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I have recently rediscovered the beauty and richness of digging deep into single Bible verses, and I would love to share some of my experiences in this forum. I am sure that in the near future we will set off on another series which is likely to be a New Testament letter (although I have not decided which one yet) but for the moment let us press on with a verse for this week:

‘…avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.’ (Titus 3:9)

Wise words for then, and for now. ‘Foolish controversies’ clearly plagued the very early church, and it seems that we have not learnt enough since then to avoid them, as Paul told Titus to. Let’s break this down.

What are we talking about?

Let’s begin by defining the categories presented by Paul:

Controversies I would see as areas which get people offended. Now sometimes people are offended because they do not like the Bible, and sometimes people are offended because the Bible is not being treated with sufficient reverence, but the meaning is the same: the controversy is in the causing of offence. In today’s society this looks like discussions around homosexuality, abortion, cohabitation, and women in leadership. A generation or two ago the main controversy was infant vs. adult baptism, but we seem now to have reached a general ‘you believe what you believe’ stance. Perhaps not always biblical, but not a controversy any more.

Genealogies is next and refers to people’s ancestry. I think this is talking about (1) ours: ‘his Dad was like this, so he can’t possibly serve,’ or ‘her Dad was the best pastor we’ve ever had so she should be now’, and (2) that of Jesus: ‘the genealogies in the Bible don’t add up’, or ‘Jesus must have had children’.

Dissensions are just arguments, which I am sure happen in every church. I am no stranger to having the odd church member come and tell me a list of reasons why I am unsuitable for performing a given task, and I am sure many of you will have experienced the same!

Quarrels about the law refer to the Old Testament law and what is required. Go to some churches and you will be told that you are not allowed to drive a car on a Sunday because that’s church service day, whereas others talk about having a personal Sabbath and others still move church services onto different days – the level of our legalism leads to quarrels, and this is what Paul is talking about.

So what are we to do?

In order to ‘avoid’ these things we must first recognise them when they approach. The first step is to pray for discernment – go on, pray right now! In having discernment we will, by God’s grace, recognise that someone is bringing a foolish argument at an early stage and therefore be able to step around the subject. Note that this is not easy! A Jehovah’s Witness has recently started trying to convert me, and let me tell you that JWs are notoriously good at drawing the attention away from Jesus and onto foolish controversies; most recently he has been trying to force a conversation on Christians’ role in government – it is all I can do to avoid that foolish controversy and bring the subject back onto Jesus.

Let us remember that it is all about Jesus – when we are approached by one of these ‘foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions and quarrels about the law’ let us allow our gaze to shift back to Jesus, and to hopefully bring the eyes of those we are discussing with onto him too. In the light of Jesus’ sacrifice none of these things matter; it has all been dealt with on the cross.

Anything else?

Indeed there is something else. It is fairly easy for me to say that we should run away when we see others brandishing a quarrel about the law, but it is another for me to warn against us being that very brandisher. I confess that I fall very easily into stirring up controversy almost for the sake of it; I have learnt the hard way that simply saying an offensive sentence is not the same as presenting the same truthful idea in a humble, biblical, calm and thought through manner. Please do not fall into the same trap. Think before you speak. Question your very attitude towards other Christians, particularly leaders, and ask their forgiveness if that’s appropriate. Saying ‘you should stop ordaining gay ministers’ may make sense from your mindset, but is it blessing the body of Christ or is it just shouting about a foolish controversy?

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

Trusting God Yields Happiness