Daily Devotional Details

Date

Do not be haughty… Romans 12:16

Here is an excerpt of a letter from John Newton (who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace”) to warn his friend about the spiritual dangers of engaging in public controversy.

Dear Sir,

As you are likely to be engaged in controversy…my friendship makes me solicitous on your behalf… Truth is great and must prevail…but I would have you more than a conqueror, and to triumph not only over your adversary, but over yourself.

Consider your opponent. I wish that before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him; and such disposition will have a good influence on every page you write.

If you count him a believer, though greatly mistaken in the subject of debate between you… [Remember] The Lord loves him: therefore you must not despise him, or treat him harshly… But if you look upon him as an unconverted person…he is a more proper object of your compassion, than of your anger. Alas! “He knows not what he does.”

Then consider yourself. Very few writers of controversy have not been…hurt by it. Either they grow in a sense of their own importance, or imbibe an angry, contentious spirit, or they…withdraw their attention from those things which are the food and immediate support of the life of faith, and spend their time and strength upon matters which at most are but of a secondary value…

What will it profit a man if he gains his cause, and silences his adversary, if at the same time he loses that humble, tender frame of spirit in which the Lord delights, and to which the promise of his presence is made?

What one thing could you apply to a controversy you are aware of?