Tara-Leigh Cobble

Quarreling can provoke feelings of superiority and inferiority.

It incites our flesh and promotes pride.

It brings more division than unity.

When it comes to your own convictions, walk according to how the Spirit directs you, but trust the Spirit to guide other people in their convictions as well.

They may be at a different part of the journey than you are, and that's okay.

God is sovereign over their steps too.

Verse 4 reminds us that God is the one who upholds us and sustains our obedience.

Ultimately, when it comes to the non-essentials in life, even the religious aspects of life, Paul says it's better to agree to disagree than to argue and try to prove your point.

The time when we should be concerned with another believer's actions is when our actions are tripping them up.

Serve your brothers and sisters well by your actions.

If you have to lay down some rights and preferences for them, that's okay.

Love is a good reason to pivot.

We don't just expect peace to happen naturally.

We have to actively pursue it, to disengage from the flesh and engage with the Spirit.

And he says to not only pursue peace, but mutual upbuilding.

If this were a sliding scale, we could put division and quarreling as a negative number, and peace would be a zero or neutral, then mutual up-building would be on the positive end of the scale.

This isn't just peace, this is progress.

Verse 22 is often taken out of context by people who prefer to keep their faith on the DL.

It says, Given what we read earlier in this letter from Paul about sharing the gospel, and given what we've read from Jesus and what we've seen both of them do with their days and their lives, do you think for a second that this verse means, your faith is private, don't talk about it?

Of course not.