Let's Go Back to the Bible

“If you weren’t my brother, I’d…”

One would think, if they didn’t know any better, that brothers and sisters would get along better than most people.  Unfortunately, that is not always the case.  There is a reason that the phrase “sibling rivalry” exists—siblings are known for their rivalries.

One would think, if they didn’t know any better, that brothers and sisters in Christ would get along better than most people.  And, for the most part (I fully believe this to be true), brothers and sisters in Christ do a good job in their treatment of each other.  However and unfortunately, that is not always the case.  “Sibling rivalry” takes on a whole new meaning when we’re talking about siblings in the family of God.

In the New Testament, we have both negative and positive examples of Christians relationships.  There was some kind of trouble between Euodia and Syntyche in Philippi (Phil. 4:2).  There was apparently a tendency to look down on young Christians (1 Tim. 4:12).  Even Barnabas and Paul had a “contention…so sharp that they parted from one another” (Acts 15:39).  Diotrophes loved “to have the preeminence” and would not “receive the brethren” (3 John 9-11).  If it could happen in the early church, we must be ever vigilant to “take heed to ourselves” that our hearts are right.

How do we do that?  How do we maintain peaceful, Christ-like relationships, especially with those who challenge our patience and tolerance levels?

It starts with how we think. “For I say…to everyone… not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” (Rom. 12:3).  In Philippians, Paul told the whole church to do all things “in lowliness of mind” (2:3) and for the sisters at odds to “be of the same mind in the Lord” (4:2).

It pivots on how we react.Bless those who persecute you…Repay no one evil for evil” (Rom. 12:14, 17).  “If one member suffers [don’t laugh!], all the members suffer with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).  Our Great Example, Whose steps we must follow, “when He was reviled, did not revile in return” (1 Pet. 2:23).

It teeters on how we speak. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:1).  “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt…” (Col. 4:6).  “A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger” (Prov. 15:1).

Brethren, let us not “bite and devour” one another (Gal. 5:15).  Rather, “let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another” (Rom. 14:19).  May the family of God enjoy the peace of God!