Healthy, Biblical Conflict Resolution, Part 1

Passage: Matthew 7:1-5

Allow me to talk about climate change.  Not that climate change, another kind of climate change, one that also involves rising temperatures.  The brewing storms of conflict and loss of respectful discourse in our nation, state and community.  I predict they may only get worse as families gather for the holidays.

I want to offer Biblical counsel that will apply in any number of situations we might find ourselves in where there is conflict, disagreement, controversy, misunderstanding, dispute, a clash of opinions, ideas, ideology, worldview, perspective.

I hope to offer Biblical counsel that can be useful in marriage, parenting, church, school, work, community and any gathering of family, friends, or co-workers.  Biblical counsel whether the issue is Covid, vaccines, politics, religion, economy, sports, schooling, parenting, money, sex, whatever we find ourselves in conflict or division over.

I am going to tackle this in two sermons because there two key parts in healthy, Biblical conflict resolution, what you do before the conflict, and what you do during it.  How you prepare for the storm and how you handle the actual storm.

There are very few things in this life that you can do well without any preparation.  You can’t run a marathon well if you haven’t first prepared well.  You won’t pass the test if you haven’t studied.  You can’t sit down to a great meal if you haven’t first prepared well.  You won’t get as much out of a sermon if you haven’t prepared your heart and mind beforehand.  And I certainly can’t give a good sermon if I haven’t read and prepared in advance.

If we are going to do conflict resolution well, if we are going to seek true reconciliation and understanding, we can’t expect a good result without preparing well.  This morning we will consider preliminary steps to healthy, Biblical conflict resolution.  I beg you for the sake of the Gospel and our witness, for the sake of unity and peace to take this to heart.

As I begin I am assuming two things.  First, we are Christians who desire to glorify God and honor His Word through obedience to it.  The more submitted we are to Him and His Word, the more healthy our conflict resolution will be and the more fruitful will be the result.

Second, in our fallen, sinful world conflict is inevitable and unavoidable   It is never a question of if conflict will happen in our lives, but a question of when.  Whenever two sinful human beings interact with each other, there will be conflict, disagreement, misunderstanding.

Conflict is normal and it is no fun.  For this reason most of us try to avoid conflict as much as possible, and when we can’t avoid it, we wade into it poorly and get a poor result.

There is hope and help for us in God’s Word.  God anticipated our need for wisdom on how to do conflict wisely and well, and He gave us much godly counsel.

There are actually several steps each of us should take before we ever talk to the person with whom we have a conflict.  The better we practice these preliminary steps the better hope we can have of resolution and reconciliation.