So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:22-26 Doesn't it seem like everyone is always arguing all the time? Perhaps that's because on Social Media everyone talks, holds up a proverbial megaphone, and does not really listen to what another is saying. Or, at the same time, it's because all we see on the news and television from political pundits is shouting, arguing, and nay saying. If I was to get my world view from social or news media, I'd think people were unhappy all the time! What is my point in all of this? Endless arguments and one-upmanship do no one any favors. As a matter of fact, we often end up more rattled and worked up on the other end of an argument than when we began it! Jesus said "you'll know a tree by its fruits," and at times, I wonder how many Christians are producing sour fruit by how they talk and act. Where is our joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control? The Holy Spirit wants to produce it in us, but we allow others to steal these things from us. What is the solution, then? Perhaps we should be more concerned with the state of someone's soul than with the fact that we are right. Perhaps we should care more about someone's eternity than being right in the moment we're currently in. We could have all of the right answers, and yet be so wrong hearted that it drives people away from the Christ we proclaim. Paul said " If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
(1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
So consider loving someone enough to not have to be right, but to love them in gentleness, that if you must correct, you're doing so for the sake of their eternity with Christ as opposed to being on the right side of an argument. We will have endless controversies and arguments as long as we exist on this earth. It is in our nature to stir up trouble. This is why we need to walk from the Natural-fleshly man in to becoming the Spirit Filled Christ-like man, dying to ourselves that we may win hearts, souls, and minds to Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
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