Winning an Argument

I came across a heated argument between two parties with diverging religious views. Both parties made their case to prove the other wrong.

How do you win a religious argument? To win a religious argument is not to argue at all.

Except maybe on a platform that requires a thourough case for the Christian faith, one has to be precisely careful not to utilize oral or written threads of arguments to win souls for the Kingdom. This is of course not setting aside occasions that call for apologetics.

Here’s why:

1. It produces quarrels.

2 Tim. 2:3
Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.

If at the end of the day you come out victorious with a confident argument, you are still not victorious if you haven’t inched your “opponent” closer to the saving knowledge of Christ.

You gain a more determined enemy crafting a more persuasive case to exact revenge on you.

2. It is unprofitable and useless

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

Note: unprofitable and useless.

You get how many hours a day to spare talking about or preaching the gospel? If those few hours are spent arguing and quarreling, it’s such a waste of time. While you waste time, remember that a soul is wasted.

I recently talked to someone telling me that it’s now the Last Days so we need to be more vigilant with the Devil’s tactics and bla bla. I almost blurted out: Since it’s the Last Days, might as well double time on Christ’s Last Words: Make Disciples.

So, how do you really win an argument without actually arguing?

My good friend Rye Delubio gave me a very good illustration. He said a dog who holds fast on its bone is determined to keep its bone. Once you try to take it from him, he bites and he bites hard. The only way to get the bone is to provide him with a savouring meat. That way, it leaves its lock on the bone and proceeds to eat the meat.

Arguing is like forcefully taking someone’s bone. It gets too messy and not to mention bloody if you do that.

The only way to win a person without resorting to a hostile argument is to present them with something better than the all dried up bone they have. In most cases, it’s the irrefutable argument of a changed life. Nobody can refute a changed life. At the end of the day, your life–a life changed by the gospel–is your winning piece.