Proverbs 26:21 Commentary and Bible Study

Another cause of strife is a contentious or quarrelsome spirit. Such a man does not want to live in peace. Strife attracts him; it excites and interests him. He enjoys parrying others with words and triumphing over them. He likes pitting his wits against an opponent and, when he can put another down and defeat them in a word battle, he is especially pleased. Peace brings opportunity for learning, increase in knowledge, deepening of friendships, building trust, but he has no desire for these things. Strife allows him to prevail over others, to show off his skills. He enjoys the strong feeling that grips his being when tempers are raised and adrenaline starts to flow. He likes to feel outrage at being offended and the opportunity to overreact to some situation. It focuses attention on him and his importance. How dare this other person speak to him like that? Don’t they know who he is? This love of contention and the strife that comes from it is the opposite of humility and self-control. Of course it may go further and lead to violence. Strife needs fuel to feed it so that the fire of contention continues to burn. The offence at an insult begins to be forgotten after a time for it takes energy to keep a quarrel at white hot heat. The contentious man is on the lookout for fresh material to add to the fire, but so skilful is it at manufacturing causes of disagreement that he can soon find more wood to add to the fire. The flame of strife then flares up again with fresh vigour. Evil imagination is able to find fuel even in a vary barren place. The image of coals being put together explains another aspect of how this works. When coals are together they feed off the heat generated by each other. The heat coming out of one helps to ignite its neighbour and vice versa. Those with hatred in their hearts look for others who have the same evil temperament, and when they find them their conversation encourages stronger animosity within them which feeds into the strife. Gossip, lies, false accusation, misrepresentation all feed into the mix.