The Art of Fighting Without Fighting

Check out this epic clip from Bruce Lee's film Enter the Dragon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Ycw0d_Uow

It seems much of the time we as Westerners are great at picking fights, and most of the time we don't even realize it. We let someone else know how much we are right and they are wrong. They get upset and we wonder why and are bothered by it for the rest of the day.

Western Christians are known for this. Bill the new guy at work introduces himself and I say, "Hi, I'm Justin, and let me tell you my beliefs and why all of them are right." Immediately Bill's defenses are up and I take that as "religious persecution."

I don't see this from Peter or Paul, or Jesus for that matter. In Acts 10, Peter goes to Cornelius' house. as he is preaching the Gospel, he notices these Gentiles have received the baptism of the Spirit and sees no reason not to baptize them with water. He doesn't run them through a series of questions on their beliefs first.

Paul went to Athens in Acts 17 and saw tons of idols. Did he start confronting everyone about it? No. Instead, he said that he could see they were religious, they wanted heaven. He noted he even saw a statue to an unknown god and that he was there to tell them who this god was. He then proceeded to tell them the Gospel.

Jesus was not known for confronting anybody except the religious hypocrites. He didn't use His knowledge to abuse anybody.

What these men understood was that people cannot be held to standards they have no construct for. In Acts 15 the apostles say not to make it hard for the Gentiles to become believers. They simply tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. Only those three things.

Again in 1 Cor. 5:9-13, Paul makes it clear that there is a difference between associating with unbelievers and believers. In verse 12 he even says, “It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning." Again even with the church he makes it clear that holding people accountable is not for the questioning of every difference in doctrine, but for outright sin and heresy. He shows this in his instruction to Timothy where he notes how he has held people accountable for blaspheming and also instructs little Timmy not to get caught up in foolish controversies over the law.

Everyone's heart has at least a part that wants Jesus. They want good qualities like greatness or love. Why? Because God is great and God is love, and we were made in His image. There is a saying, "You get more of what you affirm." So affirm the good things and find points of agreement to build upon.

If we wrestle not against flesh and blood, then we have to quit seeing the people as our opponents and see them more as Jesus' prize. If they are His prize, then I can't speak badly about it. I wouldn't walk into His house and say, "Man your prized possession is ugly." But instead, let's learn to come from the place of agreement and win the fight before anyone knows anything has even gone down. In this way, we won't run around claiming everyone is persecuting us. But if they turn us away because of our love we can truly say, like Jesus, "They hated me without reason."