1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”
This week, Michael writes that there is so much confusion in this world. There’s a profusion of confusion. The devil’s ploy is to divide and conquer. He pits competing factions against each other so people will split apart and fight each other. There is rich against poor, educated against uneducated, husbands against wives, parents against children, Baby boomers against Millennials, men against women, democrats against republicans, liberals against conservatives, workers against management, Sunnis against Shiites, Catholics against Protestants, citizens against aliens, Trojans against Bruins, haves against the have-nots and the list goes on and on ad infinitum.
According to James 3:16, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” The word Confusion is the Greek Word Akatastasia. Which means instability, a state of disorder, chaos, and confusion. The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “confusion” as: In a general sense, a mixture of several things promiscuously; hence, disorder; irregularity. Confusion is the result of strife, contentions and competing factions. The context of this verse is wisdom: the wisdom of this world versus the wisdom of God. The devil is the god of disorder, chaos, and confusion. On the other hand God is the god of order, peace, and unity.
According to John 10:10, the devil’s purpose is to steal, to kill, and to destroy. He tears things apart: In stealing, he separates us from our rightful possessions, in killing he separates us from our physical life, in destroying, he explodes that which God unifies; he blows it to smithereens. When we fall into his temptation to sin, sin separates from our fellowship with God.
What’s the opposite of confusion? Clarity. Confusion is kind of like the question Will Rogers asked: What’s the opposite of progress? The answer is congress. Con-fusion means without fusion so the opposite of confusion is fusion. Fusion is defined as the union or blending together of things. Confusion tears things apart. Fission disintegrates whereas fusion integrates. Integrity is the result of fusion.
Nuclear Physics teaches that there’s a lot of destructive power in an explosive nuclear fission reaction. An atomic bomb releases its explosive energy by breaking the bonds between the protons and neutrons in nuclear fission. Fission is different than fusion. In nuclear fission elements such as uranium or plutonium atomize, they explode into smaller elements. A nuclear fission reaction produces a million times more energy than a chemical explosion in a conventional bomb.
However, a nuclear fusion reaction produces four times more energy than a fission reaction. Fission is the power of con-fusion, of exploding, of flying apart, of disintegration. A fusion reaction is the power of implosion, of unity, of integration, of bringing together individual components into a unified whole. In a nuclear fusion reaction, two nuclei of hydrogen fuse together to form one atom of Helium. Nuclear fusion is the reaction that powers the sun and the stars. Nuclear fusion converts mass into energy according to Einstein’s famous equation E=MC2.
The lesson is that God’s power of unity, of bringing together is much greater than the devil’s power of confusion to separate and divide.
Ephesians 4:3 says that we should endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. What is it that unifies and fuses us together within the church, the body of Christ, God’s dwelling place? Let’s read. Colossians 3:12-17, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
It is charity, the agape love of God, that unifies us in the body of Christ. The peace of God is related to unity. “Peace” is defined as: (1) In a general sense, a state of quiet or tranquillity; freedom from disturbance or agitation; applicable to society, to individuals, or to the temper of the mind. (2) Freedom from war. (3) Freedom from agitation or disturbance by the passions, as from fear, terror, anger, anxiety or the like; quietness of mind; tranquility; calmness; quiet of conscience. (4) Heavenly rest; the happiness of heaven. Most people think that peace is the absence of war. However, Jesus said His peace is not the worldly kind of peace. You can’t have godly peace without “the prince of peace”. In John 14:27 Jesus said, “My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Ephesians 2:13-17 “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.”
How do we get the “peace of God” so that our hearts can be joined together, integrated with God’s heart in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? We get the peace of God through Jesus Christ’s reconciling us through the sacrifice of His innocent blood on our behalf. Peace means the end of strife and contention between God and sinful man. In order to reconcile our hearts with God and with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to meet each other at the foot of the cross. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Let's continue Michael's massage on Confusion vs. Fusion in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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