than they wanted to get there; cost them more than they wanted to pay, and held them longer than they wanted to stay.
The same hubris that led Gibeah to defy the laws of God in the first place led them to overplay their hand in the end. 18,000 men of Benjamin were killed on the battlefield, another 5,000 were cut down while running away. 2,000 of them made it to Gidom where they made their last stand before being defeated. So, in total, 25,000 Benjaminites died on the third day. Only 600 survived by fleeing into the wilderness. They would end up wandering there in their unbelief for four months. Israel, however, marched home triumphantly, and as they did, they burned their bridges with sin as they set the cities of Benjamin on fire.
FOLLOWING CHRIST REQUIRES BOTH UNITY AND DIVISION
In Ephesians 4:3, we are called by Christ to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” This kind of peace does not come by accident. It requires effort. And not just any effort will do. EVERY effort is needed. No effort means no unity. Some effort means some unity, but not the kind that Christ requires. The catholicity God desires requires every effort. In other words, the kind of unity and peace that Christ commands are expensive. You cannot have them without paying something for them and you shouldn’t be shocked to find chaos where people refuse to pay the price. Sometimes the cost includes covering a multitude of someone else’s sins with your love for them. Sometimes the cost includes the discomfort of confronting a particular sin. Anyone who is happily married knows that you must sometimes ruin a Tuesday night with a hard conversation, but that same person also has a long list of things that they’ve let go of – a list, by the way, they misplaced years ago and haven’t looked for since.
So, how do you know? How can you tell if it is time to build up or time to tear down? Time to say something or time to shut your mouth? Or to put it in more modern parlance: how do you know if it is a time to text or a time to refrain from texting? The men of Issachar mentioned in 1 Chronicles 12:32 knew what time it was. As a result, they knew what to do and were able to instruct others. We want to be like that. So, like them, we must read the Word before we try to read the room. We cannot understand your times without first studying God’s timeless principles. The Word of God applies wherever you are, whenever you are, whoever you are. Because it contains timeless principles, it can produce timely application. So, what are some of these principles, where do we see them in our text?
WHAT IS WORTH FIGHTING OVER?
In verses 12 and 13 of today’s text, we see that the tribes of Israel sent men to the tribe of Benjamin to ask: “What evil is this that has taken place among you? Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.” Israel was committed to waging war against the sin in Benjamin, not against Benjamin itself. If anything, this war with sin was for the love of Benjamin. If they had not loved Benjamin, they could have perhaps just let Benjamins be bygones, but love cannot watch the beloved harbor sin without saying something. The fight came because of Benjamin’s sins, not because of Israel’s.
So, in short, to answer the question directly: Q: what is worth fighting over? A: sin. And not simply “sin” as defined by whatever happens to be annoying you at the moment, but “sin” as defined by God according to His Word. Let’s say you have an issue with someone. First and foremost, discuss that issue with that someone. Secondly, if that someone does not end up seeing things your way, consider if it is something you would actually involve the elders in resolving. If not, then don’t start a fight you wouldn’t want to finish. Chalk it up to personal differences and move on. Don’t blow someone up over something you’re not willing to escalate. If it is serious, then handle it seriously. If it’s not serious, then stop being silly.
Consider the following quip from Theodore Roosevelt: "The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly." Soft hitting does not follow through. It loses heart halfway. Do not start fights you don’t intend to finish. So, fight or don’t. But If you choose to fight, you must also choose to win. Pick your battles wisely then fight them decisively. Do not box as one beating the air. (1 Cor. 9:26) If you must throw a punch, you must also try to land it.
All that to say, if you cannot, in clean conscience before God and man, hit as hard as you can, don’t hit. Half-hearted hitting is sin. The rule here is the same as the rule for firearms: “do not aim at anything you are not willing to destroy.” And the Bible then adds, “and do not destroy what God would not.”
WHO SHOULD FIGHT?
In verse 18, the people of Israel asked God, “Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?” That’s a good question. Every fight is not your fight. Now, some of you need me to repeat that. So, listen carefully to me: every fight is not your fight. Every person is not your person. Every problem is not your problem. They can be real fights and real problems and still be none of your business. Just because you see something wrong does not mean that you are the one who needs to do something about it. Someone will no doubt, say, “Oh, you don’t know me. I’m not the kind of person who can just stand by.” To that person, I would simply say, “I’m sorry. Perhaps I wasn’t being clear (cough) EVERY fight is NOT your fight… this one, for example.”
GALATIANS 6:1
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Sin is the kind of thing that can happen to anyone. Anyone can do it or get caught up in it. Not only that, there are any number of ways a person can sin. There are always more ways to do something wrong than there is to do it right. In addition, sins are like grapes… they often come in bunches. So, if any person is caught in any sin, what should happen? Should anyone who notices do something? No. The text states that, “you who are spiritual should restore the sinner.” Now, that may sound a bit hoity-toity to some. “Oh, so only the spiritual are allowed to confront sin?” That is not what Paul means. What he does mean, however, is that someone with an ax to grind and a lost temper is NOT in a position to confront someone else’s sins. They have enough of their own to repent at the moment. To be “spiritual” as Paul is stating means to be both qualified and motivated. This caveat sounds like a bummer to many people because the only time they are motivated is when they are least qualified. The problem with sin is that we are too lazy about it. When we are qualified to address someone else’s sins, we are calm, collected, clear-headed, and at peace with God. But when we’re like that, we don’t feel like getting into a conflict. We’d rather enjoy feeling like a while longer. IF the sin persists, however, eventually our feelings change. We get irritated, annoyed, upset, or something worse. And NOW we feel like confronting some sin, boy! But now the problem is that we’re not qualified to confront anyone. You cannot roll up on someone with hot nostrils and expect anything good to come of it. As James 1:20 points out, “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
So, if you set out to set things right in that attitude, you will do more harm than good and create more sin, not less. This is why Paul also states that you must confront sin in a spirit of gentleness. If you can’t do that, you’re not addressing someone else’s sins as much as you demonstrating your own. This is also why Paul reminds us to be careful when dealing with sin. It is easy to drown when trying to save someone from drowning. It is possible to fall into the pit you are trying to help someone else out of. So, confront sin, but only when your head is in the right place and even then, be careful.
WITH WHOM SHOULD WE FIGHT?
In verse 23 the people of Israel inquired of the Lord by asking, “Shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin?” And the Lord said, “Go up against them.” It should not be an easy thing to go to war with your brothers, even if they happen to be wrong. It should create tension in you that can only be resolved by turning to the Word of God.
You owe some people more than you do others. “But doesn’t the Bible tell us to love our neighbor and doesn’t the parable of the Good Samaritan teach us that everyone is our neighbor?” Yes… and no. Yes, you must love your neighbor and yes, anyone you meet is your neighbor. But here’s the thing. Your neighbor is whoever God puts in front of you and He puts some neighbors in front of you more often than others. This means that the neighbor who sleeps next to you every night in the same bed takes priority over the neighbor who has to ring the doorbell to get into your living room. All that to say, you owe all your neighbors something, but you some neighbors more than others.
1 TIMOTHY 5:8
If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
SEE ALSO GALATIANS 6:10
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Take note of the “especially’s”. There are people in your life that require special attention. “You don’t say!” you might be thinking. But the point here is not that some people in your life are especially difficult, but that you have special debts to special people in your life, no matter how “special” they might be. You are obligated to provide more to some neighbors than you are to others, but you are also obligated to put up with more from some neighbors than you are from others. You owe all men some patience, but you owe more to the man who gave your nose. You owe all kids some patience, but you owe more to the ones who broke your blu-ray (again)… hypothetically speaking, of course.
ROMANS 15:1
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
The weak cannot put up with the failings of others. It is one of their many weaknesses. So, if you imagine yourself strong, prove it. Put up with something. Don’t melt down like a snowflake. Stand up and bear up under adversity like a man. If you can’t, or won’t, you are the weak one everyone else is putting up with, not the strong one everyone else needs to start listening to.
HOW SHOULD WE THEN FIGHT?
In verses 28 and 29 of today’s text Phinehas asked, “Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?” And the Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.” So Israel set men in ambush around Gibeah. God did not merely give Phinehas the go ahead to keep fighting, He gave him an idea. There are different ways to wage war and some ways work better than others depending on the situation. When Israel tried to match strength with strength, they were overpowered every time. When they came in hot, they got burned. So, they changed their tactics. Instead of flexing, they fled. They were willing to look weak in order to be strong.
As N.D. Wilson once pointed out, “the one who is losing their temper is losing the argument.” Getting loud may look like strength, but it is often a lack of self-control. On the other hand, being quiet before your accusers may look like weakness, but it requires all the strength of the God Almighty. The best way to confront the chaos is with calmness. If you can control yourself, you may look like you’re losing, but you’re actually keeping the chaos from claiming another victory.
Another principle for confronting brothers caught in sin is a sense of proportion. You should not scrimmage against your brothers the way you fight against your enemies. Now, you do have to scrimmage in such a way as to improve their game, but you cannot scrimmage in such a way as to wreck them before the big game. You have to challenge them for them to grow,, but you cannot take them out and still have a team left. You do not tackle a brother in practice the way you do an opponent in a game. This principle is especially true for rookies and new recruits.
ROMANS 14:1
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
Before you change friend groups, try changing the subject. Some topics are too much for some people and some subjects are too much for some relationships. For the sake of some people, you may have to set aside some of your opinions some of the time. If you cannot curb your tongue, you are the weaker brother everyone else is putting up with.
One of the major problems of online discourse is that it often begins with the minutiae. It doesn’t end up in the weeds, it starts there. Minor issues are used as litmus tests for developing relationships. This is backwards. Bonds should not be built upon your fringiest opinions (or your cringiest ones, for that matter). Relationships should be built on big rocks. These can then endure the minor differences over the tiny pebbles you find in your shoes as you walk together. This is how you maintain a community without having to insist upon complete conformity. Communities must have something strong in common, but they don’t have to have every single little thing in common.
As we read in our NT reading, we must hate what is evil and hold fast to what is good. This will require brotherly affection. Brothers can bash heads one minute and share a beer another. They can wrestle without walking away when it’s over. In short, we must learn how to scrimmage. You can tackle a brother without playing for the other team and you can take a hit without quitting the team.
ROMANS 12:18
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Do your part to be at peace with your people. You cannot force some people to be at peace with you, but you can make it harder for them to remain at war with you. Be as peaceable as you possibly can. Do not be too quick to cancel people. Do not be what the Bible calls “quarrelsome.” That doesn’t mean you can’t ever quarrel, but it does mean that you must pick your quarrels more carefully.
TITUS 3:9-10
Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.
Your first line of defense is always your feet. Walk away. Don’t get into fights you don’t want to be in. But if someone insists on an altercation by refusing to let you go. then do them the favor of giving them a few warning shots. Hang a “beware of dog” sign over the conversation before you let the dogs out.
CLOSING
In closing, pursue peace by fighting the good fight wherever you find it, beginning with your own heart. Do not pursue it at any cost, but do not put off paying as much as you can to purchase it. Also, do not be too quick to accept disunity as a mere fact of life simply because unity might cost you something. Sure, there is a unity that gives up too much to gain too little, but there is also a disunity that is too cheap. It won’t give up anything and it gives up on everything too quickly. In other words, it lacks a sense of proportion. As much as we need our affections rightly ordered (and they do), we also need our hostilities properly ordered. We must have character, but we must be charitable. We must have resolutions, but we must be reasonable. We must be wise when we shake someone’s hand… and when we shake our fists. In short, we must be Christian. We must fight the good fight. We must wage peace.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, give us peace. Send your Spirit to root out any and all sin in us, in our homes, in our churches, in our nation, and in our world. Do not stop until every inch of every heart is cheerfully submitted to Your will. Give us grace and grit to do what You have commanded us to do. Help us to fight the good fight and to enjoy the good peace. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and we offer up the words of the prayer He taught us to pray singing…
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