Wasting Time

Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.

Sometimes people argue for no other reason than a selfish need to be "right."  I know.  I'm an expert.  I have a need to be right and prove to people that I'm right.  More accurately, I feel the need to make sure decisions are being made with the correct data or that the correct conclusion is being drawn from the data.  Regardless, I've spent many of my days and nights as a husband arguing with my wife needlessly, so I'm an expert in the field of driving division into important relationships. 
An inward drive to argue to prove to people how smart you are or how you keep up with current news or trends is a selfish desire and runs counter to our prime directive as Christians: to love others as we love ourselves.  Often we draw battle lines stating that we'll be happy to love others as soon as they come around to our way of thinking.  This is not agape.  Unfortunately, the church has a long history of pointless arguments.  Whether its about fine points of theology or the type of building materials we should use in our buildings, we can find things to stand on that simply don't matter in the Kingdom.  We need to stop and ask ourselves if its really worth driving division into our relationship over the point.  We also need to recognize that agape is God's love flowing through us (1 John 4:19) and sometimes continuing pointless arguments is to deny the movement of the Holy Spirit.