Seven Things God Hates - Part 8

"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." David makes that statement in Psalm 133:1 and who would know better than David? My, the division, the discord, the problems, the competition that he lived through within his own home and among his associates. How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

Now, you would expect brethren to dwell together in unity, but sometimes they don't. Sometimes we have divisions in Sunday school classes, in churches, even among Christian families. Families that won't talk to each other, they won't even look at each other in church because they're carrying some kind of disagreement or malice. That's a great statement from Psalm 133:1. 

David goes on to say that this unity is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garment. That ointment is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can bring us together in unity. He says at this oil ran down Aaron's beard, that means it would have bathed those jewels that were over his heart. The twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. A beautiful picture of spiritual unity. The ointment bathing all of those jewels. 

In Psalm 133:3, David says that this unity is as the dew of Hermon, as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. It's a beautiful thing when the dew comes down and there's refreshment and then things start to grow. What he's saying is that spiritual unity is something that is fragrant like the oil and it's fruitful like the dew. We not only enjoy it, but it enables us to produce fruit to the glory of God. 

Now when you read Proverbs 6:19, you discover that God hates the person that soweth discord among brethren. In these verses, Proverbs 6:16-19, God lists seven things that He hates. He hates a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. God hates feet that are swift in running to mischief. God hates a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. God does not like troublemakers. 

Now, discord means strife, quarrels. It means strife among people who ought to agree. He's not talking about enemy soldiers. He's talking about brethren who ought to love one another. You see, not all division is bad. The Lord Jesus was the cause of division. John 7:43: "So there was a division among the people because of Him." John 9:16: "And there was a division among them." It's amazing, John 7:43, John 9:16, you have the same statement: there was a division because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then John 10:19: "There was a division therefore among the Jews for these sayings." 

Division can be caused by truth. Sometimes in a church or in a family, standing up for the truth creates a division. Jesus said, "I am the door," and a door divides people, doesn't it? And so our Lord was the cause of division. If by standing for what is true and right you create division, that's one thing. But if you go around creating dissension and discord, sowing discord, that is sin. God says, "I don't like people, I hate those that sow discord among brethren." 

Well, we must stop to realize that discord is a great sin. When there is disunity among the people of God, it hurts. It's contrary to the nature of God. The Godhead is not fighting among themselves, are they? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit love one another and they work together and they plan together. There's no division in God. The nature of God is that of unity and harmony. God is love. And yet when God's people, who are supposed to have God's nature within, are competing with each other, criticizing each other, there is discord. This is contrary to the nature of God. 

It's contrary to the nature of salvation. The purpose of salvation is to put things together, not to tear them apart. Jesus Christ died on the cross to be able to bring Jew and Gentile together, to be able to bring sinners in reconciliation to God. Jesus died that He might bring things together. He said, "I am gathering. If you're not gathering with Me, you're scattering." And so discord is contrary to the very nature of salvation. 

It certainly is contrary to the nature of the church. Throughout the New Testament, the admonitions are given to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So often in the churches, Paul and Peter and John encountered dissension and discord. You read the Corinthian correspondence and Paul's heart was broken because of the sin there in Corinth. The people were not walking with the Lord and walking in unity.

The church is a family and family members should love each other. The church is a flock and the sheep ought to flock together and care for one another. The church is a body and the members of the body belong to each other and they affect each other, they need each other, they must minister to each other. And so discord among the brethren is contrary to the very nature of the church. 

It's contrary to the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in this world to bring about unity, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And the Holy Spirit of God wants to bring sinners to the Savior, then He wants to bring saints closer to one another, that they might walk in the Spirit and love in the Spirit. We grieve the Holy Spirit by discord. 

Certainly, discord is contrary to the witness of the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ in His high priestly prayer of John 17 prayed that we might be one, that the world might believe that Jesus was sent of God. The world looks at the church and sees all of this competition and criticism. It hears about the splits and the divisions and these things are so tragic. And the world doesn't understand. The world says, "Well, why should I bother to be a Christian? I've got enough trouble of my own. Why should I bother to get into that church or that Sunday school class and have even more trouble?" 

Oh, will we realize how God's heart is broken because of discord. Now, what are the seeds that we plant that eventually bear the fruit of discord? Notice what He says: "He that soweth discord among brethren," Proverbs 6:19. It sometimes takes time for all of this to grow and produce the weeds and the noxious plants of discord. What are some of these seeds that we plant? Well, He's mentioned some of them already in this list. Let's start with the very first one: Pride. Proverbs 6:17: "A proud look." Pride always brings dissension and discord. 

In the little letter that we call Third John, the apostle John talks about a proud man who had divided a church. 3 John 1:9: "I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church."

Now, Diotrephes was a proud man who was practicing what people call secondary separation. He would not receive John, nor would he receive John's friends, or the friends of John's friends who wanted to receive them. On three different levels, this man would not fellowship with these people. He was a proud man. He had to run the church. Alas, alas, so often you find in a Sunday school class or in a church somebody who has to be boss, somebody who has to be important. 

There's a big difference between dictatorship and leadership. A leader gets in front and says, "Follow me, I'll lead the way, I'll bear the burdens with you, I'll show you how to do it, let's do it together." A dictator gets behind with a whip and says, "Get moving, make me look good." In Proverbs 13:10, I read: "Only by pride cometh contention." Proverbs 13:10: "Only by pride cometh contention." You get proud, and before long there will be fighting, criticizing, and there will be dissension and discord. 

No wonder Paul wrote to the Philippians: "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, and of one mind." Then he goes on to say in Philippians 2:3: "Let nothing, nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better or more important than themselves." Pride gets in the way and we've got to have our own way. 

Lying will bring discord among the brethren. He talks about people that speak lies, a lying tongue. The truth is medicine that heals. Lies, that's poison that brings death. Truth is love that binds together, speaking the truth in love. Lies bring the darkness in, and where there's darkness there's going to be discord. 

I think too of the sin of gossip. He talks here about lying tongues, a false witness, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. These are tragic things, aren't they? Gossip. You've got your Bible before you, look at Proverbs 16. We're going to be looking at many verses in Proverbs. Proverbs 16:28: "A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends." Gossiping. And oh, we are so good at this. We don't really tell lies, we sort of tell half-truths, you know. Proverbs 17:9: "He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth friends." Love is a great covering, isn't it? Love covers a multitude of sins.

Now love doesn't condone sin, but love covers it, doesn't go around talking about it. Proverbs 18:8: "The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts." Have you ever really been wounded by somebody's gossiping words? Oh, it hurts. And usually you can't fight back. There's no way you can tell the truth, people won't believe you. 

Proverbs 26:20. Now mark these verses in your Bible, meditate on them. Proverbs 26:20: "Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth." Here's one home fire we should not keep burning. Gossip will bring eventually a harvest of discord. So will anger and hatred. You find somebody who has an angry spirit, a hateful spirit, like the elder brother in Luke 15, and there's going to be discord. Proverbs 10:12: "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins." At the end of the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 29:22: "An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression." Now where's this come from? Look at verse 23: "A man's pride shall bring him low." You get somebody on a committee who's angry, who's hateful, and who's proud, and you're going to have trouble. That committee is going to have a difficult time making any unanimous decisions. Pride creates division and dissension and discord, lies will do it, gossip, anger and hatred. 

A quarrelsome spirit. Oh, there are some people for some reason walk around with a revolver in their hands. They're always looking for a fight, and especially at business meetings. Proverbs 26:21: "As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife." And I've seen this, where the meeting is going beautifully until so-and-so walks in, and there comes the contentious spirit. Sometimes these people love to get involved in lawsuits. They rush out to sue somebody. And of course Christians are not supposed to sue each other. Proverbs 25:8: "Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame." Don't rush out with a big mouth and a hateful spirit to create a problem. You may end up embarrassed. 

Proverbs 17 also talks about this same quarrelsome spirit, verse 14: "The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water." You go to the dam and you put a little hole in the dam. Doesn't do much damage, but all of a sudden, boom, the whole thing collapses. "Therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with." Don't start a fight. Don't keep a fight going. Don't add fuel to the fire. Proverbs 17:19: "He loveth transgression that loveth strife." In other words, a person who loves sin loves to start an argument. This can happen in a home as well as in a business meeting. A quarrelsome spirit will bring discord. You start sowing that attitude and before long you will reap a harvest of discord. 

Paul tells us over in Timothy that foolish questions will also cause discord. 1 Timothy 6:3, beginning at verse 3: "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud." Notice how pride keeps creeping in. "Knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds."

Don't argue over things in the Bible that really are not that important, and don't fuss about some of these words. People like to get together and argue. Some Sunday school classes are nothing but a continual debate. And we don't study the Word of God for the purpose of dissension. We study the Word of God for the purpose of growing, exhorting one another, edifying one another. 2 Timothy 2:23: "But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes."

There are some things about the Word of God we can't explain, and there are some doctrinal matters that we're not going to settle, and we're just not going to fuss over it, we're not going to argue about it. But there are some people who love that. Oh, they just love to get into a Sunday school class and show how much they've studied and how much they know, and really all they're doing is sowing seed that is going eventually result in strife. 

The Word of God makes it clear that our Lord Jesus Christ wants us to sow seeds that produce a harvest of unity and love. In fact, James talks about this in James 3:16: "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." James 3:18: "And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."

He is saying here very clearly that when you have God's wisdom from above, and that comes from the Word of God when you have God's wisdom from above, that wisdom is going to produce peace. It's going to make you gentle. It's amazing how many letters we receive at Back to the Bible from people who are not gentle. Oh, they're telling us how much they know about the Word of God, but they disagreed with something we said, but oh my, there's no grace, no love, no gentleness, no humility in the letter. My Bible says if I really know the Word of God, then there's going to be a peaceable spirit, a gentle spirit, a spirit easy to be intreated, a spirit that's producing good fruits. The important thing is not how much I know about the Bible, it's how much I obey about the Bible. And how many am I witnessing to, and how many am I seeking to win to the Lord Jesus Christ? 

Now, are you going around sowing the seeds of discord, or are you practicing James 3:18: "And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." Our Lord said, "Blessed are the peacemakers," and you and I had better avoid being troublemakers. Our Lord prayed that they may all be one, "As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one." May the Lord help us to sow seeds of love and unity.