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"These promote controversies rather than God's work–which is by faith."

Dictionary.com defines controversy as "a prolonged public dispute, debate, or contention; disputation concerning a matter of opinion." It is an argument. It creates division. What I find interesting is according to this definition, it is centered around a "matter of opinion" - not a matter of truth.

Opinions are "me"...what "I" think or believe. They might be based on truth. They might even be my interpretation of truth. But it is still "me" and "my".

Carry this out and it pretty much means that controveries have "self" at the core. The context of the verse is one where men were teaching false truth, myths, and endless genealogies and these were promoting - advancing - controversy. In this sense they were all about "me".

It is not "my" opinion that matters. It is God's truth that matters. This gets back to how important it is for me to know the Bible and to pursue knowing it and learning it more and more and more and more so that I talk God's truth not my "opinion".

So...if controversies have "me" at the core and not "Christ" - are there any controversies worth the division they create? No. So what happens when there is a disagreement between two individuals and their opinions. Who submits to who and thus squelches the controversy?

Controversies have no life if they are not "promoted". In other words, if I have an opinion and I make it know that my opinion is right and the other is wrong - I feed fuel to a controversy. However, if the approach is not one of right vs wrong but "different", and I as a leader make the call of whether this difference is important enough that my opinion is followed, and the other person submts, or that it doesn't make a difference and I, as leader, submit and yield to the opinion of the other person.

The mature leader will NOT promote controversies. The mature leader will submit and yield more often.