No argument is worth throwing away your peace

I have found a pack of cards ("Positive Power Pack") that I have decided to draw randomly from each day. Whilst packing up and leaving office last night, it came to mind that I should investigate God's guidance on the following card; "No argument is worth throwing away your peace"

To start of, in Romans 12 during Paul's visit to Rome, Paul sets out how "Christians should lead transformed lives"

Romans 12; 1 "Brothers and sisters, in view of all we have just shared about God's compassion, I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him. This kind of worship is appropriate for you. 2 Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants-what is good, pleasing, and perfect"

Paul gives guidelines for Christians which included the following;
Romans 12: 18 "As much as it is possible, live in peace with everyone"
(Peace = to be (act) peaceful: - be at (have, live in) peace, live peaceably)

In Matthew 5, Jesus continues to address his desciples and in verses 3 - 10 Jesus gave us the eight beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. I found verse 9 to be appropriate whereby Jesus gave us the following beatitude;

Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are those who make peace. They will be called God's children"

It stands to reason then that a peacemaker not only lives peacefully but also should try to bring peace and friendship to others, and to preserve peace between God and man. We need to then fill ourselves first with the blessings of peace and then communicate it to those who have need of it. By imitating God's love of man, the peacemakers then become children of God. http://www.jesuschristsavior.net/Beatitudes.html

As a Christian we are supposed to influence the world in a positive way, a way that can be compared to the effect of salt.

Salt was an important ingredients to GOD in offerings made to his behalf (Leviticus 2: 13 "Also put salt on each of your grain offerings. The salt of God's promise must never be left out of your grain offerings. Put salt on all your offerings")

Salt was also used by Jesus to describe the effect that His desciples should have on the world (Matthew 5: 13 “You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people"

In 2 Timothy, Paul addresses supposedly his last letter towards Timothy giving him more ministration guidelines. These are directed towards the leaders of faith but, I believe, can however also apply to each of us in our day to day application of our own faith.

In Timothy 2 verse 22, Paul starts of verse 22 with"Stay away from lusts which tempt young people" and continues with “Pursue what has God's approval. Pursue faith, love, and peace together with those who worship the Lord with a pure heart"

According the notes from my application bible (Afrikaans version) this first part of the verse in fact relates to the sinful nature within us which we need to get negate with help from the Holy Spirit within us and the second part then continues to the direct us in what we actually need to do i.e. to pursue faith, love, and peace.

In vers 23 Paul directs Timothy (and us) to: 23 “Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments. You know they cause quarrels. 24 A servant of the Lord must not quarrel. Instead, he must be kind to everyone. He must be a good teacher. He must be willing to suffer wrong"

In summary, I have deduced then that I (we) need to;

1) Pursue faith, love, and peace, and
2) Avoid having anything to do with causing foolish and stupid arguments that will eventually only cause quarrels which I (we) should not entertain.