Over the weekend something not so amazing happened. The
Cleveland Browns lost their 16th straight game tying them with the
Detroit Lions as the worst record in NFL history (For a 16 game season). While
I feel bad for the Browns and their fan base. I rejoice for the fact we are no
longer the only 0-16 team.
Just like we like to do as humans, we start to compare. Which
team would win between the 2008 Lions and the 2017 Browns? This peaked my
interest as I read articles about the teams. Who had the better people at each
position? This was discussed in great detail over a couple of articles. After
spending about 20 minutes of my life deeply entrenched in this debate, I came
to my conclusion. We will never know and this was a waste of 20 minutes of my
life.
I sat back in awe. I just wasted 20 minutes of my life on a
fake debate. How much better could I have spent my time? Not exactly what I
thought I would do with my time, studying about a fake game that could never
take place. I turned off my phone and moved on. We tend to waste some of our
lives on pointless chatter.
This happens in the church. Paul address this talk when
sharing with Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3-4, “As I urged you when I went into
Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to
teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless
genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than
advancing God’s work – which is by faith.”
False teachers can overtake the church and Paul wanted
Timothy to stay there to stop this from happening. False teachings can ruin the
church. On top of this, people devoted themselves to myths and endless genealogies.
The results of this didn’t have any ability to accomplish what God intended us
to accomplish. I thought the words controversial speculations was powerful. The
Greek meaning of these words means without limits and idle dispute. Idle
dispute can destroy churches and pointless chatter can stop all movements in
God’s work and/or our lives.
Idle disputes and pointless chatter can still impact the
church today. Just this week someone told me a story about a church (We will
call this person Sam). Sam said they were sitting in a dentist chair getting
their teeth cleaned. The person cleaning their teeth talked about how they knew
some of the same people as Sam. Sam asked how they knew them and the person
said church. Then this person told Sam but they didn’t see much of these people
because their church had a big split over worship. For the next 40 minutes Sam
(getting his teeth cleaned with no place to go) endured this person’s story
about how there was this worship minister that was loved by the congregation
and he was replaced by some young kid who wore flip flops on stage. The person
went on to tell how this split the church and couldn’t believe the church
leadership would do this. Sam mind you has attended church but never more then
that. Did this person telling Sam about a church split accomplish God’s work?
Did Sam learn more about the love of Jesus through this story of a church
split?
We need to limit controversial speculations in our lives. Something’s
in our lives are within our control, some are not. We as Christians need to
focus on God’s work. We need to share love and hope with a sincere faith. We
need to limit pointless chatter like the 20 minutes focusing on a game that won’t
ever happen and focus on more important things. What do you need to focus more
on and what pointless chatter do you need to turn away from?
Have a great day.
