“Quarreling Over Words” Devotion by Pastor Fred Snider

“Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen.” 2 Timothy 2:14b

For Paul to exhort Timothy to warn the people he is teaching ‘before God’ about quarreling about words are strong words in and of themselves. When we give someone a warning as though it comes straight from God it is, or at least should be, very serious. We live in a culture that plays with words, that twists words, and manipulates words constantly. Nothing is as it is said and everything can mean something else.

This confusion adds to the ruination of our ability and need to communicate. Civil discourse is at an all-time low. There seems to be no end to meaningless rhetoric about everything. Everybody’s talking and nobody is listening. We are primed to jump to conclusions, usually wrong and then make excuses about misunderstanding. Our tongues are wrapped around our eye teeth and we can’t seem to see what we are saying. Talk has gone from cheap to worthless. In the tech advancing world we are quickly losing our capability to perceive and receive. All we want to seemingly do is categorize each other and then presume that we know what each other think.

We believers should be able to rise above this cacophony of drivel and find lots of common ground in what we believe. Instead, we tend to be almost driven towards disagreement whenever possible. The enemy is at work in our words for sure. We are looking for a fight, a war of words if you will, anything to lance the festering sickness within our very souls.

Paul says all this verbiage is of no value. We should foster good will and agreement. We should focus on our like-mindedness and not on our differences. Much of my pastoring time is spent helping people understand each other, or explaining what someone could have meant. Our inclination to misunderstand and misinterpret is strong. Our resolve to be peaceable and to understand must be more than equal to this challenge. Don’t quarrel over words, Paul would say. It ruins those who have to hear it. Literally it means that it makes people sick. Quarreling is sickening. We shouldn’t quarrel about that now should we? Be nice today. Watch your words.

In Him,
Pastor Fred

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