Strife

Strife (quarreling, contention, discord) is consistently condemned in Scripture as destructive to community and contrary to the peace God intends. Proverbs returns to this theme repeatedly: "A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention" (Prov. 15:18); "It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife" (Prov. 20:3); "Where there is no wood, a fire goes out; where there is no whisperer, contention ceases" (Prov. 26:20). Quarreling among God's people is a recurring failure in Israel's history and in the early church.

Paul lists "strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions" among the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:20). His letter to the Philippians addresses real interpersonal conflict between Euodia and Syntyche (Phil. 4:2) and calls the community to "do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit" (Phil. 2:3). James diagnoses the root of strife: "What causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" (James 4:1). The remedy is humility, gentleness, and the wisdom from above that is "first pure, then peaceable" (James 3:17).