Conflict and reconciliation

Esau, however, ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.

What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?

²² But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the fire of hell.

²³ So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,

²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

²⁵ Reconcile quickly with your adversary, while you are still on the way to court. Otherwise, he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.

²⁶ Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

¹⁷ Better a dish of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred.

¹⁸ A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.

⁶ Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, and do not stand in the place of great men;

⁷ for it is better that he says to you, “Come up here!” than that you should be demoted in the presence of the prince. Even what you have seen with your own eyes,

⁸ do not bring hastily to court. Otherwise, what will you do in the end when your neighbor puts you to shame?

⁹ Argue your case with your neighbor without betraying another’s confidence,

¹⁰ lest the one who hears may disgrace you, and your infamy never go away.

Like one who grabs a dog by the ears is a passerby who meddles in a quarrel not his own.

¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,

²⁰ and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds.

²² But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—

²³ if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

¹⁵ If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

¹⁶ But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

⁴ So if you need to settle everyday matters, do you appoint as judges those of no standing in the church?

⁵ I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?

⁶ Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!

⁷ The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you are thoroughly defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

²⁰ Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.

³² “Look,” said Absalom, “I sent for you and said, ‘Come here. I want to send you to the king to ask: Why have I come back from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there.’ So now, let me see the king’s face, and if there is iniquity in me, let him kill me.”

³³ So Joab went and told the king, and David summoned Absalom, who came to him and bowed facedown before him. Then the king kissed Absalom.

²³ But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling.

²⁴ And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.

²⁵ He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility

¹⁵ by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace

¹⁶ and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He extinguished their hostility.

But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

⁸ So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are brothers.

⁹ Is not the whole land before you? Now separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.”

Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept over them. And afterward his brothers talked with him.

² But Gideon answered them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer?

³ God has delivered Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian, into your hand. What was I able to do compared to you?” When he had said this, their anger against him subsided.

¹⁶ You must not go about spreading slander among your people. You must not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am the LORD.

¹⁷ You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him.

¹⁸ Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

⁵⁸ Make every effort to reconcile with your adversary while you are on your way to the magistrate. Otherwise, he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and the officer may throw you into prison.

⁵⁹ I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.

³⁷ Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark.

³⁸ But Paul thought it best not to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.

³⁹ Their disagreement was so sharp that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus,

⁴⁰ but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

²⁰ But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him.

²¹ Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.

²⁰ You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”

²¹ So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.

⁹ “I already have plenty, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what belongs to you.”

¹⁰ But Jacob insisted, “No, please! If I have found favor in your sight, then receive this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably.

¹ Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me!” So none of them were with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.

² But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household soon heard of it.

³ Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But they were unable to answer him, because they were terrified in his presence.

⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near me.” And they did so. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt!

Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept as they embraced.

Then Joseph sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the way!”

³⁰ When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation—the heads of Israel’s clans who were with him—heard what the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had to say, they were satisfied.

³¹ Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is among us, because you have not committed this breach of faith against Him. Consequently, you have delivered the Israelites from the hand of the LORD.”

³² Then Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, together with the other leaders, returned to the Israelites in the land of Canaan and brought back a report regarding the Reubenites and Gadites in the land of Gilead.

Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go home in peace. See, I have heeded your voice and granted your request.”

When Cephas came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, because he stood to be condemned.

But Jacob himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

I urge Euodia and Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.

First of all, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.

When David had finished saying these things, Saul called back, “Is that your voice, David my son?” Then Saul wept aloud

She fell at his feet and said, “My lord, may the blame be on me alone, but please let your servant speak to you; hear the words of your servant.

Saul said to him, “May you be blessed, David my son. You will accomplish great things and will surely prevail.” So David went on his way, and Saul returned home.

Then Abner called out to Joab: “Must the sword devour forever? Do you not realize that this will only end in bitterness? How long before you tell the troops to stop pursuing their brothers?”

The woman asked, “Why have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself, since he has not brought back his own banished son?

²³ So Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴ But the king added, “He may return to his house, but he must not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, but he did not see the king.