Why Do Christians Fight?

A Sermon by Brent J. Eelman

September 28, 2003

Abington Presbyterian Church

I Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic

powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as

for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was

a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like

a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully

known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.*

The study of church history is the study of conflict and fighting. The truth is, we Christians, who claim to follow the Prince of Peace, are pretty pugnacious people when it comes to matters of faith. We fight with one another. For two thousand years we have argued and fought over the nature of God, the meaning of the sacrament, who may minister, the gifts of women, and so many other things. In local congregations we argue and fight over any number of issues from the use of the endowment fund to the location of the Christmas tree. Go to any church meeting, be it a presbytery or a General Assembly and you will have a chance to see fireworks. Good Christians, impassioned

about an issue, engaging in verbal combat with one another. To those who are not Christian it is a disconcerting process to observe. Ironically the only time the media takes notice of us is when we are at each other’s throats in a heated controversy. Witness the Episcopalians this summer. It is no wonder that a host of accusations are thrown at us. Christians are often regarded as hypocrites; not practicing what we preach. At time we try and deal with it humorously

and say that “the true test of Christian Faith is to serve on a Christian committee.”

The question is not, “Do Christians fight with each other?” We do. The question is why? Why is our history one of continued conflict between different groups, all claiming to follow the Prince of Peace? Today I want to talk about fighting amongst and between Christians. What I want to share with you is real at all levels: between individuals, in local congregations and in world Christian bodies. We

may deny it, but all of us are familiar with it. I would like to look

at this reality through the lens of Paul’s well known chapter 13 in his First Letter to the church at Corinth. First, I will examine the situation that existed there, then looking at Paul’s analysis of Christian conflict. Last I want to examine his suggestion on how to deal with conflict and fighting amongst Christians.

I

There is this romantic view of Christianity that looks to the first century church and states: “We should be more like them.” In so many ways there are commendable things that we can learn from the early church. They were people who were willing to die and martyr for their

faith. The passion that they had for Christ was powerful. But often these nostalgic views believe that the early Christian church was without conflict and that every one got along wonderfully. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A case in point is the church in first century Corinth. There were probably 150 to 200 christians in the city of Corinth. This was one of the first congregations that Paul started. Corinth was a proud city, at the center of commerce and intellectual achievement. The people were reasonably sophisticated and not strangers to intellectual argument.

Shortly after the church began it divided into three groups. The first were the Libertines who had a radical view of Christian freedom,

believing that the believer could do anything because of the grace of God. There were the Ascetics who developed a very rigid view of Christian discipline, almost the direct opposite of the libertines. There was a third group who were the Ecstatics. They believed that Christian faith should be manifest in joy and celebration, but their celebrations were a bit over the edge. Those are the three groups that we know about, but there was probably a fourth group. These were

the people who were not part of any of the three groups in the conflict. They were there at the church to grow spiritually, to practice their faith and to worship God. They were not fighters, and my guess is that they represented the majority. (This is the group that is often hurt the most in conflict and fighting.)

The occasion for Paul’s letter to that faith community was one of those classic church fights. It was a knock down drag-em-out conflict

that threatened to destroy that congregation. Most of us love the words of the letter to the church at Corinth. We love Paul’s description of love and it is read at most of the weddings that we perform. But we should not be sentimental about it. This letter was written to a group a battling parishioners who were in a “take no prisoners” mode. Who do you think was right?

II

The answer to that question gives an insight into why Christians fight

with one another. When we look at that letter, Paul affirmed that all

three were right, to an extent. Like the Libertines, Paul was a proponent of Christian freedom. Like the Ascetics, He also was one who believed that Christian faith should manifest itself in moral behavior. Like the Ecstatics, he was also one who believed that Christian faith is not joyless, but has its ecstatic moments. He, himself, experienced the ecstatic moments of faith. All three groups were right… But they were equally wrong!

The key is the last section of this chapter when he stated: “Now we see in a mirror dimly.” We are familiar with mirrors and their ability to reflect an image. The mirrors that we have today are made of glass and chrome render a reasonably clear reflection. The mirrors that Paul knew were made of brass that was highly polished. In spite of the polished finish, the mirror did not give a clear image. Details were obscured and the total image was often distorted. This was the mirror that Paul had in mind when he wrote those words: “Now we see in

a mirror dimly.”

He was stating unequivocally that our perspective, our understanding, our experience is neither perfect nor complete., Rather it is fuzzy and often distorted as the image in a brass mirror. To the Christians

battling it out in Corinth, he was saying “You are all correct, but none of you has the complete picture. The reason you are fighting is because you believe you do.”

In my family of origin, we have a joke that our motto is “I’m right, you’re wrong.” Christians fight and have fought through the centuries

believing that they were right and that everyone else was wrong. Christians fight when we believe that we, each and all, need to see and experience God in the same way. The truth is, we do not walk the same paths in life. the truth is that none of us has the same experience of God. Some have found God in an ecstatic moment, others in the silence of contemplation, still others in following a discipline of spirituality. I am coming to believe that in most church conflicts, one can find truth in both sides. But one also finds a degree of arrogance that asserts that my experience of God, my

experience of Christ is the right one. “I’m right, you’re wrong.”

III

It is only from this perspective that the admonition to love makes sense. Paul advocates an ethic of love for Christian behavior. Why? Because none of us has the monopoly on the truth. All of us have a limited experience. All of us ultimately see in that mirror dimly, and when we act as though we have the ultimate final clear picture of things. that is when the conflict begins.

Paul’s command to love included a host of virtues: patience, kindness, endurance, hope and belief. These are the virtues that should characterize our behavior with each other. Christians will disagree. These disagreements can lead to conflict and fighting, and that is why

we need to be patient with each other, but not only each other, with ourselves. Kindness and civility should the characteristics of our discourse.

But there are behaviors we need to avoid. Arrogance is one. This is the attitude that no one can be right but me, (we clergy are afflicted

at times with this.) Paul lists other behaviors to avoid, but the one

that jumps at me is “irritable”. We all have “hot buttons.” We all have those things, those issues that set us off. I am convinced that each of us has some chip on our shoulder, and woe be to the one who knocks it off. Irritable Christians produce a very boring and bland faith. It produces a defensive faith. I wonder how many preachers back down from preaching the prophetic word that they are called to preach because they fear that someone will be offended. They fear that they may press someone’s hot button. A loving Christian is not an irritable person.

I truly believe that Paul’s message has urgency for our time. Christians fight, but so does the rest of the world. We fight and we disagree about so many things and we curse one another and kill each other, appealing to truth and justice. I truly believe that the church needs to be a model for the rest of the world. We need to witness to the behavior that God intends for all creation. We are called to show the rest of the world that we can disagree without fighting and conflict.. But if we are to do this we will have to acknowledge with humility that we each and all see in a mirror dimly..

And we will have to commit ourselves, each and all to love.. This is the good news. Amen.

*The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

(USED BY PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR:

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