How to Live Satisfied and Gain Victory Over Strife

What does strife mean in the the Bible? For one, it is an ugly thing that should never be the hallmark of the way a Jesus follower lives. In a political world world gone crazy with conflict, the Word of God stands in bold contrast. Proverbs declares ‘it is the glory of a man to overlook an offense.’ There is an old legend that speaks of Hercules and his encounter with a strange animal on a narrow road. Hercules strikes the weird animal with his club and continues down the road. Soon the animal overtakes him, but now it’s three times as large as it was before. Hercules strikes it with speed and fury, but the more he clubs the beast, the larger it grows. Then Pallas, the Titan [the little g] god of war appears to Hercules and warns him to stop. “The monster’s name is Strife,” he said. “Let it alone and it will soon become shrink down to nothing.” This is valuable advice for those of Jesus followers who wish to engage in verbal eye for an eye conflict. Overlook the offense, only then does strife cease.¹ We’re talking the negative impact of being a contentious person. How to Live Satisfied and Gain Victory Over Strife, that’s our focus today on this week’s Light on Life.

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We need to eliminate strife from our lives. Did you ever notice that the things that people fight about, hardly ever change?

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Question: What was the change that took place in your spiritual walk when you eliminated strife from your life? What are some of the areas where you have gained ground spiritually? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Episode Resources: How Jesus Style Perserverance Can Make You a Winner

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About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 48 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 44 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Well again, welcome.
Let’s pray.

Father God, help us. We need your help so very much. Help us to see that the Jesus life is a love life free of strife. We ask you for that in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Victory Over Strife: Review

1 Corinthians 3:1–5 (ESV) — 1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.

So, many years ago, the Lord said to me, ‘Write a running commentary on the New Testament and publish it as your life’s written work.’
So with that, our podcasts are normally stringed series of lessons where the subject matter is based on the next verse of the chapter we happen to be in.
Right now, we are in chapter three of First Corinthians.
In two previous podcasts, we covered the first two verses and part of the third.
The Corinthians were ‘behaving in a human way’ not in a spiritually mature way.
These infant believers were freely flowing in jealousy.
Strife, which is a major bad thing for Jesus followers, filled their interactions.
What a mess!
These behaviors held the Corinthians back spiritually.
It will hold us back as well if we choose to operate in these things today.
So, Paul was disappointed with the way this church was acting.
He wanted to take them upward in the things of God but he couldn’t.
That’s God’s direction — onward and upward.
Fleshly carnal attitudes cancels the revelation knowledge you need to us advance.
You must be ready to receive.
This church was not.
Do you know anyone like this?
Maybe you’re sitting next to this person right now.
If you are, don’t say anything — don’t poke em in the ribs and say ‘he’s talking about you.’
It won’t go well if you do.
I’ve been there, you’ve been there — we’ve all had days where we acted less than excellent.
Some seem to spend an inordinate amount of time acting less than excellent.
You wonder if they are even unsaved.
I mean, you can’t even tell the difference.
We all have to come to this realization that to grow in God, a diet rich in spiritual truths is essential.
In that previous podcast that we’ve been referring to, we ended it with serious conversation about why jealousy is an ungodly thing and should not be on your bucket list of places to visit.
We covered that but we ran out of time before we could address the strife issue.
Pauls said the Corinthians were operating in jealousy and strife.

Victory Over Strife: Definitions

So let’s go ahead and jump into the strife piece.

Galatians 5:19–21 (ESV) — 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Strife is a work of the flesh.
It surely sits in bad company.
The Greek word for ’strife’ is the one we want to look at and with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
‘Strife’ is engagement in rivalry.
Rivalry is competition for the same objective or for superiority in the same field.
It is taking positions in a matter.
’Strife’ is discord, or contention.²
It means to battle, fight, contend, quarrel, wrangle.
Depending on the translation that you use, you will find these different words used in the translators rendering of this Greek word.

Romans 13:13 (ESV) — 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

The word ‘quarreling’ here is the same Greek word for strife used in our passage 1 Corinthians 3:3 and Galatians 5:19.
Here’ another example.

Philippians 1:15 (ESV) — 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.

Here the Greek word for strife is translated as ‘rivalry.’
Titus uses yet another word.

Titus 3:9 (ESV) — 9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

Here the word Greek strife is translated as ‘dissensions.’
You get the point, right?
No matter which word is used, we know from these scriptures that strife is a super-bad thing.
Jesus followers should think deeply about shunning strife.
I say ‘should’ think, we should change that to ‘must think deeply.’
Strife must be eradicated in our lives.
Did you ever notice that the things that people fight about, hardly ever change?
You may win an occasional battle, but seldom does it lead to lasting change.
I mean, you may argue so well and it may seem that the other person capitulates but really that’s not what happens.
While they may agree with you on the outside, on the inside they are still saying ’no!’
Strife is simply not an effective tool.
And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.
Strife is not effective.
That’s what a quarrelsome woman found out one day.

This woman intended to give the famous Baptist minister, Charles Spurgeon a tongue-lashing. “All right,” Charles replied, “but that’s a game that two can play.” Not long afterward this argumentative woman met Spurgeon and just assaulted him with a flood of abuse. Surgeon smiled and said, “Yes, thank you, I am quite well. I hope you are the same.” Well, the woman went nuts and laid into him again. This time spewing hatred at an even higher level. Smiling, Spurgeon replied “Yes, it does looBk like it might rain. I think I had better get moving.” The abusive woman gasped and said “less that man! He’s deaf as a post. There’s no use blowing up at him!” And she never talked that way to him again.³

Victory Over Strife: Why Strife is In Effective

You see — strife is not an effective way to create lasting change.
Living for Jesus is.

Acts 17:6 (ESV) — 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

According to the Jewish religious leadership, these Jesus followers had the turned the world upside down.
The truth is they got it backwards.
They didn’t turn the world upside down — they turned it right side up.
Living for Jesus — following God’s plan for your life is what creates lasting change.
Not the strife and all the rioting many Jews were involved in as they tried to resist the message of Jesus.
Now, from one standpoint, you might understand what caused the Jews to operate in strife and riot over Jesus.
Think about how radical it was for a Jew whose 1000 year history has been to look for the Kingdom of God.
The disciples said that very thing to Jesus the day He ascended to heaven.

Acts 1:6 (ESV) — 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

The disciples themselves, who walked with Jesus for three-and-a-half years, were looking for the Second Exodus.
They were looking for a complete deliverance from all of their enemies, specifically, the Romans.
Every self-respecting Jew was looking for the Messiah as the ruler of the nations.
They were looking for the restoration of Israel as THE number one nation among all nations.
The unbelieving Jews [the ones that didn’t believe that Jesus was who He said He was] wanted all of the above by way of the Law of Moses, by the Talmud, by the path of sacrifices and yearly festivals.
They wanted all this via the traditions that were generationally handed down from the time Israel became a nation.
Now think about this.
Think about having to pause this expectation, turning all of this over to a crucified raised from the dead Messiah known as Jesus of Nazareth.
Instead of the physical Kingdom of God that they were all incessantly looking for, switching that out for a spiritual kingdom.
To understand what kind of nuclear change this would be in the mind of a zealous for the Law abiding Jew, think about if you had to make the same switch but going in the reverse direction.
Switching from your 21st century belief in Jesus lifestyle back the other way to a Jewish lifestyle of Law and animal sacrifice.
Maybe if you think in this channel, you can then begin to understand how radical it was for a Jew to follow Jesus and why their so many riots over this issue.
These Jews were living in strife and guess what?
It was not effective.
By their many strife filled-riots, they were not able to stop the mighty moving force that was the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Christianity began with one man and twelve disciples.
On the day of Pentecost, there were 120.
At the end of the first day of Pentecost, there were 3000.
A short time later, there were 5000 more.
From there, the Jesus movement took off and has never looked back.
Strife does not work.
The riots didn’t stop the message of Jesus then and it won’t stop it today.

Victory Over Strife: Love Is What’s Effective

Love is what is effective not strife.

1 Corinthians 13:4–5 (ESV) — 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

Living the no-strife-life is part of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Love does not strive.
It does not insist on its own way.
Now there is a time to strive.
Years ago, I recorded a podcast years ago entitled ‘When Is It Right to Fight?’
It was on marriage.
You know there’s a ;lot of strife in the modern marriage.
It shouldn’t be — that’s not the Jesus way.
Well, if you insist, there is a time to fight.
There is a time to engage in a battle where you refuse to give in.

1 Timothy 6:12 (ESV) — 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

The fight we are to engage in is the fight of faith.
Now, you know, there are twenty-one Greek words in 1 Timothy 6:12.
But, some among us have acted like there is only one word in the verse — the word ‘fight’ * and we went off and forgot the other twenty words!
We read the word ‘fight’ and we went to fighting — not the fight of faith but other people.
No, that’s not right.
The only fight we are to be fighting is the good fight of faith.
Always remember this: a good faith fight is a fight you win.

Victory Over Strife: Identifying the Source

Now, the book of James helps us tremendously in this area of understanding the negative impact of strife.

James 4:1a (ESV) — 1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you…?

Well that’s a good question!
“All right James, I’ll bite” — tell me what causes quarrels and fights in my church, in my family, and at my job?

James 4:1b—4 (ESV) — Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Let’s examine this and see what we can learn and how we need to adjust.
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you…?
The word ‘quarrels’ is a word whose definition we should know.
The word is often used for ‘war’ or ‘battle’ in the Greek language.
What causes quarrels, wars, or battles, or fights among you…?
This word ‘quarrels’ also means a state of hostility or antagonism.⁴
Hostility is aggression, that’s not good.
It’s unfriendliness, or opposition, that’s not good either.
When a person is hostile, they show a high amount of resistance to an idea, a plan or a project.
You see, hostility is way more than just disagreeing.
It’s both disagreeing and being disagreeable at the same time.
So, its emotionally negativity being added to disagreeing.
The word ‘fights’ — ‘What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you, means battles fought without weapons.
We’re talking physical weapons, swords, spears, clubs — in our day and age — guns, bombs and other such weapons.
These words, ‘wars’ and ‘fights’ are often used of military encounters between nations and groups, but they can also be used to describe arguments or conflicts between individuals, families, or groups.⁵
- Negative emotions — You can recognize strife by the words that express “harshness,” criticalness, great negativity, disgust, contempt, belligerence, whining and stonewalling.
- If you are expressing disagreement using these kinds of words, it is a sure sign that you are not just disagreeing but that you have entered the forbidden realm of strife.
- Now James, by the Spirit of God, homes in on the source of these contentions: He says, “It’s your passions that are at war within you.”
- Now, I always thought that the word here ‘passions’ that James uses here meant that intense barely controllable emotion or desire for something.
- In actuality, the Greek word ‘passions’ means the state or condition of experiencing pleasure for any reason, delight, enjoyment, pleasantness.⁶
- In the New Testament, the word is always used in a negative sense — that is sinful pleasures or self-indulgent desires.
- Listen to the New American Standard translation on James 4:1.
James 4:1 (NASB95) — 1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?
- These pleasures are the bad kind of passions.
- The kind that chokes out the Word of God.
Luke 8:14 (ESV) — 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
- These are evil forbidden cravings that displaces proper affection for God.
- Lust is an easy synonym to substitute here.
- It’s lusts that causes fighting among people.
- It’s a craving for evil pleasure that causes battles.
- Now, you should also know there’s a piece of grammar here that helps us.
- The word ‘passions’ or ‘pleasures’ is in the continuous sense in James 4:1.
- So, this continual inordinate craving produces continuous strife.
- It’s time to come up out of this.
- It is time to repent.
- Time to plead the Blood.
- And then, time to change direction, obey the Bible, ditch strife, and walk in love.
Victory Over Strife: The Role of Demons
- Take this ‘no-strife-life’ seriously.
- Make it your motto.
- As soon as you catch yourself getting negatively emotional, repent.
- This is not a light matter.
James 3:14–16 (KJV 1900) — 14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
- Strife is mixed in with some really bad company.
- Where strife is there is confusion.
- Where strife is that is disorder.
- There is tumult.
- And, that’s not all — there is every evil work!
- Strife is the wisdom of the devil.
- That means devils get involved with strife.
- Demons love strife.
- They throw a party when battles between people occur.
- Strife is never a healthy thing.
- Our text is in First Corinthians three — if you keep reading over into chapter 10, Paul tells this church.
1 Corinthians 10:20 (ESV) — 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
- You don’t want to participate with demons.
- Stay away from strife.
- Do not open the door to demons
- Keep that turkey closed!
Victory Over Strife: Negative Words
- Watch your mouth.
- Set a guard over it like the word of God says in Psalm 141.
Psalm 141:3 (ESV) — 3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!
- Watch the negative unflattering ‘careless’ words.
Matthew 12:36–37 (ESV) — 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
- The Greek word ‘careless’ is a wonderfully insightful word that means “inactive, idle, not working, ineffectual, incapable of doing something, sterile, inoperative, ineffective, unfruitful.”⁷
- It is the opposite of where we get the word ‘energy’ or active, or effective.
- Careless words lack energy and effectiveness — they produce zero.
- Strife-filled words should be deemed irresponsible and worthless speech that is useless for accomplishing anything good.
- It describes what is carelessly said, without concern for the effect on other people.
- These are loveless words.⁸
- Watch these kinds of words.
Victory Over Strife: Edifying Words
- Instead of loveless words, try edifying words.
Ephesians 4:29 (ESV) — 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
- Make it your goal to build up others — to add value to other people.
- Help people to feel good about God and His will for their life.
- Tell people that they can do it — that they can obey God.
- You see the end of all godly communication is grace.
- Grace that produces growth.
- That builds people up instead of tearing them down.
- So, pray with as we commit to God to live the ’no-strife-life.’
Now Father God, we commit today in the presence of the holy angels of the Most High to live a life free from strife. We choose to walk in love. We desire to use our words to build up instead of tear down and we commit to this now in Jesus Name, Amen.
- How to Live Satisfied and Gain Victory Over Strife.
- You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.
#S3-035: More of How to Overcome Racism in the Church [Podcast]

__________
References:
1. AMG Bible Illustrations, Bible Illustrations Series (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2000). ↩
2. William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 392. ↩
3. Adapted — Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 1109. ↩
4. William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000) ↩
5. I-Jin Loh and Howard Hatton, A Handbook on the Letter from James, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1997), 134.
6. So ‘what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you’ is a bad thing.
7. Strife is not just fought with physical weapons, though.
8. It’s fought with words.

According to USA Today, experts can predict, within three minutes of the onset of a quarrel, which couples will divorce. “The biggest lesson to be learned from this study is that the way couples begin a discussion about a problem—how you present an issue and how your partner responds to you—is absolutely critical,” says pioneering researcher and psychologist John Gottman of the University of Washington in Seattle. Newlyweds heading for divorce start an argument by sending out hostile vibes through their tone of voice, facial gestures, and what they say, the six-year study finds. The biggest problems occur when the woman brings up an issue “harshly” and critically, and the man responds with great negativity, say Gottman and study co-author Sybil Carrere. (Gottman’s earlier research showed that women initiate discussions about problems about 80% of the time.) In a lab setting, the research team taped 124 prescreened couples who had agreed to discuss an issue they found troublesome. The team coded five positive emotions and 10 negative ones, including disgust, contempt, belligerence, whining and stonewalling. Communication problems were the most frequently chosen topic. In stable couples, both spouses expressed fewer negative and more positive emotions at the start of discussions than those who eventually divorced.[6. Karen S. Peterson, “Hostile Start Makes for Divorce,” USA Today, September 29, 1999, sec. D-1 ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 434. ↩

Ceslas Spicq and James D. Ernest, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 195. ↩

David Abernathy, An Exegetical Summary of Matthew 1–16, Exegetical Summaries (Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2013), 450–451. ↩

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How to Live Satisfied and Gain Victory Over Strife

Podcast: Light on Life Season Twelve Episode Thirty-Three

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe to iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources: How Jesus Style Perserverance Can Make You a Winner

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Victory Over Strife: Review

Victory Over Strife: Definitions

Victory Over Strife: Why Strife is In Effective

Victory Over Strife: Love Is What’s Effective

Victory Over Strife: Identifying the Source

Victory Over Strife: The Role of Demons

Victory Over Strife: Negative Words

Victory Over Strife: Edifying Words

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe to iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources: How Jesus Style Perserverance Can Make You a Winner

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Victory Over Strife: Review

Victory Over Strife: Definitions

Victory Over Strife: Why Strife is In Effective

Victory Over Strife: Love Is What’s Effective

Victory Over Strife: Identifying the Source

Victory Over Strife: The Role of Demons

Victory Over Strife: Negative Words

Victory Over Strife: Edifying Words

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