There is an old saying that most of you have heard: "Never discuss religion or politics." It's Presidential campaign time again and facebook is set on fire with arguments. The Bible is a good guide for how to approach presenting your views to another person or persons. These are scripture verses but the same principle applies today in other venues.
"How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?" Job 6:25
13 To answer before listening—that is folly and shame. Proverbs 18:13
"No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil." Isaiah 59:4
"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." II Corinthians 10:5
"I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments." Colossians 2:4
"Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels." II Timothy 2:23
"But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless." Titus 3:9 (The law being mainly the first 5 books of the Old Testament.)
"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill (or try to kill the President). You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures (in this case your choice causes)..."James 4:1-3
"But I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God." Job 13:3 We just know God is on our side. He may not want the best candidate to win simply to humble the nation and show the nation that we need God to rule as He has in former centuries.
"Would they argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value?" Job 15:3"A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel." Proverbs 15:18
"Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out." Proverbs 17:14
"Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin;..." Proverbs 17:19
"An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends and against all sound judgment starts quarrels." Proverbs 18:1
"It is to one’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel." Proverbs 20:3
"Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended." Proverbs 22:10
"Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife." Proverbs 25:24
"Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down." Proverbs 26:20
"Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters." Romans 14:1
"You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?..." I Corinthians 3:3
"Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, ..." I Timothy 3:1-2 This verse is talking about elders in the church but it also applies to those in authority.
"These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain." I Timothy 6:1-5
Regarding false teachers: "Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen." II Timothy 2:14"And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful." II Timothy 2:24
"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? James 4:1" What do you desire to happen in the election? Do you want to win the argument for the sake of winning or personal victory?
"You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God." James 4:2
