Why is the world caught up in so much brawling? It's as if we have been captivated by a "brawling-spirit"? We discuss wildly in society and the media—even in our Christian camps. It's like a battlefield of words where people lob stones at each other from opposite trenches. A boxing ring where we throw ourselves in and beat up everyone who doesn't think exactly the same, completely without rules and sense.
Why are we arguing? To what benefit?
The strange thing is that no change happens. It seems that no one is persuaded or convinced to change their views. So why are we arguing? To what benefit? This posture only ends up dividing and destroying the peace, counteracting the Biblical commandment to keep peace with people.
From what I can tell, political elections are increasingly decided by significantly smaller percentage of voters who are either first-time voters or by the small group of undecideds—the swing voters. The rest, the vast majority, will vote right or left all their lives without the slightest tremor of the pen at the polling booth.
What if, in our fights with words on social media and newspaper sites and such, that there is actually no one to convert to our side of the argument after all?
What will it matter on your deathbed?
To see this in our Christian context. What are we unnecessarily arguing about today? Trump and Musk are a rather elusive topic of contention for the world outside of the USA. It's really a question of politics or ideology, not theology, that Christians seen to be arguing about. Sometimes it is absolutely necessary when defending one's convictions, but most often it's not all that important in the grander scheme of things. Right or left, what will it matter on your deathbed? At that point you will be thinking of God, nothing else.
Christians too easily intertwine politics with the Bible. Talk of the Antichrist, the end times, and the defense of Christian values may have some relevance, but does this mean we should participate in today's wildly rampant war of words where nothing meaningful is achieved? We just paint each other black, blue, brown, and red; we denigrate and demonize as adults fighting like spiteful children in a sandbox.
I look back on decades of my family, with relationship ties and kinship functioning healthily in spite of differences. I have had both communists and capitalist among my relatives. We have met and had a good time, socialized easily and freely. Few of them follow Jesus so this atmosphere of conviviality was not something supernatural or the fruit of the Spirit manifesting like patience and self-control. It was just our commitment to being part of a diverse family.
In Finland, my original homeland, the line of battle between the political right wing and the left is razor sharp ever since the bloody 1918 civil war, where family members actually shot each other to death with real bullets not just words. Within my family the solution is to simply stay silent and avoid controversial subjects. Instead we focus on matters of major agreement. We place politics in the unmentionable sphere, a kind of censorship for mutual survival, something the Finns have learned to do since the Soviet era.
To this day, I take a similar approach even with my closest family members. If the discussion gets overheated, and words start to fall like missiles, we disrupt the tension and declare: "No politics!".
Yet, why do the Spirit's character qualities (see Galatians 5:22-23) seem to be absent among Christians who engage in such hot waves of discussion? Can we learn from the secret of peaceful co-existence that my relatives found?
Can we who call ourselves Christians today, stop sharpening our swords and agree not to brawl?
Can we who call ourselves Christians today, stop sharpening our swords and agree not to brawl and fight. Can we renounce the "spirit of brawling" when we notice that it is a no-win situation, a dead race where no one is likely to change their opinion? Will we choose "no politics!" and instead, in peace, agree to devote ourselves to what Jesus wants—that is, to carry out the Great Commission?
Let us all hold fast to the teaching that "if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such 'wisdom' does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness"(James 3:14-18 NIV).
Peter Kujala was born in Sweden to Finnish parents and grew up in a working class environment. He is a member of the Offerdal Christian Fellowship in Jamtland, the northern part of Sweden, among mountains. Peter serves the church as a preacher. A passionate evangelist, Peter and wife Anette's primary calling is to mission both locally and abroad.
