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LIFE Bite is a short-format Christian video podcast where Chet Lowe and guests dive into real-life issues with biblical truthβone bite at a time.
Each episode delivers practical wisdom, spiritual insight, and honest conversations to help you grow in faith and live with purpose.
Just recently I read a history on the
Church.
It was over a thousand pages, and the
one thing that I've noticed in regards to
Church history, and all throughout the course of
these thousand pages, was conflict.
Church splits, and you had the Eastern Church,
and the Western Church, and you had Istanbul,
and you had Rome, and it seems just
in the context of Church, there has been
a lot of division due to conflict, and
I just don't know if we understand what
a good fight is, what good conflict is,
because conflict is going to come.
It's coming in the Church, and it's caused
a lot of division.
Now, I find it amazing that Jesus prayed
that we would be one, and there's over
40,000 different denominations in the Church, and
we have so many different disagreements.
In fact, I know a Church that divided
over whether or not Adam had a belly
button or not, and so understanding that there
is going to be conflict, we've got to
learn how to conflict well.
But most importantly, we've got to know how
to have conflict, not just within the Church,
but with our faith.
We're encouraged that we should know how to
give an answer in 1 Peter, and knowing
how to give an answer is not just
information, it's also knowing how to answer.
Jude, he tells us in Jude chapter 1
verse 3, well, there's only one chapter in
Jude, that he was going to write them
about the gospel, but he said, listen, I
think there's something else that I need to
instruct you on, and what he said was,
I need to talk to you about how
to contend for the faith.
In other words, there's going to be opposition,
and during his day, the opposition were the
Gnostics.
During his day, the opposition were the Jews,
who thought that you had to be circumcised
in order to be saved, and so I'm
thankful for some of the contention that happened
in the Church, because it developed theology, and
we see this kind of development in theology
with the Nicene Creed, and developed the Apostles'
Creed.
We see this kind of gathering of the
Church doing these kinds of conflict and doing
them well, but we also see that there
are some times in Church history where conflict
was not done well, and so what I
want to do is, I want to talk
about what the Bible says in regards, in
2 Timothy chapter 2, warns us against foolish
conflict or foolish arguments.
Well, the foolish argument, it's about genealogies, and
he goes on in 1 Timothy to describe
people that just love to pick a fight.
You're never going to solve the issue.
It's kind of like entering into a debate
with someone who's a hardcore Calvinist or a
hardcore Arminianist.
They're just going to believe what they're going
to believe.
They've been fighting about this for hundreds of
years.
There's no sense to engage in that argument,
especially when someone's just staunch on their right
and your wrong, and so I avoid those
kinds of controversies and those kinds of conflict.
I have a conviction in regards to what
I believe, but I don't feel like I
need to convince anyone else in regard to
some of those conflicts that have just not
been resolved in the church.
In fact, I heard it said it's amazing,
even amongst difference between Catholic and Protestant, and
how they'll just go at it, but the
truth is, we believe in the regimen of
our faith that Jesus Christ was born of
the Virgin Mary, and he suffered and died,
and he rose again the third day.
There's the context of faith.
Now, if a Protestant and a Catholic are
going at it, enter in a Muslim, I
guarantee the Protestant and Catholic are going to
come together, because now there's an issue between
their faith, the Christian faith, and the Islamic
faith, and so some of these arguments that
we engage in, they're just foolish.
They're not worthy of engaging in, but then
the Bible talks about the faithful.
Remember what Paul said in 2 Timothy, I
have fought the good fight.
Now, he is speaking about his life, and
in his life, he was contending for the
faith.
He was forming good theology, and forming the
way that we should live our lives, and
in the context of fighting his good fight,
he came against the Gnostics.
He came against the Pharisees.
He even withstood Peter to his face in
Galatians chapter 2, when Peter shows up to
Antioch, and he's only eating with those of
the circumcision, and that was the theology back
then, that you had to be circumcised in
order to be saved, and Paul stands up
and goes, Peter, you're wrong.
I don't care who you are.
You could be the, you're the apostle Peter,
but you're wrong in the way that you're
thinking, and it's important for us to be
able to fight the good fight.
Now, I'm not talking about a foolish fight.
I'm talking about a good fight, and that's
when we're choosing to stand up for our
faith, and standing up our faith, there's a
way to stand up for our faith, and
the way that we stand up for our
faith is that we're not bringing division with
our Christian brothers.
We're going to spend an eternity together, and
so when I, in fact, something that bothers
me more than anything is when I see
two pastors on Fox News or CNN, and
they're going at it in front of national
TV about their different doctrines or differences of
opinions, because all it does is say that
Christians are not showing the unity that we
should show.
The Bible says that we need to endeavor
to keep the unity.
Now, that doesn't mean that we compromise our
faith.
That means that we purpose to endeavor to
keep the unity.
Now, what is a good fight?
Let's conclude with this understanding.
A good fight is standing up before your
faith and doing it in such a way
that it honors God.
This means you're not getting red in the
face.
This means that you're not name calling, or
you're not doing a personal attack.
This means that you are purposing to stand
for the truth of the Word of God
in a way that honors God.
Let me tell you what Jesus told the
Pharisees.
He said, listen, you know the scriptures.
It's them that speak of me.
In other words, you've got the knowledge in
you, and you're fighting me, but you're not,
you have no idea who I am, and
so when you're standing up for the truth
of the Word, make sure you recognize it's
the Word that speaks of Jesus.
In other words, stand up in a way
that Jesus would stand up for the faith.
You need to be bold, you need to
be strong, and you need to be confident.
And let me tell you something, the world
is not afraid to stand for its doctrine.
They'll talk about anything, wherever they are, and
try to shut the Christian down.
You don't need to be a pushover.
You need to purpose to engage in the
conflict, standing for the truth of our faith
in a way that honors God, in a
way that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so church, let me tell you something,
not all conflict is bad.
Just don't let it become sinful by choosing
to honor God in the midst of that
conflict.
God bless you guys.
We'll see you next week.