Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from the pure heart. But reject foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they breed quarrels. The Lord’s slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth. Then they may come to their senses and escape the Devil’s trap, having been captured by him to do his will.  2 Timothy 2:22-26 HCSB

Fussing and fighting comes from the devil. Our scripture passage clearly tells us that. James 3:14-17 tells us that if we have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in our heart that we should not brag and deny the truth. This kind of wisdom does not come from above but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For where envy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every kind of evil. Wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits without favoritism and hypocrisy.

We know that bitterness and envy come from the devil. We need to pray to God to help us to let go of these things. We need to pray to God to help us not to argue and fuss and fight. Fussing and fighting opens a door for the devil.

The devil hates it when we let go of all these things and pray for our enemy and turn any potential quarrel over to God, but he loves a good fight. The devil loves a bitter quarrel between a husband and a wife. He loves to turn family members against each other. He loves to see co-workers unable to get along. When we are a willing participant in a quarrel, we allow the devil to work through us.

Now we know that there are times that we must fight to defend our Christianity, ourselves, or others. God gives us armor and His Word as our sword to do this (Ephesians 6:10-16). This is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about stirring up strife, our scripture passage tells us that we are to avoid foolish disputes. So, what is a foolish dispute? Of course we all believe that any cause that we support is not a foolish dispute, right? What does the bible say about this? Titus 3:9 tells us to avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

Think of it this way, arguing is a temptation or a trap set by the devil. The question is are you going to fall into it or will you walk away? It takes two to argue. Proverbs 26:20 tells us that lack of wood causes the fire to go out, and where there is no whisperer, there is no quarreling. The best thing we can do is let go and let God. In doing so, we may be able to lead others to Christ. As Christians, it’s our job to lead others to Christ and I have never seen this done by arguing.

We are told in 2 Corinthians 10 that though we live in the body, we do not wage war in an unspiritual way, since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ. And we are ready to punish any disobedience, once our obedience has been confirmed. We can’t encourage others to obey Christ by disobeying Him ourselves.

We can’t argue and fight our way through this life and be obedient to Christ, it just doesn’t work that way. My supervisor used to say never argue with an idiot, he will drag you down to his level and beat you to death with experience. We often argue because we want to prove superior intelligence. But the Bible tells us that it proves the opposite or a lack of intelligence. Think about that one for a minute. Proverbs 28:25 tells us that a greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts the LORD will be enriched. The Bible clearly tells us not to argue about foolish things. It encourages Christians to gently instruct. We are encouraged to be patient with others.

Don’t give the devil what he wants, don’t argue over foolish things. If you feel a good argument coming on, take that thought captive. Pray and ask God to guide your thoughts and to give you the correct words to say. Ask Him to remove bitterness and replace it with love. Ask Him to remove harsh thoughts that can become harsh words and replace them with love and compassion. I can tell you from experience, that He is faithful to do that if we only ask.

Have a great day!