Genesis 13:7
And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
The strife between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot arose because the grazing land was insufficient to support the large herds and flocks of both households together. Such contention over individual rights and preferences carries a grave danger, for it threatens households with being torn asunder and churches with division. When believers quarrel in this way the cause of truth is made a byword and a reproach among the wicked who witness it.
Against that danger Abram answered with a noble, unselfish spirit that sought peace rather than advantage. He refused at all hazards to cling to personal right, choosing instead to propose terms of peace and to make sacrifice in order to glorify God, and God was pleased with him for it. His plea that there be no strife because they were brethren meant more than mere natural relationship. It meant fellowship as worshipers of the true God, showing that the children of God throughout the world are one family to be governed by the same spirit of love and conciliation.
That spirit is uniform courtesy and willingness to do to others as one would wish to be done by. It is kindly affection with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another, and looking not only on one's own things but also on the things of others, a course that would remove half the ills of life. The opposite spirit of self-aggrandizement, which seeks its own, is the spirit of Satan. By contrast, the heart in which the love of Christ is cherished possesses charity which does not seek its own.