Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath: but harsh words stir up anger.
People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.
How often, in all the issues we have to deal with talking with people, we know or we feel we are right; our idea, our position, our interpretation is it, and we’re ready to fight for it. Forget the fact that we may not be, or that there might be something we’re completely ignorant of. The truth is that sometimes we know better, and sometimes we don’t.
But the scripture teaches us, and I’ve learned from experience (most of the time), that arguing, forcefulness, and violence in my own voice are almost guaranteed to start a futile and ugly war of words. People are naturally defensive, and often, naturally offensive. But I can be the one to break the pattern…with a gentle answer.
If my heart attitude is “Come, let us reason together, hear each other out, respect each other, speak softly, and trust the Lord for the outcome”, and my tone of voice carries that spirit, I can actually help the other person to calm down and prevent a war. The fruit of the spirit is….. self-control. What a blessing! Do you want to start a fight…..or finish one? Give a gentle answer today and see what the Lord does!
When Jesus through out the people in front of the temple, did he ask them to come together and reason together? NO! HE fiercely through them out! We must be able to be forceful, especially Christian Men. Recently a lot of Christian men have lost their backbone, something that Christ requires. Do not be afraid to scream out “PIT OF VIPERS!”
In response to the first man’s response:
I believe that you are confusing the differences in settings. I believe that the author is talking about differences in opinion between believers not matters of doctrine. Jesus was driving them out of the temple for turning the house of God into a market place. The other thing that we have to remember is that Jesus is perfect – sinless, and we are not. But I do believe that if we see other believers teaching or doing things that go against the teachings of scripture than we should make a stand for correct doctrine, but not for differences of opinion or idea.
The fear of getting behind the wheel is an incidious condition – practically self-feeding. What I mean is that avoidance of getting gives the sufferer a sense of basic safety, a really good experience, if you will, which reinforces the phobia. Not to mention, the most significant outcome is quite often seclusion from signficant connections – face the facts, we live in an urban sprawl modern society and it usually takes some type of transportation to in physical form connect. Fortunately, there are therapies that can help individuals get out. Thanks very much for taking time to write you blog as this is a very important topic!