I saw a news story on Yahoo about a recent concert that Tupac did with Snoop Dog. The crazy thing is, Tupac has been dead for about 16 years. I remember when the beef between the West Coast Gangster rappers and the East Coast Crew was heating up. Tupac was gunned down and then about 6 months later, it was alleged that Biggie Smalls was killed in retaliation. From the end of 1996 thru all of 1997, this was the biggest story in media – The BEEF BETWEEN THE WEST COAST AND EAST COAST RAPPERS! Craziness!!
This morning I read Matt 18 and it talks about dealing with a brother who has sinned against you. I immediately thought about the story that I read the day before. If only Tupac and Biggie and all their crews read and applied this passage of truth to their lives – maybe they would still be here today.
“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” – Matt 18:15-17
So, basically, if we have beef with a person, we learn to follow a 4-step progression.
1. Go to them and try to work it out. Go them by yourself and in person and clearly tell them how they have offended you. Don’t text them, don’t tell other people and try to gain a lynch mob of supporters, and for goodness sake, don’t ignore it and stew over it and let it build up. Go to them!
2. If that doesn’t work, go to them again with a mutual friend or two. Try again to talk it out. Sometimes having a 3rd party to mediate can help keep tempers cool and can help each side see the other person’s point of view.
3. If this still doesn’t work – tell it to the church. This will bring a spiritual advisor into the mix to help mediate and render judgment of who is right and who is wrong. Sometimes when we try to work things out with a brother or sister, we just won’t agree. But when you bring a pastor into the mix, you at least will get a fair and honest judgment and then you have to be willing to live with the outcome. Sometimes it’s obvious that both of you are wrong and you just need to amicably go your separate ways.
4. If the person refuses to try and work it out – disassociate with them. This is what it means to treat them like a pagan or tax collector; you don’t have anything to do with them. Go your separate ways, without malice in your heart because you know you have done all you can to attempt to reconcile. And notice, this is the 4th step in the progression, NOT the 1st step. Too many people are afraid of conflict and immediately go to this step without trying to reconcile. That’s NOT the way God instructs us to do it.
So, I hope this helps you squash the beef with a brother or sister. Life is too short to keep enemies!
Word…
PA
