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WHO BLEEDS WHEN CHRISTIANS FIGHT? #2
NO INNOCENT WEEDS
A prayer request came in to the Voice of Prophecy just the other day that was three poignant lines long. Three sentences. A mom, writing to share the pain in her life, says this:
“My son seems to delight in conflict. Always trying to get people upset.”
Well, you can immediately see why that jumped out at us, as we were working on this new radio series on quarrels and fights. And it’s true that very often we’re addicted to the noise of battle; we like it. We enjoy the gossip, the play and interplay of office politics. We feed on the bad news, and love to land a few haymakers. So we’re like this kid; we “delight in conflict.”
But yesterday, in sharing a wrenching anecdote where an entire church came to blows right in front of the Communion altar one Sunday morning, we hit “pause” on our DVD player, and said: “Just wait a second. Who WANTS this fight to happen? Who is enjoying this?” And of course, the answer is: Satan. When we fight, he’s in delight. When we experience fireworks in our marriage, he and his imps set off a few of their own — in celebration.
Maybe you remember a New Testament parable, found in Matthew 13, where a farmer and all his hired hands had a field that was nicely plowed and sowed with good seed. High-grade durum wheat. And then one morning the boss and all his help wake up, chug out there on their John Deeres, and lo and behold, there’s weeds coming up with the wheat. And I mean, bunches of weeds, not just a sprig here and there. There’s a whole Fangorn Forest of evil out there on the back forty, and the farm hands are up to their hips in the stuff.
And it’s very telling, the words Jesus puts in the mouth of this gentleman farmer. Five King James words:
“An enemy hath done this.”
Just like that. “An enemy hath done this.” These weeds didn’t come along by themselves. An enemy came along at midnight to put those weeds there.
And friend, it’s the same when you and I climb into the ring of combat. There’s an enemy who wants us in there. An enemy who wants us to receive and give body blows and black eyes. Every time we fight, we play right into his hands.
This isn’t to say that it’s always Lucifer’s fault, and that we can just go around saying, “The devil made me do it.” Or to blame all of the friction we cause in our families and workplaces on a so-called demon of attack e-mails. We’re responsible for our behavior, and we’re also responsible to resist the devil so that he’ll flee from us, as promised in James chapter four. But you and I can just know that if we don’t put up some fences, Satan absolutely is going to come in at midnight with a weed-planting machine.
Let’s go back to that letter from the mom. “My son seems to delight in conflict,” she writes. “He’s always trying to get people upset.” And you and I might instinctively think to ourselves, “Somebody should give him a good thumping.” Well, maybe so . . . but here’s the rest of the sad, cryptic note:
“He’s 11, has been sexually molested, in counseling for over two years.”
And we see right there a demonic power standing behind the curtain. Here’s a kid who seems to enjoy fighting. And why? Well, partly because Satan has set it up, sowed the seeds of combat.
There was a marvelous book that came out in my own denomination about ten years ago, entitled The Nature of Christ, by Dr. Roy Adams. Roy works as an editor at the official church paper for my denomination, and he’s a gifted, humble writer. Late in the book he grapples with real determination and wisdom with a theological debate that has stirred up the church for decades. It’s one of those perfectionism-based arguments that simply cannot be solved or resolved. And yet people on both sides have gone round and round for a very long time. “More heat than light,” as we sometimes say, and many, many column inches of space in the church paper have been used up on “Letters to the Editor.” And when all is said and done, Roy Adams quietly makes this observation:
“Clearly, the controversy that has consumed the church over this issue is completely unwarranted. We have wasted valuable time. And we have discouraged many.” Now notice this concluding line: “If the hand of the devil is not in this, then he is not alive.”
That’s quite an eye-opener, isn’t it? We invited all of you yesterday to join us in just stopping when we’re tempted to lace up our gloves and start punching. Can we see the shadow of the enemy just on the other side of the boxing ring? When our friends cheer our pugilistic exploits, can we hear the faint voice of Lucifer’s angels in there too, saying go! go! go!? Because he and his army celebrate. Whether we win or lose, his side wins every time. It’s like the Las Vegas hotels covering bets on the Super Bowl; they take their cut always, whether the Raiders win or Tampa Bay.
We’ve shared a favorite verse before which explains that it isn’t a sin in all cases to be angry. Temporarily, that is. There are abuses that should make us mad, and injustices that ought to create righteous indignation. But here’s what Paul writes to his combative friends in Ephesus:
“In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”
If there’s a scandal in the church, or where you work, it ought to make you angry. But please note that the devil IS standing in the shadows. He planted those seeds of dissension, and he and his fallen farm hands are eager to water and fertilize their poisonous crops.
In his bestselling book of many decades ago, The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis tried to imagine what one devil might say to another one. Are they happy when Christians get into arguments? Of course they are. They spend hours and days plotting ways to get it to happen. Even by chapter two, Lewis has the legendary Screwtape writing to his nephew, Wormwood, the junior devil who still has training wheels on his bike. Here’s how he advises his young protégé to work on the man walking into church.
“When he gets to his pew,” the older and wiser imp counsels, “and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbors. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like ‘the body of Christ’ and the actual faces in the next pew.”
Have you ever felt like your mind was almost haunted with that certain someone, that sparring partner? Do you mentally box with them in the shower and in your car on the way to work? Friend, those thoughts aren’t just growing in your mind like innocent weeds. Somebody put them there with purpose and malice aforethought.
What’s the answer, then? I know there aren’t any simple ones, but we can do two things. If the devil wants to plant seeds, let’s invite the other Farmer — I mean the One who moonlights as a Carpenter — to nurture HIS crops in our minds and hearts instead. Paul writes in First Corinthians 2:
“But we have the mind of Christ.”
And how do we get the mind of Christ? We get it by reading His book and singing His songs and conversing with Him in prayer and going to the House where He and His Father dwell. And when we’re there, we try to stay away from Wormwood’s temptation that we focus on the aggravating person two pews over. I can tell you this — speaking of fighting: If Jesus and Satan do battle, Jesus is always going to win. But we have to invite Him to be the planter and gladiator in our lives, and I don’t say that to be cute. Do we really FEED on Him and His thoughts? Do we set the alarm and actually get out of bed, get into the car, and go to the church where He will be preached?
And then let’s remember that we can either advance Lucifer’s kingdom by fighting or Christ’s eternal kingdom by being peacemakers. Friend, you and I actually can walk away from conflict. It IS possible. And every time we do so, every time we make a conscious decision — with Christ’s help — to turn the other cheek and bite back an angry word, we take a brick out of Satan’s castle, and we strengthen God’s government instead. As we said yesterday, we’re into something here that is much bigger than ourselves. As C. S. Lewis puts it, we’re in enemy-occupied territory. God and His ancient adversary are literally battling over every square inch. And every soft answer we give is wonderfully amplified into a shout of victory for the hosts of heaven.
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