My wife finds great blog posts from other people that I miss throughout the week. This very well might be a gift from the Lord because she often finds articles and blogs that are spot-on for what I am looking for.
While preparing to preach from Romans 14-16 in a couple of weeks I have been looking into the topic of peacemaking in the church. As this is on the horizon, my wife sent me a blog post from Kevin DeYoung that perfectly fits the bill for what I was looking for. The title of the blog post is “Distinguishing Marks of a Quarrelsome Person”. The following are some of the marks that are included on DeYoung’s list of 12.
1. You defend every conviction with the same degree of intensity. There are no secondary or tertiary issues. Everything is primary. You’ve never met a hill you wouldn’t die on.
2. You are quick to speak and slow to listen. You rarely ask questions and when you do it is to accuse or to continue prosecuting your case. You are not looking to learn, you are looking to defend, dominate, and destroy.
4. You are incapable of seeing nuances, and you do not believe in qualifying statements. Everything in life is black and white without any gray.
7. You are unable to sympathize with your opponents. You forget that sinners are also sufferers. You lose the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
8. Your first instinct is to criticize; your last instinct is to encourage. Quarrelsome people almost always see others in need of rebuke, rarely in need of refreshing.
11. You are always in the trenches with hand grenades strapped to your chest, never in the cafeteria with ice cream and ping pong. I remember years ago talking to a returning serviceman in my church who told me sheepishly that his job in Iraq was to drive an armed convoy for the ice cream truck. It was extremely dangerous, escorting the vehicle through bomb infested territory. This was brave, honorable work. And important: Even soldiers need ice cream once in a while. The amp doesn’t have to be cranked to 11 all the time. Seriousness about God is not the same as pathological seriousness about everything. Remember G. K. Chesterton: “We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre’s castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return to at evening.”
This article is a fabulous and convicting read but certainly, one that will rightly humble us. For the full article, click here.