Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. ²³ Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

2 Timothy 2:22 – 26

Paul who was once a young man himself encourages Timothy to flee evil desires that are typical of youth, desires that are normal to this period of life when we are trying to make a place for ourselves in the world.  Those are solid virtues that mark every stage in life. Paul lists them.  Righteousness (or right living.)  Faith that believes in spite of all reasons not to do so. Love that enables a person to include those who are quarreling. With these virtues operating in us, we live in peace and become peace-makers.

So in dealing with controversies within the body, Paul makes it clear that all, especially the gifted peace-makers, should practice these bed-rock virtues.  Young Timothy is one of them, of course. Paul advises him not be quarrelsome or resentful because people do at times get caught up in foolish and stupid arguments. That they are sincere does not make them right, I might add. The problem is, those who are quarreling do not recognize that their arguments are in fact, foolish and stupid.  The peace-makers understand that.

I find it interesting that quarrels that arise among the church of Christ Jesus are most often of little consequence, in the end.  We agree on the basics and split on peripheral issues.  Unfortunately, holding ferociously to a peripheral issue is exactly what rejoices Satan because he can use those feelings to divide and weaken the church. The denomination to which I belong has a long history of splits.  We began in 1525 with one heart.  Today that movement has broken into dozens of groups, all agreeing on the core faith but disagreeing on some peripheral issues.  That is where the virtues of righteousness, faith, love and peace must be practiced, virtues that flow from a pure heart.

Lord, teach us this kind of sincere charity to all.