“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:34-35

There were two brothers who fought all the time while growing up. One day the mother asked why they fought. The older brother responded with, “Because it’s fun to fight.” While the younger said, “We fight because we love each other.”

I have one brother who is eight years older than me. Even with that age difference we fought. Actually, he fought and I received. He enjoyed holding me down and bearing his knuckles into my head as he rubbed back and forth to make me cry and scream. The kicking and screaming I did usually annoyed my mother. There are times my mother would tell us that we had to hug and make up. We didn’t like that hugging stuff but it didn’t stop us from fighting.

My dad had a better way to stop the fighting. He would say, “If you don’t stop fighting, I’m going to make you get down in the floor and pray with each other.” No way did we want to pray with each other so when dad was around we didn’t fight. We wanted to but we didn’t.

In the Bible, James asked a question about where disagreements come from among believers. James 4:1 says, “From whence come wars and fightings among you?” Conflicts occur because of selfish desires from within us. I wonder if when we fought within the church family that God would make us get down in the floor and pray together if churches would have less conflict? It’s difficult to be mad at someone you are earnestly praying for. It seems our desires become less important and the desires of another become more important.

Bro. Larry

P.S. You’ve most likely notice that there were no emails for the past two weeks. I had knee replacement and getting back to normal.