Four attitudes that help us resolve conflicts

Conflicts are nothing new in the Kingdom of God. The Scriptures have left us examples of believers who entered into conflicts despite being men and women of God and resolved them in a proper way so that we can learn from them.

We have to learn to handle an aspect of life that will be with us until Christ comes and that is that we are different people, we think differently, we have different temperaments; Sometimes we conceive the Kingdom in a different way and therefore we are going to have conflictive situations and what we have to do is solve them according to the principles of the Kingdom of God.

In Saint Matthew beginning with verse 20 we see this scene where two disciples approach the Lord Jesus Christ with their mother to ask them to be assigned a preferential position by the Lord when He is in His Kingdom and when the other disciples find out what these two have. In fact, they become angry against them and a conflict situation arises that the Lord Jesus then takes advantage of to give them a lesson on how conflicts are aired in the Kingdom and what is the attitude of service that should prevail in relationships between Christians.

In this case we see that the Lord when this division arises among the disciples calls them apart and tells them how matters should be resolved in the Kingdom of God. I was thinking of other times when there has been notable conflict in the Scriptures. Even in the Old Testament we go and remember the situation between Abraham and Lot when the Bible says that they both became so rich, they had so much cattle that conflict situations arose between their employees and Abraham called Lot aside and resolved the situation in an exemplary way who has some extraordinary lessons to teach us, I invite you to look for that in your Bible studies.

We also have the case in which Paul and Barnabas had conflict about whether another of his disciples could continue with them, Mark, I think, was called after he had abandoned them on the first trip they made and then we see that Paul has reconciled with them. and that there is already the friendship of always. Then we see in the Book of Acts that there is a conflict situation that eventually led to the establishment of the first deacons.

Another passage in First Corinthians chapter 2 where Paul also talks about the conflicts that exist between Christians; that some say: I belong to Paul, others to Apollos, others to Sephas, others to Christ. There are many conflict situations in Scripture, and the important thing is how we resolve these situations. I have even learned that conflicts can, if properly resolved, generate a more positive situation than there was before the conflict arose.

Conflicts can strengthen us even if we discuss and resolve them in a Christian way. That is first. As a Pastor I have learned that many times God uses these situations of tension in the Church, among the leaders, in the Congregation so that we know each other better, so that we glorify Christ through a benevolent attitude that leads to the resolution of the conflict to Glory of God.

Again I believe that when we find ourselves in conflict situations several things help to resolve it. First of all it helps me to listen to the other person. Give her time to express herself and tell me exactly what is in her heart and assume a position of receptivity, give the person time and the opportunity for her to express herself in great detail and try as much as possible to listen to her objectively, openly, neutrally without injecting my own interpretation as much as possible but simply listening to the language of the person who is speaking to me.

Secondly, it also helps me a lot to adopt a benevolent, generous attitude that gives the person the benefit of the doubt; that assumes that the person who is speaking has good intentions, that he or she is speaking sincerely, that he or she is convinced that he or she is right and does not immediately assume that there is malice or a desire to hurt. Sometimes it may be, but many times the conflicts come simply because the other person simply has a different opinion and is doing everything possible to see things correctly and is convinced of the correctness of their position. And it is good when one assumes that position on the part of the other person of sincerity because that already takes away from us then that aggressiveness of thinking that the other person is trying to do us wrong.

Another thing that helps in resolving the conflict is not saying anything that adds fuel to the fire. Many times we can use inflammatory language, use words or pressures that make the other person defensive or offend and then the volume of the discussion increases; We always have to use a language that is neutral whenever possible, a language that does not add more tension and more seriousness to the thing.

Fourth, I always think what the Bible says that we have to be diligent in keeping the bond of peace. That means that we have to do everything possible not to allow any conflictive situation to become a pitched war that takes away the blessing of the group to which we belong, whether it is a cell or the Church, or the ministry in which we are working. in the Church but we have to be very careful and be very cautious in always giving the greatest possible importance to the fact of keeping the peace, keeping the peace between the brothers.

So here are some ideas right? to keep the peace between Christian environments. Maybe later we can discuss others but then we will see how there are also very powerful spiritual elements that this passage teaches us, which are even more encompassing than these tactics so to speak that I have developed with you in this meditation to maintain peace in the Christian environments. May the Lord bless you and we will continue our study in a future meditation.