NEWS

The Art of Taking Responsibility

Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3) When conflict enters our relationships, we can be tempted to blame everyone and everything else. The sins of others seem perfectly clear to us—the tone of their voices, the errors in their logic, their selfishness and faulty memory—and their offenses stand out....

The Causes of Conflict

“Stop contention before a quarrel starts.” (Proverbs 17:14) The best way to treat divisions is to avoid them. So to maintain peace we must identify and guard against the external and internal causes of conflict. The chief external threat to unity is God’s chief enemy, Satan. “He seeks to keep his own kingdom free from divisions but seeks nothing more than to cause divisions in the...

Humility

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5–7) Pride is the main source of conflict, which makes humility essential for unity. Only humility...

Called to Something Better

You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? (1 Corinthians 3:3, NLT) Followers of Jesus Christ are not to live like people of the world. We are not to live in envy, strife, and division. These vices belong to worldly people, not to those...

Pursue Peace

Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. (Romans 14:19) Peace doesn’t happen by accident. We must pursue the things that make for peace. Human beings naturally quarrel and manipulate to get what they want. However, it takes effort to resist our impulses, rest in the gospel of peace, and pursue the things that produce...