Nip It in the Bud!

Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out. (Proverbs 7:14)

Starting a quarrel is easy... stopping one once it has begun is another matter. Disputes and debates can take on a life of their own once the match is lit. Solomon says that the best way to stop a quarrel is to not to have one in the first place. To use the words of that great theologian Barney Fife, "You've got to nip it in the bud!" But sometimes the bud refuses to be nipped. What do we do when the dam breaks and the flood of dispute begins its path of destruction? One thing we do is to remind ourselves that disputes, disharmony and wrangling over differences is outside the will of God. To love to quarrel is to love sin.

Gene Shelburne conducted a seminar for us a couple of years ago based on his excellent little book The Quest for Unity. To borrow a line from Jim McQuiggen, “Every Christian ought to be forced to read this book... if they want to!” One chapter describes the price Gene’s father paid because he dared to seek unity with brothers and sisters who many had dismissed as heretics. Powerful men made it their mission to discredit him. Lies were spread, churches were bullied into breaking all ties with him, and colleagues distanced themselves from him. His sin was to preach that Jesus intended for us to take his call to unity seriously. Shelburne points to an ugly truth—

Have you noticed that just about any great reconciler you can name in any era of the Christian faith has been heckled and hounded and harassed by the very people he is trying to unite? People who stand up for unity always seem to draw fire. Usually from their own people. They get “fragged” by their own troops, to borrow an ugly metaphor from Vietnam. (The Quest for Unity, page 54)

Gene goes on to suggest that the best example of this truth is Paul. We recognize Paul as the most influential missionary that Christianity has known, but to many church leaders of his own day, Paul was seen as a dangerous false apostle. Some of his most damaging opposition wasn’t from the Jews or the Romans; it was from other Christians who opposed him. Why? Paul dared to preach unity between the Jewish and Gentile church. Unity is something that almost everyone says is important, but unity always becomes a very messy business when it comes down to the sacrifice, compromise and selflessness that is required for real unity to take place. As Shelburne points out and Paul models, it is easier for us to shoot the messenger than to take unity seriously.