How Do We Avoid Conflict?
(3) Be a peacemaker by striving to be pure.
Those who are pure live opposite worldly wisdom. They live according to God’s Word: Peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
James says,
“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (Jas 3:17–18)
The peaceable person avoids arguments or violent conflict. While those who are gentle are not harsh, but careful with others feelings.
Those open to reason don’t live by the motto “My way or the highway.” Instead they are willing to sit down and discuss with others, even yielding their will at times when a moral or unalterable theological principle is not involved.
While those full of mercy and good fruits don’t hold sins against another. They are forgiving. They have love for their neighbor and are generous in giving to others in need.
The impartial do not show partiality to one group over the other. While the sincere are not double-minded, but free from hypocrisy or playing a part, as well as they don’t hold to a double standard.
Summary
The pure are peacemakers, sowing peace in a community instead of conflict. So if you want peace, be a peacemaker instead of a peace breaker.
Looking Forward
The next post in this series suggests we can avoid conflict by not speaking evil against one another.
Question for Reflection
- Are you a peacemaker?
Christianity Matters 
Peacemaking can follow 5 options come from the Dual Concern Model of conflict resolution. Avoidance, Accommodation, Compromise, Competition and Collaboration and the 5 options generally held to be possible solutions. There are times avoidance is the right response at the moment but isn’t a long term solution. Accommodation is a lose-win model where one party gives in to the other to preserve the relationship but may not solve a conflict completely. Compromise is seen as a lose-lose model where both parties given in to reach a solution, which again, may not completely lead to peace. Competition is a win-lose resolution where one party wins at the expense of what the other party hopes for or wants. Finally, Collaboration is where the parties come together and find a solution that is win-win and where they may both wind up with a better solution than they initially thought possible. Collaboration leads to transcendence in peacemaking where the parties not only come to a peaceful solution but also use their situation to teach others or help others also collaborate and create better situations than they had before the conflict flared up.
This is only one sliver of what may be involved with peacemaking. Of course, the most important element of peacemaking is having people with hearts to seek peace and not only their own desires.
Jeff,
Thanks for sharing. I believe those are good categories.
I have a question. If a person is working on an accommodation model, how do you get them to move to a collaboration model? Your thoughts would be helpful to me.
Blessings,
Casey Lewis
Casey, let’s find a time to meet and discuss it. I think there’s more I want to say than I can write in this space. I’m headed out of town either Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning but should be around early in the week.
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