Power Struggle That Is Needless

Now, we’ve been talking about wars for my past few devotions, but today on weekend devotion, we want to explore into why wars happen.

Now, we may not realize. The first “war” actually happened when our first ancestors fell into sin. Other than feeling shameful for their nakedness, what follows is a power struggle.

If we recall what follows the fall, God told the woman:

Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you <Ge 3:16>

Now, what does it mean for the woman’s desire to be for her husband? Does it mean women will always crave for the attention of men? Is that really what it meant? Now, if we look at the next chapter at verse 7, there was the same usage of the word “desire”. God told Cain, “sin is crouching at your door; sin desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Now, this sounds like a parallel verse to what was spoken to Adam and Eve in chapter 3. So what does God meant when he told Cain “sin desires to have you”? It simply means sin desires to control you, to influence you in every sense, while you fight helplessly to rule over it. So apply that to Adam and Eve, you will understand that when the woman’s desire is for her husband, the result is woman, in her fallen state can no longer and will no longer selflessly submit to her man. Rather, she seeks to control him and influence him in every sense, while man, instead of loving his woman sacrificially, seeks to rule over her, and “force” her into obedience. And this is an existential problem that had extended to the whole of the human race.

This is where we see that sin destroys selflessness. Sin has made our selfless ancestors self-centered. Upon their fall, they’ve lost all the selfless attributes that was innate in them. And when selflessness is gone, there comes power struggle. This is where you see both image bearers of God being reduced to two personalities living in a relationship that struggle to have control over each other. And that struggle manifested into a murder in the next generation, where we saw Cain killed his brother cold-bloodedly. Why did it happen? It happened over a ritual sacrifice where Cain seeks to be more accepted and superior than his brother. You see, everyone wants something, and he will go to the extent to hurt someone else to have it. And that explains the war that men have with each other. As we know, war and strife never end right till this day.  

So don’t be surprised when there are wars and conflicts in this world. And not only in the sphere of geopolitical realms, but also in families, between siblings, between spouses, between parents and their children. Or in workplaces, between bosses and subordinates. Or in a courtroom, between prosecutors and lawyers. Everywhere we go, in every institution man has set up, we see power struggle, where one group of people trying to exert their influence and control over the other. We all wish to control each other. Sin has made “control” our main motivation. To the world, to be superior means to control. To achieve benefits, we’ve to control. To have security, we’ve to control. And when men try to break free from those controls, conflicts arise, wars happen.

And that is what the fallen men has been trying to do since Day one. Over and over again, history has taught us that no political solution can solve the problem of sin in this world. Be it in Ukraine, be it in Myanmar, be it in anywhere else in the world. No one wants to give up controlling. But my dear brethren, what Christ has shown us and brought to His church was a break free from our controlling inclination. Christ has shown us there is no need for power struggle.

He said to His audience who wished to be great:

“The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. <Mt 23:11-12>.

And he shown us His very own example where he came with the intention to serve and to save. As <Mt 20:28> sums up:

“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Now, my dear brethren, Jesus wasn’t here to control His people. He came to serve them, and to give them life. He came to show how he win over His people by His humility. And when he teaches them, he showed them another form of power which is beyond the power struggle among men. He showed how to win over those who sin against us.

In <Mt 18:15>, Jesus taught: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over”.

Now, instead of getting into a power struggle, Jesus has taught his followers what it means to win our brethren over. Yes, they could have sinned against us. And we could have all our evidences against him. But what great prize it is to win them over with love and respect!

Now, consider the church. Throughout my years in ministering to churches, I’ve seen power struggles in the church that shouldn’t even exist at all. I’ve seen church leaders taking sides to push for their agendas. I’ve seen Pastors, Elders and Deacons forming their own cliques to exert their influence over each other. Yet, the Apostle Paul has taught us otherwise. He has taught us to be led by the spirit of tenderness and compassion. He taught painstakingly:

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” <Php 2:3-4>.

My dear brethren, we should never engage in power struggle in the church. At any point, if we were to get people to take sides, we are engaging in a power struggle movement in the church, and God is not pleased with that.  

Rather, we were instructed to value others above ourselves, and to look to others’ interests instead of our own. So if at any point we in the church are engaging in power struggle, it could only mean two things. First, we are exalting ourselves over others by serving our pride instead of putting our pride down to serve. Next, we are thinking about our own interests and benefits over that of the others. To be honest, it only takes these two attributes to spilt the church.

Now, let’s abide to what the Lord has imparted to us, i.e. instead of engaging in power struggle to get things done, let’s learn another power. Let’s learn to be led by the Holy Spirit and move in His power. The power of the Holy Spirit comes with the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control <Gal 5:22-23>. And I would say such godly attributes reflects Christlikeness. It wins people over instead of going into endless power struggle.

Now, if we work in an environment where people point fingers at each other. If we live in a family where we are so used to blame or push each other to get things done, maybe it is time where we learn the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember my brethren, being controlling gets us nowhere, but when we move in sync with the Spirit, power struggle disappears. With that, relationship is restored, and things will start to move seamlessly. May God help us. May God help His Church.