How to Avoid a Church Fight

At this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose.
–Acts 6:1

Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra was noted not only for his skill on the baseball diamond but also for his humorous mangling of the English language. The sayings he is credited for include “When you come to a fork in the road, take it” and “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.” After his teammates hit back-to-back home runs, Berra allegedly said one of his most famous Yogi-isms: “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

I think about this expression when I read the book of Acts. In Acts 5, the church faced two threats: the internal threat of sin and the external threat of persecution. Neither threat was effective in silencing the church. But Satan is not very original, and in Acts 6–7, he used the same tactics to try to silence the church. It was déjà vu all over again!

By this time, the church was a few years old, and it was growing quickly. Where there are people, there are going to be problems. Proverbs 14:4 says, “Where no oxen are, the manger is clean.” In other words, if you want a clean stable, get rid of the animals. If you want a church without any problems, get rid of the people. But that defeats the purpose of the church, doesn’t it? We can expect to have problems in the church–but we can’t afford to let those problems destroy the unity of the body of Christ.

Acts 6:1 explains the internal threat the early church faced: “At this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.”

In the early church, there were two categories of Jewish Christians. The Hellenistic Jews were transplants from Gentile countries. They spoke Greek, not Hebrew, and had adopted some of the customs of the Gentile nations. The native Hebrews, on the other hand, were born and bred in Israel and spoke Hebrew. Though there were cultural differences between these two groups, because of the Holy Spirit, they were united in the church. This week, we’re going to see how they preserved this unity and why it’s so important to keep the peace in our churches today.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “How to Avoid a Church Fight,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2021.

Yogi Berra, as quoted in The Yogi Book: “I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said” (Workman, 1998), 64, 92, 45.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.