Camouflaged disagreements are lethal!
LETHAL…fatal, deadly, capable of causing death (to anything)
CAMOUFLAGED…disguised, cloaked, masked
DISagreements…disPUTEs, dissention,arguements, strife, vendettas.
During the month of February, we began our Kingdom Sweet Spot series-Optimum Balance-Optimum Benefits—where life will be most effective and beneficial.
We are in 2 Tim 2:22-26, discussing how God’s people can recover out of any snare of the devil.
Snares are the allurements to evil by which the devil ensnares people. They are traps set by the enemy.
Kingdom Ambassadors!…you do have enemies! God’s word says that the righteous are bold as a lion!~! Now that may infuriate some people who want to believe that you are unkind when correcting messy situations!
RUN from anyone that always focus on unhealthy processes and applications. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.
Don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights.
A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth; that perhaps God will change their heart, and they will learn the truth.
Then and only them, they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.
As we completed our first session, almost immediately, I was confronted with a very vivid example of such a situation, just a day later.
The situation challenged the validity of what the Bible says about the avoiding foolish and ignorant questions that individuals direct towards you, as an attempt to make erroneous arguments against your Kingdom walk.
Paul admonishes Timothy to avoid foolish and unlearned questions that gender strife and divisions.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strife.
God word says that there are such things as “foolish" (ignorant), and "unlearned" (trifling), questions that are not liable to edify, even if you don’t think so!
An ignorant question is one that arises from a misunderstanding, and become a source of strife, if engaged in.
God's word further states what we’re to do if we are faced with such “foolish and unlearned questions.”
We are to avoid…refuse…and…reject them!
Questions are a great way to learn and glean from others, and are also good in the context of teaching, but questions that are shallow, pointless—camouflaged as sincere ones, are only designed to gender strife! Their underlying purpose is to be contentious! So Paul’s point is clear – there are some questions that are simply to be avoided; and will take spiritual discernment to recognize! NO one, calling themselves Kingdom ambassadors…is to be a sniper in Satan’s hands, against another believer!
"Don't have anything to do with foolish babble and stupid arguments, because you know they will only produce quarrels."
Paul condemned all ‘irreverent babble’ that does nothing except set Christians against each other for no good reason! It is a form of spiritual gangrene—dead spiritual baggage, which are:
the lies we’ve believed our whole lives
the sinful coping mechanisms we developed before we met Jesus and;
the erroneous thought patterns that are ingrained in our mind, soul and spirit! Until we allow the word to remove them, they can still affect us in seriously detrimental ways and will spread just like physical gangrene!
Our choices are to always avoiding pointless bickering and hold to sound biblical teachings.
Some people have read the passage of scripture in 2 Timothy as though it said, "Never get involved with any kind of controversy. Don't ever take up sides or press any issue to the point that it creates argument-stay away from it."
But that is not what it says at all. In fact, if you read it that way, it often results in what many churches do today, which is to take issues that need to be addressed, and sweep them under the rug. They cover them over and pretend they do not exist; they try to maintain a façade of outward peace, while division and dissent smolder and burn underneath until it explodes!
But what the Paul is saying to Timothy, his protégé, is that there are certain kinds of controversies he must never get involved in. He admonishes Timothy to “have nothing to do with these stupid and ignorant controversies and matters!
The word that is translated "stupid" here is the word moros, from which we get our word, moron.
Paul is talking about moronic controversies, foolish, trivial matters which, do nothing for you; nor do they advance the Christian cause, in the least.
Therefore, it does not necessarily mean that you cannot respond to the person; but at some point you are going to have to say…
“I am sorry. I cannot keep this conversation going with you because you are not reflecting what the Bible says for us to do--to avoid strife.
and then—you just move on...
God's ministers are to be sharp teachers, skillfully dealing with the facts involved, not with feelings, not with fantasies, but with the truth of the word of God. It is so easy for an argument to slide off the truth of the Word and onto feelings, experiences, and reactions to things. We have to call people back to truth--God's truth.
We must exercise forbear! This means you and I must keep our cool, not be ruffled, and not respond in the same way people are handing us. That is not easy to do. Usually, when somebody attacks us, we want to attack back.
But that is not what a servant of the Lord is to do. We are to recognize that when we are reviled, we do not revile in return:
“who, when He (Jesus), was reviled, He did not revile in return; but he trusted to him who judges justly."
We must correct with thoughtful regard, not letting yourself get involved and taking things personally. We're to instruct "those who oppose themselves"--those who stand in their own way, become their own worst enemy, and create their own problems.
If you, as an Ambassador of the Kingdom, are dealing with this snare, it requires what Paul calls, correction—"instructing those who oppose themselves." (ie…training them and showing them a more meaningful way of interacting with each other).
"That God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, and that they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
The devil's traps are always designed to destroy, to wreck, to ruin, to hurt, to harm, to leave people as empty shells, full of meaningless actions that go nowhere; to take away their joy, peace, love and delight. JESUS is the one who brings peace, who breaks down middle walls of partition that separate people.
We absolutely cannot spend our time in impertinent discourses, or idle, fruitless questions, unprofitable speculations and false niceties, which tend not to edify, but to increase strife and ungodliness.
For there exist no solid wisdom in either of these, and are not characteristic of the word of God, nor useful or edifying; and should be avoided publicly and privately.
Prayer
Lord, teach us to walk according to the truth of your book of reality-the Word, that shows us life the way it really is, and enables us to see through the deceitful snares of the devil, these alluring circumstances that seem to offer so much and deliver so little. Lord, forgive us and strengthen us to walk by faith, by the Spirit, in the love and grace that you provide.
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen