1, September 2002
Dakota Community Church
Resolving Conflict
Introduction:
Galatians 2:11-21
11When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
15"We who are Jews by birth and not ’Gentile sinners’ 16know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
17"If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"
Two men who lived in a small village got into a terrible dispute that they could not resolve. So they decided to talk to the town sage. The first man went to the sage’s home and told his version of what happened. When he finished, the sage said, "You’re absolutely right." The next night, the second man called on the sage and told his side of the story. The sage responded, "You’re absolutely right." Afterward, the sage’s wife scolded her husband. "Those men told you two different stories and you told them they were absolutely right. That’s impossible—they can’t both be absolutely right." The sage turned to his wife and said, "You’re absolutely right."
Some people really like to avoid a conflict. I should know because I’m one of them.
Avoiding confrontation is often a recipe for even greater conflict and pain.
First the source of conflict, then the solution:
1. The source of conflict.
(A.) Fear
12Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group
Fear was the key to Peter’s downfall, but fear of what?
Of being thought less of, of losing influence? Clearly not fear of God, but fear of men.
Fear of what others might think is so often at the heart of conflict.
2 Timothy 1:6-7
6Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
(B.) Hypocrisy
13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
Francois Fenelon was the court preacher for King Louis XIV of France in the 17th century. One Sunday when the king and his attendants arrived at the chapel for the regular service, no one else was there but the preacher. King Louis demanded, "What does this mean?" Fenelon replied, "I had published that you would not come to church today, in order that your Majesty might see who serves God in truth and who flatters the king."
Peter was not pretending to serve God for the sake of others but he was pretending that He didn’t associate with the non-law-keeping gentile believers when the law-observant Jews came to visit. Imagine the impact of this behavior on these believers.
What genuinely makes this hypocrisy is the fact that Peter was clearly acting in a way contrary to the belief that he held.
It wasn’t that he was siding theologically with the Judaizers; he simply didn’t want them to think less of him.
Mark 7:6
6He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
" ’these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me
(C.) Legalism
You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
One young man asked, "I am in earnest about forsaking ’the world’ and following Christ. But I am puzzled about worldly things. What is it I must forsake?” "Colored clothes, for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don’t eat any more white bread. You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths or shave your beard. To shave is to lie against Him who created us, to attempt to improve on His Work."
Does this answer sound absurd? It is the answer given in the most celebrated Christian schools of the second century!
Is it possible that the rules that have been adopted by many twentieth-century; Christians will sound as absurd to future believers?"
Consider the story of Hans the tailor. Because of his reputation, an influential entrepreneur visiting the city ordered a tailor-made suit. But when he came to pick up his suit, the customer found that one sleeve twisted that way and the other this way; one shoulder bulged out and the caved in. He pulled and managed to make his body fit. As he returned home on the bus, another passenger noticed his odd appearance and asked if Hans the tailor had the suit. Receiving an affirmative reply, the man remarked, "Amazing! I knew that Hans was a good tailor, but I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly someone as deformed as you."
"Often that is just what we do in the church. We get some idea of what the Christian faith should look like: then we push and shove people in to the most grotesque configurations until they fit wonderfully! That is death. It is a wooden legalism which destroys the soul."
Our demand that others satisfy us is so often the source of conflict
We are so certain that we are the defenders of truth, justice and the Christian way, when in reality we are doing no better than those who demanded that any real Christian should only bathe in cold water.
Galatians 5:1-4
1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
2. Solution to conflict.
(A.) Confrontation
11When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
Many of us fear confrontation, but without it wounds fester.
Make sure you’re not the one arguing for the law against grace.
Proverbs 27:5-6
5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
(B.) Truth
15"We who are Jews by birth and not ’Gentile sinners’ 16know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
Paul deals with the problem by reminding Peter of the Truth He already knows.
Before you jump into confrontation, study to know the truth, study to understand the truth and not just to construct a good argument from Scripture.
Scripture is sharp as a two edged sword, but some who use the knife are surgeons and others are butchers.
(C.) Reconciliation
2 Peter 3: 15-16
"Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."
At the end of his life Peter looks to Paul not as a rival but as a dear brother and he acknowledges Paul’s apostleship and the fact that Paul’s letters are in fact Holy Scripture. Confrontation with the truth, in a spirit of humility and prayer and love does not divide, it unites.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As we come together to the Lord’s Table today I’d like to share a different Passage than I normally do, one, which emphasizes the unity that the Lord’s Supper represents.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
