CONFLICT-CHURCH

Few things are sapping the strength of the church of Jesus Christ more than the unreconciled state of so many believers. So many have matters deeply imbedded in their craws, like iron wedges forced between themselves and other Christians. They can’t walk together because they do not agree. When they should be marching side by side through this world taking men captive for Jesus Christ, they are acting instead like an army that has been routed and scattered and whose troops in their confusion have begun fighting among themselves. Nothing is sapping the church of Christ of her strength so much as these unresolved problems, these loose ends among believing Christians that have never been tied up. There is no excuse for this sad condition, for the Bible does not allow for loose ends. God wants no loose ends.

Jay E. Adams

Christian Living in the Home, P&R Publishing, 1972, p. 35-36, Used by Permission.

Sometimes when people leave the church it can be a good thing. Said another way, there are some people who advance the cause of peace and unity by their absence!

Stephen Anderson

Preparing to Build, AMI, 2006, p. 149.

The differences among Christians are nothing in comparison of the differences among heathens.

Richard Baxter

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 63

He that is not a son of Peace is not a son of God. All other sins destroy the Church consequentially; but Division and Separation demolish it directly.

Richard Baxter

There is nothing wrong with Christian disagreeing with one another or trying to persuade another of the rightness of a particular position. What is wrong, however, is loveless conflict that ends in hate and bitterness.

Alexander Strauch

Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 166, Used by Permission.

Most often, people who say that others have no love are themselves the ones most lacking. They think the new commandment says, “Love me or I’ll destroy you and your church.” They sit around waiting for other people to love them. How easy it is to see the speck of lovelessness in another’s eye but miss the log of self-centeredness, hypocrisy, and anger in your own eye (Matt. 7:3-5).

Alexander Strauch

Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 87-88, Used by Permission.

Behind most church fights and unresolved divisions is ugly human pride. And the worst kind of pride is religious pride, the Pharisaical pride of self-righteousness and superiority.

Alexander Strauch

Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 167, Used by Permission.

Many of us [in the church] are like porcupines trying to huddle together on a bitter cold night to keep each other warm, but we continually poke and hurt each other the closer we get.

Howard Hendricks

Quoted by Alexander Strauch, Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 169, Used by Permission.

Divisions in the church always breed atheism in the world.

Thomas Manton

I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided.

D.L. Moody

Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 140. Used by Permission.

The more fractured we are, the greater we become spectacles to the world. The more we are united in love, the more the world sees Christ.

Curtis C. Thomas

Practical Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 175. Used by Permission.

While controversy is not always a symptom of a weak or decayed Christianity, the present contentions have been within the church itself; and its holy unity has been rudely rent by trivial disputes. Must not unauthorized schism provoke His displeasure, quench His Spirit, and result in the withholding of the grace without which the church must wither and weaken and decay?

John MacNaughtan

The Necessity of the Revival of Religion, Revival Commentary, v. 1, n. 2, p. 9.

What the Lord laments and opposes, Satan applauds and fosters. Few things demoralize, discourage, and weaken a church as much as bickering, backbiting and fighting among its members… Because of quarrelling the Father is dishonored, the Son is disgraced, His people are demoralized and discredited, and the world is turned off and confirmed in unbelief. Fractured fellowship robs Christians of joy and effectiveness, robs God of glory, and robs the world of the true testimony of the gospel. A high price for an ego trip!

John MacArthur

1 Corinthians, Moody, 1984, p. 24.

The idea that the unity of the church found expression in some kind of external organization or ecclesiastical structure finds no support in the New Testament. Furthermore, the idea of denominations would be abhorrent to [the Apostle] Paul. The nearest thing to denominations was the sects in Corinth that Paul heartily condemned (1 Cor. 1:12ff).

George Eldon Ladd

A Theology of the New Testament, Eerdmans, 1993, p. 577.

Discord and division become no Christian. For wolves to worry the lambs is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and monstrous.

Thomas Brooks

Farewell Sermon at the Great Ejection.

O love! How much want is there of you in the Church of Christ! And how much does the Church feel for this want! It groans, it languishes, it dies daily because of your absence. Return, O love, return! Repair breaches, restore paths to dwell in, edify the old ways and places, and raise up the foundations of many generations.

Nathaniel Vincent

A Discourse Concerning Love, 1684.

What! At peace with the Father, and at war with His Children? It cannot be.

John Flavel

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 80.

Few things are as dishonoring to the cause of Christ as Christians quarreling among themselves. Yet we expel people from our fellowship for adultery, while we tolerate discord between ourselves and other believers. We have failed to understand and obey the biblical imperative to “make every effort to do what leads to peace.”

Jerry Bridges

Not to be in fellowship with those who are born again is to be guilty of schism, which is sinful.

D.M. Lloyd-Jones

What is an Evangelical? The Banner of Truth Trust, 1992, p. 90.

When divisions are rife in religion, it is bound to happen that what is in men's minds will soon erupt in real conflict. For while nothing is more effective for joining us together, and there is nothing which does more to unite our minds, and keep them peaceful, than agreement in religion, yet if disagreement has somehow arisen in connection with it, the inevitable result is that men are quickly stirred up to engage in fighting, and there is no other field with fiercer disputes

John Calvin

1 Corinthians, p. 26-27.

Those who disrupt form the body of Christ and split its unity into schisms are quite excluded from the hope of salvation, so long as they remain in dissidence of this kind.

John Calvin

Why is it that you harbor strife, bad temper, dissention, schism, and quarreling? Do we not have one God, one Christ, one Spirit of grace which was poured out on us?... Your schism has led many astray; it has made many despair; it has made many doubt; and it has distressed us all. Yet it goes on!... It is disgraceful, exceedingly disgraceful, and unworthy of your Christian upbringing, to have it reported that because of one or two individuals the solid and ancient Corinthian church is in revolt against its presbyters… The result is that the Lord's name is being blasphemed because of your stupidity, and you are exposing yourselves to danger.

Clement

Clement's First Letter, 46-47.