Christians At War With Each Other!

If the fiercest, the bloodiest, the costliest wars have begun with one man’s festered heart and if the longest wars have begun with a single battle, how can we behave in a manner that causes conflict and tribulation? There is some thing individual here; James is not indulging in idle theory or speculation. We have a general and individual application here. However, notice a third factor – that it’s something -

SHAMEFUL - “From whence come wars and fightings among YOU?” You see, James was writing to Christians, to those who claimed to have found what the Bible calls in Luke 1:79, “the way of peace...” - yet they were obviously fighting and squabbling and in a state of unrest. Surely, this is a shameful thing, for Christian people to tear themselves apart. However, that did happen from time to time in the early church.

We often make the mistake of thinking that the early church was a perfect model of Christian living. It wasn’t! They too argued and squabbled among themselves. Look at Philippians 4:2 “I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord...” These two Christians were obviously at loggerheads over something or other. In 1 Corinthians 1:11 Paul wrote, “it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.” Further on, in 1 Corinthians 6:1 he writes “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?” What an awful catalogue of contention! Is it not disgraceful to find Christians behaving like this? Nevertheless, before we condemn the Corinthians, let us examine ourselves! Are we without sin in this area? I once heard a story that illustrates our weaknesses at this point, and although it was given to a group of children, I believe it will be helpful for us grasp its meaning! There was once trouble in the carpenter’s workshop, and the tools were having a row. One of then said, “It’s the hammer’s fault. He is much too noisy. He must go”. “No” said the hammer, “I think the blame lies with the saw. He keeps going backwards and forwards all the time”. The saw protested violently. “I’m not to blame. I think it’s the plane’s fault. His work is so shallow. Why, he just skims the surface all the time”. The plane objected. “I think the real trouble lies with the screwdriver. He is always going round in circles”. “Rubbish” retorted the screwdriver; “the trouble really began with the ruler because he is always measuring other people by his own standards”. “No way”, the ruler replied, “I think our real problem is the sandpaper. He is always rubbing up people the wrong way”. “Why pick on me?” said the sandpaper, “I think you ought to blame the drill, he is so boring”. Just as the drill was about to protest, the carpenter came in, took off his jacket, put on his overalls and began to work. He was building a pulpit and by the time he had finished, he had used every one of those tools to fashion something from which the gospel was eventually preached to thousands of people. That is just a fable, of course. However, do not miss the point it makes! The Lord can in His grace use imperfect instruments He has at His disposal. My friends, we all have a solemn responsibility to “Follow (or strive for) peace with all men.” (Hebrews 12:14), or, as the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:13 puts it, to “be at peace among yourselves.” So far, in this verse to James’s readers, we have been tracing the condition he diagnosed. Now we come to the second part of the verse -