Choosing Our Battles — A LifeWords Devotion

The Christian church is often engaged in robust debate within itself. Some issues are truly significant, touching on the basis of our faith. Other issues are more peripheral, differences in emphases, differences in the meanings we attach to words.

On the one hand, we have to guard against teaching which threatens our foundations. On the other hand, we have to accept that not all followers of Jesus see things the way we do. That means some debates and arguments need to be had, while others can be treated as discretionary matters.

It is sad to hear of some Christians merely shrugging their shoulders at a challenge to our historic faith. It is sad to hear of other Christians who engage in furious debate about things which matter less, a sort of fiddling with words while our world burns!

We need to carefully choose which battles are worth fighting. Is this a life and death matter? Is this worthy of a minor skirmish quickly forgotten? Is this something to be dismissed altogether? If we are fighting each other all the time, we have little time or energy to do battle with the real enemy prowling around us. Not all battles need to be fought.

David