The Bait to Debate

I once watched an intriguing documentary about some members of the United States military who were being given a test.  The leader of each small group was assigned the task of helping his group through a difficult obstacle course.  What the leader (and his group) did not know was that the obstacle course was purposely designed for failure.  It was, scientifically, an impossible course.  The real test was not how well the small groups could build a bridge or navigate a difficult maze.  The test was how well the leader could keep his group unified through an impossible situation. 

 

Sounds kind of like life, doesn’t it?  Many of our trials down here are not the real “test.”  We are not really being tested on how clean we keep the house; how fast we can get ready for church; how much we know when asked a loaded question.  We are being tested on how well we respond to humiliating and impossible situations.

 

Of the situations that tend to be the “test behind the test”, one is in the area of debate.  Christians can differ on many areas—some of large consequence, others not so big.  As I’ve often shared here before, I love healthy debate because I think it helps to strengthen our logic.  Unfortunately, my selfish flesh also loves unhealthy debate--but the Holy Spirit is working on me there!  We are trying to help our own children learn how to avoid the “bait for debate” when the debate is of the unhealthy brand. 

There are three traps to avoid in debating.  Avoiding these traps can keep your blood pressure down, your testimony up, and better yet:  enable you to pass the real test! 

 

1.  Engaging in debates that are “too high” for me.

 

The internet has changed the way we relate to one another.  There are blessings—such as being able to post short videos for far-away grandparents to watch.  But, as one preacher has pointed out, one of the negative impacts is that young people are given an opportunity to engage in debate with their elders.  Almost every article, every Facebook post, every video has comments enabled, where teenagers can “school” their elders, often in ridiculing tones. 

 

The Bible instructs us not to rebuke an elder, but to entreat him as a father.  This verse is based on the assumption that we understand how fathers ought to be treated in the first place (Ephesians 6).   While there are situations in life that invariably place younger people over their aged elders (trying to coax an elderly grandparent to surrender a drivers’ license, for example), there is still an attitude of honor and respect that is often missing in today’s dialog.    

 

Another debate we can decline to attend is when the debate involves things that we have not fully studied.  It is very easy to quote excerpts from other people’s study and to adopt it as our own.  Kids sometimes like to argue by quoting things they have heard their parents say, even without understanding the real gist of the subject they are debating.  With just a little work and good listening skills, we all can be Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh.  While it is good for us to have a teachable spirit and to be educated by knowledgeable people, I am always thankful when someone gives credit to a source rather than claiming to own information they read on a blog just an hour earlier.  There is a difference between a debate and a book report. 

 

2.  Solidifying a weak position to avoid humbling myself.

 

Some people represent good positions, but they represent them so poorly that I am tempted to turn the opposite direction just to spite them.  Grandma would have calling that “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”  That sort of revenge is like a serrated boomerang.  It will accomplish its purpose but likely reach the wrong target:  Myself! 

 

I remember sitting in a Sunday school class as a teenager.  For a very short while, we had a teacher who was filling the position until the church could hire a youth pastor.  The man was annoying, arrogant, and tended to lure people into odd debates, although he had many areas of glaring weakness in his own life and in his unhappy, rebellious family.  It was no secret that the teenaged boys in our class resented him.  They loved engaging in his debates and arguing with him during the Sunday school hour.  There may have been a few times he was actually correct in his position, but I think most of us would have joined the communist party before we would have admitted that man was right on anything.

 

The world is full of arrogant and unkind people.  In our quest not to be controlled by them, let’s not be stupid just to prove a point.  Isn’t that the same as being controlled by them?  Niceness is not always a prerequisite for being “right.”  And sometimes strange people have obtained knowledge I could use.   I dismiss them at my own peril. 

 

3.  Failing the larger test. 

 

Remember, the debate itself is not always the real test.  How we handle people matters a great deal to God. 

 

I Corinthians 13:2 says, “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” 

 

The Bible is filled with references to the value of faith and knowledge—yet, without charity, we are nothing.  We may have the knowledge to win every debate, every time.  We may have the ability to understand difficult Bible passages, and we may always have the right answers.  But without charity, that knowledge is meaningless.  I am nothing. 

 

For those of us who would be tempted to enjoy racing out to meet conflict, the caution is clear:  Why, exactly, are you bringing this issue up?  Proverbs talks about the loving reproof of a true friend, but proud contention is destructive.   It is motivated by a desire to claim superiority and spirituality.   It ignores the beam in its own eye, while vigorously plucking at any little moat it can find in someone else’s eye. 

 

 

Proud debate seeks honor for self.  Charitable confrontation seeks honor for Christ alone.  May the Holy Spirit teach us to recognize the difference in our own lives!