Quarrelsome Christians

“Quarrelsome Christians”

October 20, 2013

2 Timothy 2:14, 23-24

“Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen.”

“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.”

We are continuing on this grand theme of being discipled by Jesus. You may remember me saying that the big problem in Christianity today is undiscipled disciples. Every church is full of them. You may be one of them. But we have been taught for so long that all we have to do is accept Jesus as our Savior and we have our ticket to heaven. Or all we have to do is ‘believe’ in Jesus and we have our ticket. There is no motivation to change; no motivation to repent; no encouragement to be transformed.

The Bible doesn’t teach that. The Bible teaches that we are to become “a new Creation”. The Bible teaches that we are to be “born again”. The Bible teaches that we are to be “transformed” into the image of Christ. The Bible teaches that we are to be ‘discipled’ and then we are to go ‘make disciples’.

When Jesus was growing up in His earthly father’s home, He was learning the trade of carpenter – because his father was a carpenter. James and John were learning how to be fisherman – because their father was one. In fact, most people learned their trade from their fathers. They didn’t go to school. They had OJT or ‘On the Job Training’ they usually received from their fathers. Sometimes if the son wasn’t interested in doing the family business or the family wanted to advance socially or businesswise, the son would become an indentured servant to a craftsman of some kind. Often they would sell themselves to the craftsman and become their servant for up to seven years. In return they would learn the trade from the craftsman.

That was kind of the idea of a disciple. A disciple was a willing servant to his master and in return he was ‘discipled’ in the belief or philosophy of the master. Usually the discipling process took a number of years.

Some of Jesus’ last recorded words were for us to “go and make disciples”. I have to admit that I often thought that meant to go and win people to the Lord. It has been my goal for many years to bring people to a place in which they would pray a prayer of repentance and receive Jesus into their hearts.

That’s not what Jesus taught. He said to go and “MAKE disciples. He had just done that very thing. For over three years the disciples, or apostles, of Jesus walked with Him. The ate with Him. They spent day and night with Him. They learned how to be “Christlike”. They learned “the Way” God wanted them to live. And they were called “Followers of the Way” for many years. It wasn’t until many years later that they began to be called Christians because they had matured to such a degree that they were “Christlike” in the way they lived.

Today many people call themselves Christian who are nothing like Christ. They may know nothing of Him or what He taught and have no desire to follow His teaching. But they call themselves Christian anyway.

We need to desire to become like Christ. We must desire to be discipled by Christ. We must desire to be transformed into His image. How do we do that? By inviting Jesus to speak to us and disciple us today. What are the three primary ways He does that today? Through His Spirit speaking directly to our hearts; through His Word (the Bible) and through His Body (other Christians).

Last Wednesday evening in our Bible Study we took the time to share the times that Jesus has spoken to us in those three ways. Everyone could relate specific times that Jesus spoke to them in those three ways. Jesus still wants to speak to our hearts today.

Last week was a little difficult for me. I came down with a flu bug or a cold or something and I felt like I wasted a couple of days being sick. Consequently, I got a late start on my message. I kind of had an idea of what direction God wanted me to go – then on my morning walk on Thursday Jesus spoke to my heart in a completely different area – a completely different direction than what I was going to go. So here is what the Spirit laid on my heart; here is what I believe God wants me to share with you today. The subject is on quarrelling.