But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
Paul warns those set free in Christ not to turn freedom into an occasion for selfishness, but to serve one another in love, for hatred and strife that divides believers into hostile parties attacking each other like wild beasts brings present misery and final ruin to both those who fight and the church itself. Biting and devouring is walking after the flesh, set against walking in the Spirit in practical godliness and loving service. Such contention springs from separation from Christ and loss of His love through selfishness and indifference to His command, leaving the soul untransformed, and it is the work of Satan to weaken faith, discourage hearts, and turn united strength to his own use. The only safeguard is union with Christ as the great center through constant prayer for the Holy Spirit, so that His peace rules in the heart, brethren are drawn together in one mind, and the fruit of the Spirit replaces discord with burden-bearing, restoration, and soul-winning love. That love forbids carrying disputes to unbelieving courts, spreading reports of faults and evil speaking instead of private restoration, and tearing the flock through careless leadership, partiality, and criticism, calling believers instead to labor tenderly to help one another against their common foe.
Words and Setting
Paul gave the warning at a time when false teachers had introduced doctrines opposed to the gospel and had influenced so many believers that to take direct action to separate the troublers threatened strife and division ruinous to the spiritual interests of the church. For that reason he desired their separation yet pressed instead for mutual help in love rather than a course that would endanger the church.
To bite and devour pictures believers indulging hatred and strife, dividing into parties and attacking one another like brutes or wild beasts. That attack is made with hostile feelings and words, with disagreement and resentment allowed to take hold. To take heed lest ye be consumed means such mutual conflict brings present unhappiness and future ruin upon those who engage in it. By attacking and consuming one another they risk being destroyed in turn, and that destruction endangers the church itself.
The warning belongs to the call of those called unto liberty not to use liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love to serve and help one another. All the requirements of the law setting forth duty to fellow men are fulfilled in loving one's neighbor as oneself, so that little love, deference and respect, with prejudice, divisions, contentions, vainglory, provoking and envying, is itself biting and devouring in danger of mutual consumption. Biting and devouring is walking by the flesh, which produces strife and other harmful conduct, in contrast to walking in the Spirit and to practical godliness in loving service.
Cause and Cure
Biting and devouring comes from separation from Christ and loss of His love from the heart, when the love of God is not a living, abiding element in the soul. It is rooted in selfishness that divides hearts, in belittling others and showing little love, deference and respect, and in cherishing prejudice, divisions, contentions, vainglory, provoking and envying. It comes from indifference to the command to love, which is a mistake needing correction, and from lacking truth in the soul to transform life and character and to control thoughts, words, deportment and conduct. Those who claim to keep the commandments yet treat one another with unkindness and disrespect show this lack, and are called instead to surrender fully to God, to remove selfishness, and to love one another as Christ loved.
Such contention is the fruit and work of Satan, and warfare among believers through hostile feelings, words and attacks that risk mutual destruction belongs to him. Even when professed followers suppose they are serving God, by attacking and consuming one another they help Satan harm souls, discourage hearts and those trying to serve God, and weaken God's people in faith and strength until they are left without strength. Anger and enmity in this conduct weaken both physical and spiritual strength, and believers are called to walk in the Spirit rather than allow disagreement and resentment to take hold.
Yielding to a criticizing, faultfinding, judging and condemning spirit, acting as judges instead of fellow helpers who encourage one another and advance the work in hard places, is yielding to Satan's temptation and letting him enter the heart. It opens the door to the powers of darkness and brings darkness that kills Christian activity. It grieves the Holy Spirit because it disregards Christ's prayer just before His trial and crucifixion that His disciples might be one. It grieves and wounds hearts, robs God's workers of strength and courage, increases their burdens, worse than wastes precious time, and fills minds with sadness and distrust. It turns time, energy and strength that should be wholly on the Lord's side in united, concerted action against the enemy of God and man to the enemy's use, when every jot of strength of mind and body should be so employed.
The only way to prevent the evils of hatred, strife and party division is to walk in the Spirit by constant prayer seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which leads to love and unity. Without this, indulgence in such conflict brings present unhappiness and future ruin and endangers spiritual interests.
The cure is union with Christ as the great center, so that approaching Him brings brethren together in the same mind and judgment, with hearts renewed to represent Him. When the door of the heart is opened to His Spirit and grace, and His peace rules in the heart and is revealed in the character, there is no discord, strife, emulation or seeking for supremacy. There is instead great earnest effort to live His life, to hold Him up, to be much in prayer and by living faith receive from Him, to spend and be spent to win souls, and to represent His spirit of mercy while giving no occasion for anyone to follow an evil example.
Those who are His show the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance — having crucified the flesh and walking in the Spirit. They restore the erring in meekness and bear one another's burdens to fulfill the law of Christ, giving enemies no occasion by any suggestion of differences. Instead of quarrels and hostility they build one another up in faith, set aside disputes and differences of opinion, strive to overcome their own faults and fight sin, so that mutual love bears good fruit and God's peace and power are shown. Where God's love abides there is love among brethren that corrects biting and devouring, convinces of the mistake, draws into fellowship, and leads to doing Christ's work.
Practical Applications
Taking disputes among fellow believers to unbelieving lawyers and courts of law for redress is biting and devouring in every sense of the word, consuming one another through conflict. It is casting aside inspired counsel and doing in the face of the message the very thing forbidden. It insults Jehovah, prayers will not be heard so that prayer may as well cease, and offenders are left to become subjects of Satan until they see their folly, confess their sins and seek the Lord.
Devising, reporting, thinking and speaking evil, backbiting with evil tongues, spreading reports of one another's faults and listening to them, suspicion, harshness, denunciation and criticism is biting and devouring that destroys fellowship, harms the church, shuts Jesus out of hearts, blackens the record in the books of heaven, brings condemnation, drives one to the grave and another from fellowship. Complaints must not be spread or taken up, and the ear must be closed unless the Saviour's steps for the erring have been strictly followed. The offender must first be approached alone in tenderness and humility, then prayerfully labored with in company with two or three others in meekness and love for his soul, and only then told to the church for action according to the Scriptures. Evil speaking finds a fruitful field only because brethren give ear to it, and refusing to listen and refusing to spread unverified complaints would soon make it cease and leave malice no opportunity to flourish.
Those who foster strife by distrust, faultfinding and complaint bite and devour and cause serious harm, destroying fellowship. Those who separate from the church carrying that suspicious, faultfinding spirit will soon turn against each other, for mutual suspicion leaves them without real affection or unity. Those acting from Satan's influence may even attack people trying to help them, and misplaced sympathy encourages that influence.
The danger of tearing and devouring comes through leaders, for choosing men blindly and without great care to occupy positions of responsibility as guardians of the churches teaches the flock to tear and devour. Biting and devouring disqualifies a man from being entrusted with the flock, because such a temperament will either rule or ruin, and so high an estimate of self leaves him unable to feed the flock at the right time or minister to the sick and suffering in it. Unreliable sharp business men placed in trust who work from human judgment without living connection with God, without supernatural power and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, and without the True Shepherd's Spirit, attack and tear down instead of helping. They fail to strengthen what is ready to die, to watch for souls, to save what is ready to perish, and to speak a timely word under the Holy Spirit to draw imperiled souls into safe paths, and those manifesting this wolf spirit will meet a most fearful account in the judgment. Men bearing responsibilities must therefore be men of prayer and humility, guided by God's Spirit in all dealings with brethren, giving an example of righteousness and sacredly guarding the reputation of God's workers, with entire transformation by Christ's love replacing criticism in thought and conversation with humility and replacing selfish ungentle conduct at home with kind, gentle, considerate behavior.
Selfish workers whose management is marked by partiality, favoritism, hypocrisy and bribery, while criticizing and undermining people of principle, turn against one another through hostile destructive conduct to mutual ruin. Hostile misrepresenting conduct like Snook's toward believers who had helped him is biting and devouring the flock. All through the history of the third angel's message there are men who delight in bearing false witness and cruelly injuring reputations, especially of God's servants, as spots in feasts of charity, tares among wheat, wolves among sheep, and every one will be rewarded according to works when God judges the world, when wheat and tares are separated and those who sought to destroy reputations are revealed as hypocrites and by their own lips clear those they accused.
Instead of unkindness, disrespect, belittling and tearing one another apart through quarrels and hostility, believers are appointed to labor earnestly, kindly and tenderly in love to help one another resist the common foe with brotherly love and compassion. They are to love the purchase of Christ's blood and use God-given means, faculties and opportunities well, bound in unceasing responsibility to the infinite God. They are to love one another as Christ loved them by full surrender to God and removal of selfishness that divides hearts, showing faith and love for God and one another. They are to build one another up in faith, set aside disputes and differences of opinion, strive to overcome their own faults and fight sin, and walk humbly with God, so that mutual love bears good fruit and His peace and power are shown among His people.
Paul warns those set free in Christ not to turn freedom into an occasion for selfishness, but to serve one another in love, for hatred and strife that divides believers into hostile parties attacking each other like wild beasts brings present misery and final ruin to both those who fight and the church itself. Biting and devouring is walking after the flesh, set against walking in the Spirit in practical godliness and loving service. Such contention springs from separation from Christ and loss of His love through selfishness and indifference to His command, leaving the soul untransformed, and it is the work of Satan to weaken faith, discourage hearts, and turn united strength to his own use. The only safeguard is union with Christ as the great center through constant prayer for the Holy Spirit, so that His peace rules in the heart, brethren are drawn together in one mind, and the fruit of the Spirit replaces discord with burden-bearing, restoration, and soul-winning love. That love forbids carrying disputes to unbelieving courts, spreading reports of faults and evil speaking instead of private restoration, and tearing the flock through careless leadership, partiality, and criticism, calling believers instead to labor tenderly to help one another against their common foe.
Words and Setting
Paul gave the warning at a time when false teachers had introduced doctrines opposed to the gospel and had influenced so many believers that to take direct action to separate the troublers threatened strife and division ruinous to the spiritual interests of the church. For that reason he desired their separation yet pressed instead for mutual help in love rather than a course that would endanger the church.
To bite and devour pictures believers indulging hatred and strife, dividing into parties and attacking one another like brutes or wild beasts. That attack is made with hostile feelings and words, with disagreement and resentment allowed to take hold. To take heed lest ye be consumed means such mutual conflict brings present unhappiness and future ruin upon those who engage in it. By attacking and consuming one another they risk being destroyed in turn, and that destruction endangers the church itself.
The warning belongs to the call of those called unto liberty not to use liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love to serve and help one another. All the requirements of the law setting forth duty to fellow men are fulfilled in loving one's neighbor as oneself, so that little love, deference and respect, with prejudice, divisions, contentions, vainglory, provoking and envying, is itself biting and devouring in danger of mutual consumption. Biting and devouring is walking by the flesh, which produces strife and other harmful conduct, in contrast to walking in the Spirit and to practical godliness in loving service.
Cause and Cure
Biting and devouring comes from separation from Christ and loss of His love from the heart, when the love of God is not a living, abiding element in the soul. It is rooted in selfishness that divides hearts, in belittling others and showing little love, deference and respect, and in cherishing prejudice, divisions, contentions, vainglory, provoking and envying. It comes from indifference to the command to love, which is a mistake needing correction, and from lacking truth in the soul to transform life and character and to control thoughts, words, deportment and conduct. Those who claim to keep the commandments yet treat one another with unkindness and disrespect show this lack, and are called instead to surrender fully to God, to remove selfishness, and to love one another as Christ loved.
Such contention is the fruit and work of Satan, and warfare among believers through hostile feelings, words and attacks that risk mutual destruction belongs to him. Even when professed followers suppose they are serving God, by attacking and consuming one another they help Satan harm souls, discourage hearts and those trying to serve God, and weaken God's people in faith and strength until they are left without strength. Anger and enmity in this conduct weaken both physical and spiritual strength, and believers are called to walk in the Spirit rather than allow disagreement and resentment to take hold.
Yielding to a criticizing, faultfinding, judging and condemning spirit, acting as judges instead of fellow helpers who encourage one another and advance the work in hard places, is yielding to Satan's temptation and letting him enter the heart. It opens the door to the powers of darkness and brings darkness that kills Christian activity. It grieves the Holy Spirit because it disregards Christ's prayer just before His trial and crucifixion that His disciples might be one. It grieves and wounds hearts, robs God's workers of strength and courage, increases their burdens, worse than wastes precious time, and fills minds with sadness and distrust. It turns time, energy and strength that should be wholly on the Lord's side in united, concerted action against the enemy of God and man to the enemy's use, when every jot of strength of mind and body should be so employed.
The only way to prevent the evils of hatred, strife and party division is to walk in the Spirit by constant prayer seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which leads to love and unity. Without this, indulgence in such conflict brings present unhappiness and future ruin and endangers spiritual interests.
The cure is union with Christ as the great center, so that approaching Him brings brethren together in the same mind and judgment, with hearts renewed to represent Him. When the door of the heart is opened to His Spirit and grace, and His peace rules in the heart and is revealed in the character, there is no discord, strife, emulation or seeking for supremacy. There is instead great earnest effort to live His life, to hold Him up, to be much in prayer and by living faith receive from Him, to spend and be spent to win souls, and to represent His spirit of mercy while giving no occasion for anyone to follow an evil example.
Those who are His show the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance — having crucified the flesh and walking in the Spirit. They restore the erring in meekness and bear one another's burdens to fulfill the law of Christ, giving enemies no occasion by any suggestion of differences. Instead of quarrels and hostility they build one another up in faith, set aside disputes and differences of opinion, strive to overcome their own faults and fight sin, so that mutual love bears good fruit and God's peace and power are shown. Where God's love abides there is love among brethren that corrects biting and devouring, convinces of the mistake, draws into fellowship, and leads to doing Christ's work.
Practical Applications
Taking disputes among fellow believers to unbelieving lawyers and courts of law for redress is biting and devouring in every sense of the word, consuming one another through conflict. It is casting aside inspired counsel and doing in the face of the message the very thing forbidden. It insults Jehovah, prayers will not be heard so that prayer may as well cease, and offenders are left to become subjects of Satan until they see their folly, confess their sins and seek the Lord.
Devising, reporting, thinking and speaking evil, backbiting with evil tongues, spreading reports of one another's faults and listening to them, suspicion, harshness, denunciation and criticism is biting and devouring that destroys fellowship, harms the church, shuts Jesus out of hearts, blackens the record in the books of heaven, brings condemnation, drives one to the grave and another from fellowship. Complaints must not be spread or taken up, and the ear must be closed unless the Saviour's steps for the erring have been strictly followed. The offender must first be approached alone in tenderness and humility, then prayerfully labored with in company with two or three others in meekness and love for his soul, and only then told to the church for action according to the Scriptures. Evil speaking finds a fruitful field only because brethren give ear to it, and refusing to listen and refusing to spread unverified complaints would soon make it cease and leave malice no opportunity to flourish.
Those who foster strife by distrust, faultfinding and complaint bite and devour and cause serious harm, destroying fellowship. Those who separate from the church carrying that suspicious, faultfinding spirit will soon turn against each other, for mutual suspicion leaves them without real affection or unity. Those acting from Satan's influence may even attack people trying to help them, and misplaced sympathy encourages that influence.
The danger of tearing and devouring comes through leaders, for choosing men blindly and without great care to occupy positions of responsibility as guardians of the churches teaches the flock to tear and devour. Biting and devouring disqualifies a man from being entrusted with the flock, because such a temperament will either rule or ruin, and so high an estimate of self leaves him unable to feed the flock at the right time or minister to the sick and suffering in it. Unreliable sharp business men placed in trust who work from human judgment without living connection with God, without supernatural power and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, and without the True Shepherd's Spirit, attack and tear down instead of helping. They fail to strengthen what is ready to die, to watch for souls, to save what is ready to perish, and to speak a timely word under the Holy Spirit to draw imperiled souls into safe paths, and those manifesting this wolf spirit will meet a most fearful account in the judgment. Men bearing responsibilities must therefore be men of prayer and humility, guided by God's Spirit in all dealings with brethren, giving an example of righteousness and sacredly guarding the reputation of God's workers, with entire transformation by Christ's love replacing criticism in thought and conversation with humility and replacing selfish ungentle conduct at home with kind, gentle, considerate behavior.
Selfish workers whose management is marked by partiality, favoritism, hypocrisy and bribery, while criticizing and undermining people of principle, turn against one another through hostile destructive conduct to mutual ruin. Hostile misrepresenting conduct like Snook's toward believers who had helped him is biting and devouring the flock. All through the history of the third angel's message there are men who delight in bearing false witness and cruelly injuring reputations, especially of God's servants, as spots in feasts of charity, tares among wheat, wolves among sheep, and every one will be rewarded according to works when God judges the world, when wheat and tares are separated and those who sought to destroy reputations are revealed as hypocrites and by their own lips clear those they accused.
Instead of unkindness, disrespect, belittling and tearing one another apart through quarrels and hostility, believers are appointed to labor earnestly, kindly and tenderly in love to help one another resist the common foe with brotherly love and compassion. They are to love the purchase of Christ's blood and use God-given means, faculties and opportunities well, bound in unceasing responsibility to the infinite God. They are to love one another as Christ loved them by full surrender to God and removal of selfishness that divides hearts, showing faith and love for God and one another. They are to build one another up in faith, set aside disputes and differences of opinion, strive to overcome their own faults and fight sin, and walk humbly with God, so that mutual love bears good fruit and His peace and power are shown among His people.