SOULSTRENGTH: STRONG DEVOTIONS TO STRENGTHEN CHRISTIANS

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"And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." Col. 3:14 

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Devotional Thought For The Day

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We know why there is massive conflict in the world – the world is populated by sinful human beings. Sin makes human beings essentially selfish, and so in conflict with others for the things that pertain to both survival and pleasures, and also in conflict for all the things that we use to measure success and our ascendancy over others. Sin also drives people to laziness and a host of other malicious and harmful behaviors. When sinful human beings run corporations and businesses, selfishness is the ultimate baseline principle. So businesses walk a fine line – serving and satisfying customers with an eye to maximizing profit. In that customer satisfaction is only a predictor of future profitability, it is sought only to serve the baseline value – profit, selfishness. 

Selfishness is opposed to "love," which "does not seek its own." We all understand that businesses need to "come out in the black," to make some profit. "The laborer is worthy of his hire," and obviously business requires a great amount of labor. However, if the laborer is motivated principally by selfishness and greed, this can only breed conflict and ultimately human deprivation and suffering. The conflict permeates not only the company's relationships with customers and other similar businesses, but also the corporation itself. This is true for all who are involved in corporate labor, those laboring in management and those laboring in development and production. Selfishness may provide a "uniting" impulse and dynamic for a time, but ultimately it always breeds conflict, separation, and failure. This is the principle weakness of unbridled capitalism. 

I've often wondered why "good" efforts and projects are so difficult to succeed at. Look at the church – the group which seeks the ultimate good, the spiritual blessings of new life and salvation for all of humanity. Yet the church is in many ways as racked by conflict as other organizations. It is sin which causes this – and in many incidents recorded in Holy Scripture we see sin working to cause conflict even within the church. So perhaps we ought not to be surprised that it is no different in the life of the church today. However, we ought to recognize the cause – and look inwardly in repentance as well as identifying the divisive sinful motivations and behaviors of others. And as we do so, we must surely return to the love of God in Christ Jesus, His forgiveness and mercy, so that we may know love and grow by His grace in our "willing" and "doing" of His good pleasure, which is love for one another.

It is God's love which "binds everything together in perfect harmony." "We love, because He first loved us." But our sin opposes love, both God's love and love for one another. So the most important thing we can do in resolving conflict is to remain in Christ's love through repentance and faith, and to do all that we can to "put on" this love in everything that we think and do. The world rejects God's love – so conflict will always be part of our experience in daily life. But perhaps within the church there is hope that God's love will enable us to experience a greater degree of this "perfect harmony." At the least, we can address the selfishness and sin within ourselves, through repentance and faith, and so reduce at least one source of the conflict. 

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Prayer For The Day

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Dear Lord Jesus, You know us thoroughly, including the ingrained assumptions and blindness of our sinful nature. What grief and sorrow You must have over our selfishness, which produces so much conflict and trouble. Help us to grow in repentance and faith in Your love, that we may also grow in the love that produces harmony within Your church. Amen.

"Pray continually." [1 Thessalonians 5:17]

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