(n.) The act of striving earnest endeavor. ![]() Benner - Ancient Hebrew Dictionaryīitter, sometimes violent conflict or dissension. In that life, as the writer to the Hebrews indicates (), men may at last have to resist unto blood, striving against (antagonizing) sin. To strive for the incorruptible crown () to labour and strive as a servant of God, cheered by a sense of His own mighty working in us () to invite others to strive with us in their prayers () and, again, to strive for Christ’s sake in the spirit of a soldier or an athlete, and to do it lawfully () to strive, in spiritual fellowship with others, for the faith of the gospel ()-all this seems to the Apostle to be of the very essence of the Christian life. Paul indicates its nature by two words of the arena-ἀγωνίζομαι and ἀθλέω, with their compounds. There is, however, an altogether different kind of strife, which at once commends itself to the Christian heart and conscience. Empty discussions merely engendered strifes (μάχας, ), and the bond-servant of Christ must not strive (οὐ δεῖ μάχεσθαι, ).ĥ. This condition of things is reflected in the Pastoral Letters, which charge all believers ‘that they strive not about words, to no profit’ (). The infection of the sub-Apostolic Church by the subtleties of the full-blown Gnostic system led to a widespread, barren warfare of words (λογομαχία, ), far removed from the realities of the Christian conflict with sin. It was essentially a conflict of ideals, a strife between justice on the one hand and generosity on the other. Their quarrel was one of which only good men were capable. Human frailty mingled in both these apostles with what was very noble and honourable. His dispute with Barnabas is described as a παροξυσμός, a sharp contention (). , ) to be of one mind and he urged the Christians of Rome to be at peace, if possible, with all men (). Paul was a keen controversialist, he never wrote a letter that did not contain the word ‘peace.’ He pleaded with his fellow-workers (e.g. And, when he had largely succeeded in exorcizing the legal spirit from the Church, he was obliged, in his old age, to sharpen his weapons once more, and begin an entirely new battle with an incipient Gnosticism (see Colossians).ģ. In things indifferent he was the most yielding of men (-22), but on matters of principle he would not give place to any one for an hour (). ‘Fightings (μάχαι) without’ as well as ‘fears within’ were his appointed lot (). His gospel inevitably created antagonisms wherever he preached it. Against Jews and Judaizers he had to fight the battle of spiritual freedom. Paul himself was compelled, like Jeremiah (), to be a man of strife. Paul gravely rebukes a divisive, quarrelsome spirit, and endeavours to divert the strong currents of religious life into better channels (-13).Ģ. In his First Letter to the Corinthian church St. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas desired was that they should be constituted leaders of rival sects and acclaimed by eager partisans. The result was a species of religious warfare which no doubt afforded a certain evidence of the vitality of the primitive faith but the last thing which St. ![]() Party-spirit (ἔρις, ἐριθεία), which was stimulated by the free institutions of the Hellenic city-States, soon invaded the equally democratic Christian communities. It was not unnatural that strongly marked varieties of character and opinion should appear in the living Apostolic Church, for the proverb ‘many men, many minds’ had its application there as elsewhere.ġ. Strife - Apostolic Church, Dictionary - James Hastings Strife - AHRC-Mechanical Translation-Dictīitter, sometimes violent conflict or dissension.
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