Pastor’s Corner: “Escalation”
2 Timothy 1:7 (AMP) – 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].
When our world rejects God’s authority, our sinful nature is left unrestrained which results in an escalation of evil, wickedness, chaos and conflict. Dostoievsky, the Russian philosopher, wrote, “If there is no God, then anything goes.” That’s why God gave the Old Testament law – to restrain the sin nature. That’s why He established parental and governmental authority -otherwise there would soon be total chaos just as there was in the days of Noah when, “the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence” (Gen. 6:11).
The Bible warns that as we near the end evil will worsen. Jesus said in the last days, Because of the increase of wickedness, “the love of most will grow cold.” (Matt. 24:12) He said “as it was in the days of Noah so it will be in at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Mat. 24:37)
The question is not whether conflicts will come, but how we will handle them. We should expect it. The world is complicated and fallen, and we are complicated creatures, and fallen. Conflicts will come. They are unavoidable. Most people spend a lot of time and energy attempting to evade conflict and chaos at all costs. We can pretend they do not exist and hide our heads in the sand. But as Christians, when conflicts do arise, we don’t run from them. We don’t neglect to address them head-on. We can’t afford not to. (2 Timothy 1:7)
Avoiding or hiding from conflict is such a problem precisely because it worsens with negligence. It doesn’t just go away. But another reason is that it cuts us off from the most significant opportunities for grace. This is the way God does his deepest work in a world like ours. Not when things are peachy keen, not when all seems right with the world, not when times are easy. It’s the toughest times, the hardest conversations, the most painful relational tensions, when the light of his grace shines brightest, and transforms us most into his Son’s likeness.
God uses conflict in our lives. Nothing we experience surprises Him, nor does it go to waste. We can see how all those conflicts have made us kinder and more grace-giving. We no longer judge others for what had previously seemed like weakness in their lives. We have been brought to our knees more than once and no longer do we wrap pride around us like a banner of honor. Maybe the greatest benefit of all the conflicts is a greater dependency on God.
The highpoints of the history of God’s people are accounts not of fleeing conflict, but moving toward it in hope, believing God will be at work in the tension, pain, and mess. Such is the story of the prophets — Moses with the stubborn people he refused to give up on; Elijah at Carmel squaring off against Baal; the embattled Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel brought into increasing conflict, seemingly at every message, with a hard-hearted people they were commissioned to serve.
The Pattern of Christ. And of course, our most compelling example of not shying away from conflict, but turning to take it head-on, is the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2). The trajectory of Jesus’s life was toward need, and inevitably toward conflict, not away. He set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem, to the great conflict at Calvary, to rescue us from our greatest conflict, eternal separation from God because of the rebellion of our sin against him.
And so being saved by him, we Christians, “little christs,” learn increasingly to follow in his steps. We are empowered by his Spirit, to move toward conflict, toward need, toward pain, toward tension, looking past the imposing awkwardness and difficulty that lies before us to the promise of joy on the other side.
For the Christian, conflict is not something to avoid or ignore. It is an opportunity for the triumph of God’s Grace.
In His Grace,
Pastor Hamilton