Looking around us, we can’t deny the reality that strife has saturated our world like never before. We feel it in conversations, workplaces, families, churches, and even in our own thoughts if we’re not careful. This emotion isn’t just an attitude, but a spiritual trap the enemy designed to pause our lives so that nothing flows the way God intends. The moment we recognize this, we must immediately root it out.
This unseen danger is very real. Paul warned the church at Ephesus to be on the alert for it. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Strife is defined as a bitter, sometimes violent conflict, or ongoing contention. Paul spoke from experience; before becoming a Christian, he had experienced it firsthand through his severe persecution of the believers.
Strife is one of Satan’s favorite tools to attack us with. Jealousy and greed sit at its root, and both spring from pride and a refusal to trust God. When we start thinking that someone else’s blessing means ours is delayed, strife begins to simmer. “Greed causes fighting; trusting the Lord leads to prosperity” (Proverbs 28:25, NLT). We resist this spiritual attack by shifting from comparison to confidence in God’s timing and plan for our lives.
Greed intensifies the struggle because it convinces us we must achieve everything in our own strength. When we’re driven by “I have to have this to be happy,” we end up frustrated and competitive instead of peaceful and grateful. “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong…” (James 4:1-3, NLT). This reflects a mindset focused on self instead of on God, and we’ve all felt that tug.
Strife doesn’t just disrupt our relationships—it destroys our peace, and peace is too expensive to spend on anything or anyone. Falling prey to strife opens the door for the devil to enter our lives and influence our thinking. “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work” (James 3:16). It’s therefore imperative to guard our peace like treasure and step away from situations that threaten it.
We can stop strife while it’s still small by recognizing what’s happening. The beginning of strife is like water trickling through a crack in a dam; if we don’t stop it early, it builds into something destructive. Our aim should be to shut down tension before it escalates into a full‑blown conflict. Sometimes that simply means refusing to engage, even when our emotions feel provoked.
Strife works hard to disrupt love, because love is the very thing that destroys its power. The enemy knows this. “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another” (Galatians 5:14, 15). Deliberately choosing love makes strife lose its influence over our hearts. This is how we bring Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to a world desperate for Him.
