If You Bite and Devour One Another...

So what's the deal with our government leaders?  And with news reporters and commentators?  It seems like their main job is now to "fight with the other side." 



Just what are they doing and what are they accomplishing anyway?  Don't they have any "real" work to do?

I think of all the time, energy, and money that's being put into this "fighting."  Suppose all those resources are spent on solving some problem or issue that the country, the world, needs help with.  Progress would be made if these "fighting" resources were directed elsewhere.

Instead, we get this arguing and digging up of dirt.  I'm reminded of the verse:

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.  Galatians 5:1

That's exactly what's going on.

Again I ask, "Don't they have any real work to do?" 

And if an issue is so important to someone or to a group, then that person or group should do something, like sacrifice personally, to make an impact.  When I see people advocating action for climate control,  I think, "Will that person give up their comfortable lifestyle to help the environment?  Then why don't they do it now?  Lead the way in a positive manner, make a sacrifice."

But all I see is biting, devouring, and consuming one another.

Sadly, the same type of bickering often happens among Christians, and even right inside the church.  

Guilty.

The world is a mess and has been.

And in the midst of this mess, Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, came to live among us, to live among us and to set things right.

He healed people; He fed people; He forgave sins.  He also wept and suffered.  He became that ultimate, perfect sacrifice that died for the sins of the world.  

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.  1 John 2:2

Instead of biting and devouring, we are commanded to love one another.

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.  But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.  1 John 2:10–11

This is a big commandment and a hard saying.  I look at the world and think, "What do I do?  What will make an impact?"

I personally can't "take on" all the problems of the world and give attention to all the "causes" that need solving.  And I don't want to get caught up in all this arguing.

But I can impact my family, my neighborhood, people in my sphere of influence.  My efforts and my resources can go into loving and serving those people.  

And I can pray for our government leaders and all leaders to lead fairly, wisely, to get stuff done, to not "bite and devour one another." 

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.            Proverbs 10:12  

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.  1 Peter 4:8 

[Love] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  1 Corinthians 13:6-7