Nip It in The Bud — A LifeWords Devotion

Imperfect human beings inevitably get into occasional conflict with other imperfect human beings. This can be bad enough, but we can make it much worse if we don’t resolve an unresolved conflict. Old feuds might haunt us. We can spend much time chewing the cud of old resentments and thus darkening our days.

Jesus tells us to nip this sort of thing in the bud. Don’t try to push unresolved conflict into the background by pious acts of worship. Our relationship with God himself can be clouded by our wrongful relationships with others. We need not take Jesus literally here: it is more a case of reminding ourselves to sort out human relationships as soon as we can, and not assume good works towards God will somehow make those other things go away.

Jesus also uses another analogy to remind us that dealing with a fractured relationship quickly may mean avoidance of a lot more pain and expense. Even our own civil judges recommend some sort of personal approach to healing and mediation rather than undergoing the pain and expense of law courts!

Just as ignoring a medical condition can have it become more serious, ignoring a fractured relationship can make a bad thing worse. Of course, our efforts at reconciliation may not bear fruit. After all, not even God himself can be at peace with everyone. But we make the effort. Our human relationships affect our relationship with God. We can’t avoid relational troubles, but we can avoid having them fester.

Blessings

David