Not long since I saw in the report of a meeting a statement something like
this: “The brethren were easily entreated, and so all personal
difficulties were easily settled.” One of the greatest problems that
ministers meet and one that requires the most patience and wisdom is the
problem of settling personal difficulties. These difficulties are often
found existing between those professing to be Christians. And sometimes
they are very hard to get settled. There is just one reason for this:
those involved are not “easy to be entreated.” James tells us that this is
a quality of that “wisdom that is from above.” The quality of being easily
entreated is a mark of true piety and of a Christlike spirit. Where it is
wanting, spirituality is always below normal. It is not hard to settle
troubles if people want to have them settled; for if they really want them
settled, they are willing to settle them the right way. Peace and harmony
mean more to them than any other consideration, except truth. Division and
discord can not exist unless people are willing to have it so; that is,
unless one or both parties place a higher value upon something else than
they do upon peace and harmony.
Abraham is an example of a man who is easily entreated. When strife arose
between his herdmen and those of Lot, it grieved him, and he said to Lot,
“Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my
herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren” (Gen. 13: 8). He therefore
proposed to give Lot his choice of all the land and to take what was left.
What does it mean to be easily entreated? It means to be kind and just and
reasonable and self-sacrificing in one’s attitude toward others. The man
who possesses this quality habitually manifests this temper in his life.
There are those who are very tenacious of their rights. They feel that
people do not respect those rights as they should; so when any question
involving them arises, they feel as though they must “stand up for their
rights.” They often lose sight of everything else; kindness, mercy,
forbearance, patience, Christlikeness—in fact, nothing counts but their
rights. Their rights they will defend; and very often their rights prove
to be wrongs, or in insisting on their rights they do that which wrongs
others. Really spiritual people are not so particular and insistent
concerning their rights. They would far rather sacrifice their rights than
to contend for them, unless something vital is involved, which is rarely
the case. When a spiritual man is compelled to defend his rights, he will
do it in a meek and quiet way, a way that has in it nothing offensive or
self-assertive. When they were about to scourge Paul unlawfully, his only
assertion of his rights was to quietly ask, “Is it lawful for you to
scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?” (Acts 22: 25). But there
are those who will not yield in the least; they know their rights, and
they will not yield to anyone! Very often their rights would look quite
different if such persons possessed more of the spirit of Christ.
Things sometimes look very different to different people, and no amount of
talking and arguing will make them see alike; and the more of such there
is, the further apart people drift. That is the reason so many church
troubles are always _being_ settled but are never _really_ settled. The
trouble is in the hearts. The members are not willing to be entreated. Let
them get their hearts warm toward each other, and be filled with the
spirit of brotherly kindness. Until such is the condition, one might as
well try to weld two pieces of cold iron. As before stated, when people
desire unity and harmony they can have it. But they must desire it enough
to be willing to sacrifice for it all those things that prevent it.
Another thing that hinders is self-will. So many people like to have their
own way. If others will do their way, such persons can be very gracious
and kind; but if they do not have their way, they manifest a very
different disposition. They are ready to “balk”; their kindness is gone;
they become stubborn; if there is trouble, they are very slow to yield. It
is very hard for them to submit even when they are convinced that they
should do so. When they do seem to yield, it is often only an outward
yielding, the heart remaining the same. How much trouble this self-will
makes, and how different it is in spirit from him who said, “Not my will,
but thine, be done”! We are commanded to submit ourselves one to another.
When we demand that all the submission be on the part of the other person,
it shows that we are self-willed, that we care more about having things go
our way than we do about having them go right, or than we care to manifest
a Christlike disposition.
Still another thing that prevents our being easily entreated is pride. A
lady was recently talking with me about a conversation she had just had
with some other ladies. She had been advocating a certain doctrine which
they did not receive. In speaking of it she said: “I grew a little warm in
the discussion of it. I did not mean to let them best me.” So many people
have this disposition. They will not be “bested.” They will hold to their
position even when they are in the wrong, and know it. If they did not
take such a position, they might acknowledge the other to be right; but
when they have taken the stand, they will not yield. What is the trouble?
Pride in the heart is the secret. This disposition always has its root in
pride; humility never acts in this way. Pride keeps people from
acknowledging truth; it keeps them from changing their attitude. Pride of
opinion keeps them from being willing to listen patiently to others who
differ with them. Pride is at the root of many church and personal
troubles; pride is what they feed on, and the only way to cure them is to
get rid of the pride.
The minister who would settle such troubles has need to look for one or
more of these three things. He may expect a search to disclose either
selfishness, self-will, or pride; for if the trouble is not easily
settled, he may be assured that some or all of them are in the way. His
task, then, is not so much to get at what seems to be the trouble, as to
give attention to these underlying things which are the life of the
trouble. No trouble is truly settled till these elements are purged out of
the heart.
O brethren! what we need in all the churches and in every heart is that
“wisdom that is from above” (Jas. 3: 17). We are told that it is “first
pure.” By wisdom James does not here mean what we usually mean by that
term, but in it he includes the whole of the gift of God that comes to us
in our salvation. It is “first pure,” then as a natural consequence of
that purity it is “peaceable.” It loves peace; it seeks to be at peace
with all. It is “gentle.” That gentleness which was manifested in the life
of Jesus reveals itself anew in the hearts of those who are “first pure.”
Love has no harsh words, no harsh feelings. It is full of mercy and easy
to be entreated. Where this heavenly wisdom abides, there will not be a
disposition to assert one’s own rights, to be self-willed, or to hold fast
to one’s own ways; on the contrary, if its blessed presence fills our
souls, we shall be merciful, kind, forgiving, long-suffering, pitiful, and
we shall have the same tender feeling for our brother who has done us
wrong as the father had for the prodigal. We shall be ready to run to meet
him. We shall be ready to forget all the past. Our hearts will be filled
with joyfulness at the expected reconciliation. O brethren there is
nothing needed quite so much today and every day as that heart-quality
that makes people “easy to be entreated.”