How to solve Conflicts

Solving Conflicts

Dear friend,
Greetings to you in His name.

With a special regard to the ongoing war on terror let me share a word today about how to solve conflicts.

In the word of God we find that Jesus solved conflicts in one of three ways:

The first way Jesus managed to alleviate crises was by being mild, friendly, peaceful, forgiving and reconciling.

Jesus won friends by giving people the benefit of the doubt and by giving them a second chance if they fouled up.

Consider the adulteress in John 8: a woman had been caught in the act, in flagranti delicto. When the scribes and Pharisees came, dragging that hapless woman along, condemning her, he gave his classic reply: He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. (He could have thrown it. But he didn't.)

The crowd scattered, silently, and Jesus cemented his reputation as a peacemaker and reconciler by telling her he wouldn't condem her either: Go and sin no more.

He had just won another disciple in that bewildered woman.

Nobody liked old Zachaeus, the wee little man with the big ego.

Zack wanted to be rich more than anything. And fast! So he became a tax-collector. And he became loathed, since tax-collecting in Roman times lent itself to abuse.

The government commissioned certain individuals with collecting revenue and set a specific amount it expected to receive. All monies charged beyond the amount of duty remained in the possession of those publicans.

This is how they became rich.

And this is how Zachaeus became incredibly wealthy. He resorted to usury. And the people he abused hated him with a vengeance. In fact, they murmured loudly when the famous rabbi from Nazareth decided to visit him and spent the night at his house. (Luke 19, 1f.) But Mr. Z was a changed man after his encounter with the Lord. He who suffered well deserved rejection from all his contemporaries for his many abuses found that God was still willing to accept him. He mended his ways and became an ardent financial supporter of Jesus who had helped him find peace with God.

Jesus even forgave Peter after he betrayed him three times in one night. Peter had even cursed himself and swore he didn't know Jesus WITHIN EARSHOT of the Lord! When Jesus turned around and looked Peter in the eye that fateful night, Peter went out, weeping bitterly. (Mark 15, 6.)

Jesus was awe inspiring, yet non-threatening. He acquired a reputation of mildness and meekness which made him incredibly attractive. He buffed and burnished that reputation. He took special care of it and he didn't allow anybody to detract from it.

When John and James wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village once because they wouldn't lease any hotel rooms to them, Jesus turned around and reprimanded them sternly. (Luke 9, 52.)

Jesus gave us the command to conduct ourselves peacefully. He said: "If somebody strikes you on one cheek, turn the other." (Matthew 5, 38.) He didn't mean that literally, since he himself didn't do it either when he was smitten on the cheek before the High Priest. (John 18.) But we as christians are to be the ones pursuing peace, not the ones bent on the destruction of our foes (under normal circumstances).

The second way to solve conflicts is: If you can't live peacefully with your neighbor, leave him alone. Alleviate the crisis through spatial separation. (That means: you go away.)

Romans 12, 18 says: If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

But sometimes that is not possible. The sweetest can't live in peace if it doesn't please his evil neighbor. Jesus experienced that, too. When he preached in his native town of Nazareth the outcome was not as expected. The townspeople got whopping mad at him for claiming to be the messiah. They just couldn't see it in him. They got so mad that they tried to lynch him by throwing him over the cliff on which their town was situated.

How did Jesus react?

Did he over and over try to talk to the people? No. He just went away and never came back. (Mark 6, 7.) Instead he went and taught in the villages around Nazareth. (God was present in word and deed in the neighboring villages, but he spared Nazareth. Think of it.)

Jesus even told his apostles when he sent them out: If they won't receive you in a specific city, don't force yourself on them. Just shake the dust off and leave. (Matthew 10, 14.) Solve the conflict by going away.

In our recent crusades in India some of the bibleschool students who pass out the invitation flyers were coldly told to leave in certain villages. We aren't interested in christian healing meetings, the people said. So our students left. And the people stayed sick and sinful.

In Luke 13, 34 Jesus mourns Jerusalem, saying: ... the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, ... and you would not have it! Behold, your house is left to you; and I say to you, you will not see me until you say: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Jesus said: God will leave you alone until you accept the messenger he sends.
Solving crises by disappearing from the scene of the strife.

The third way to handle conflicts is by applying legal means. (Between nation states this can imply war.)

Ole Charles Bronson always settled his disputes by taking the law into his own hands. Christians shouldn't do that. God is decidedly against selfstyled or lynch-justice. He forbade the lynching of Cain, the murderer. No law had existed forbidding what Cain had done, even though murder was of course morally wrong, even without a laid down law. So Cain got away, a marked man. He lived the life of an outcast, ostracized by his contemporaries.

Romans 12, 9 says: Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God.

Romans 13, 4 says about the law of the land: For it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

God's wrath is administered primarily through the justice system. We as christians can get redress this way, should all other means fail.

To haul somebody to court should never ever be undertaken lightly. It should never happen just to settle some petty grievance. Paul even stresses that it is better to be taken advantage of than to drag another christian before the judges. (1 Corinthians 6.) But if need be, it can be done.

If the justice system is corrupt, as it was and is in communist lands and other dictatorships, then throw yourself wholly upon God as did Jesus. In the end God will prevail and the tormentors will be dealt a just sentence themselves. (1 Peter 2, 19.) At the latest when Jesus will come back.

In Revelation 19 we see Jesus making war.

This is a rare exception. Jesus is primarily the prince of peace. He is mild and meek. He'd rather bind up than blot out. But if he is confronted with unrepentant evil he is able to marshal awesome forces, paling the most destructive devices mankind has come up with. Jesus doesn't delight in making war, but he will on the day when he exacts revenge on his enemies. It is good to be on his side then.

Nations or states can become menaced by some unrepentant evil from time to time. In this case the nation should look into itself, repent and make amends for its shortcomings. Then the government needs to act decisively to eliminate the threat to its populace.

Look at the current crisis: we are confronted with a group of religious killers who don't value their own lives. They are ready to waste it and in their death take as many "infidels" (jews and christians) with them as they can. They pose a clear and present danger. What choice do we have than to kill them before they kill us? The blood of their future victims would be on our hands if we wouldn't try to eliminate them before they can carry out their lethal designs. We didn't ask for this war. And let's hope it will be over soon. But in the meantime let us pray for confusion in their ranks, for the implosion of their organisations and for the swift demise of their most notorious leaders.

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." Galatians 6, 7.

Wishing you God's best,
your friend,

Gert Hoinle, Pastor

Back