Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Conflict”
Our Bible verse for today: “If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We are to do our best to avoid conflict and to live at peace with everyone.”
In Matthew 5:9, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that those who are peacemakers are blessed. That’s also what Paul meant in Romans 12:18. God’s people should be peacemakers. We should be the ones who give the least offense, we should be the ones who take the least offense, and we should be the ones who work to bring peace and harmony into situations where there is strife and conflict. Saint Francis of Assisi is reported to have once said, “Let there peace on earth and let it begin with me.” That’s a pretty good motto for all of us.
However, the clear implication of Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:18 is that sometimes it’s not possible to live at peace with others. Sometimes, despite your best intentions and your sincere efforts, others just won’t let you live at peace with them. Paul wrote, “If possible”, “on your part” … Well, sometimes it’s not possible. So what do you do then?
Why, your pour burning coals upon their head of course.
In that same chapter of Romans, just two verses later in verse 20 Paul wrote, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.”
That’s it then. Try your best to live at peace with everyone. Avoid conflict if at all possible. And if the difficult person standing in front of you is still intent on having a conflict anyway, you just go right ahead and embarrass the pants off them by being super-nice in return. Just smile at them and wish them a good day. Then walk away content in the knowledge that your response was completely Biblical – you honored the Lord in how you handled it and now the other person has been left standing there with egg on their face.
Now, it’s true that you should be careful not to take too much pleasure in the fact that you have left them standing there looking silly, but I think maybe a little might be alright.
Just kidding. Smugness is actually not one of the Fruits of the Spirit and so it would probably be better to avoid that altogether, but Paul’s point is well taken. Do your best to avoid conflict; be nice in return even if the other person is not being nice; and then get on with your day knowing that you did your best.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 