No Matter What It Is Your Responsibility!

What is our responsibility as followers of Jesus Christ when faced with conflict with another person especially a friend or fellow believer? No matter how hard we try we will face conflict with others and some situations will be worse than others. What really matters is not the conflict itself but what we do with the conflict.

Let's look at what Jesus Himself had to say about the subject to explain what I mean. 

First - let's look at Matthew 5:23-24 (The Message)

"This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.

In these passages Jesus tells us that we when we realize that someone has a grudge against us we have a responsibility to drop what we are doing and go to that person and attempt to work things out. If we do not then our offerings which includes our prayers are not accepted by God.

Second - let's look at Matthew 18: 15-20 (The Message)

15-17 "If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you've made a friend. If he won't listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won't listen, tell the church. If he won't listen to the church, you'll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God's forgiving love. 

 18-20 "Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I'll be there."

Notice in these passages Jesus shows that we have a responsibility to go to another who has hurt us and share with them in a respectful way what they did and how it made us feel. If they listen then things will be fine but if they do not then we need to take it to another level to get things worked out.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ you have the responsibility to go to the party you have hurt or you have the responsibility to go to the party who has hurt you and get things worked out.

It is sad when a follower of Jesus does not respond back in either case. It results in more hurt and it shows a lack of respect for the hurt individual and for what Jesus did on the cross for us.

Whether you have hurt someone or someone has hurt you I encourage you right now to drop what you are doing and contact the individual and get the ball rolling towards reconciliation. If you do your actions and words will be pleasing in the sight of our Father in Heaven.