A Solution for Conflict

Did you know that sometimes there’s conflict in church? It’s true. Churches are made up of people. And people, as we all know, have differing opinions about things.

For example, there is evidence that the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the church in Galatia because certain members of that congregation were stirring up trouble. Surely you would think that couldn’t happen in the church that early in Christian history, but it did. There was much disagreement.

Here was the issue: many of the early Christians who had originally been Jews believed that all believers ought to follow the path they had traveled – to undergo the Jewish rite of circumcision as well as the rite of baptism. Since circumcision is not a particularly appealing ritual for adult males, this was causing some tension in the church, as you might imagine.

It reminds me of the story of a priest, a pastor, and a rabbi who got together each week for coffee and shop talk. One day they were talking about conversions to their faith and they agreed that conversions were easy if you had the right approach. The rabbi joked that he could even convert a bear. Well, that did it. One thing led to another and they all decided to go out into the woods, find a bear and attempt to convert it.

A week later, they met at the hospital to discuss the experience. The priest, on crutches, goes first. “Well,” he said, “I went into the woods to find me a bear. When I found him, I read to him from the Baltimore Catechism. Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him, and lo and behold, he became gentle as a lamb.”

It was the pastor’s turn next. He was in a wheelchair. He said “Well, brothers, I went out and found me a bear. I read to him from the Holy Bible. But that bear wanted nothing to do with me either. So I wrestled him down to the river, dunked him and baptized his hairy soul. And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising and glorifying God.”

They both looked down at the rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed in a body cast with wires and monitors everywhere. The rabbi slowly and painfully said, “Looking back on it, maybe I shouldn’t have started with the circumcision.”

The Galatian church was conflicted over the topic of circumcision.

It broke Paul’s heart to see the Galatians divided like they were. He knew how dangerous “us vs. them” thinking is to the church, and he was not going to go easy on anyone who tried to create divisions in the body of Christ.

Remember the spiritual background of these Jewish believers before they came to Christ. In the time Paul was writing there was an actual dividing wall in the Jewish temple which separated the Court of the Israelites from the Court of the Gentiles. Signs were posted in Latin and Greek warning Gentiles not to go any further into the temple precincts under penalty of death.

Those who were advocating circumcision for adult men in Galatia were dividing the church into those whom they thought were most pleasing to God – the circumcised, Jewish followers – and those whom they thought were less pleasing to God – the uncircumcised Gentiles, the slaves, even the women. This was the mindset they had brought with them from their Jewish backgrounds. And it was taking a toll on the church.

It’s like the old limerick:

There once were two cats from Kilkenny/ Each thought there was one cat too many/

They fought and they spit, and they clawed and they bit/

Till instead of two cats . . . there weren’t any.

Here Paul was striving with all his heart and soul to build up churches while these so-called Judaizers through pride and ignorance were tearing it apart. That could not be allowed to happen. They needed to be reminded of who they were and, even more important, who they followed. They were the body of Jesus Christ whose love brings people together, not tears them apart.

It’s like a story Martin Luther once told of two mountain goats who met each other on a narrow ledge. The ledge was just wide enough for one of the animals to pass. On the left side was a sheer cliff; on the right side a steep wall. The two were facing each other, and it was impossible for either to turn around or to back up.

How did they solve their dilemma? If they had been people, they would have started butting each other until they both plunged into the chasm. But the goats had more sense than that. One of them lay down on the trail and let the other literally walk over him – and both were safe.

It takes humility to follow Christ, but humility means accepting one another. 

Back in 1999, Scott Ginsberg attended a convention at which all the participants were encouraged to wear a name tag. We’ve all been to meetings like that, and you rip off the name tag the minute you leave, right? Except Scott didn’t. He thought it might be fun to keep his name tag on and see what happened. What happened was quite refreshing. He found that people paid more attention to him, called him by name and introduced themselves because of his name tag. It was kind of fun to see these responses. So Scott Ginsberg decided that he would leave his name tag on indefinitely.

Something about that name tag seemed to make Scott more approachable. People spoke to him or joked with him. Strangers gave him hugs. Women came up and talked to him.

So Scott took his experiment a step further. He tattooed his name tag on his chest. This got Scott all kinds of publicity. He is now in the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not records. He’s been interviewed numerous times. He’s written a number of books and articles and even teaches seminars on the topic of approachability. And it all started with a simple name tag: “Hi, my name is Scott.”

What if Jesus’ love was “tattooed” on our actions, our attitudes, our priorities? What if everything we said, did or thought flowed solely from our identity as followers of Jesus Christ? Wouldn’t the world look at us and say, “I know who they are. They are children of God. They are followers of Jesus. It’s tattooed all over their lives.”

It’s so difficult for some people to be accepting of other people, but it is one of the primary tests of the genuine nature of our faith. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,” said Jesus, “if you love one another” (John 13:35). The message can’t be any clearer than that.

Just imagine how it would change the world if others saw us love one another in a radical and authentic way. The secular world would have to admit that God is real and alive and living in us. Because nothing else could explain a love like that.