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The Grapevine
Number 113                                                                           
October 1, 2005
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15


Bury the Hatchet
by Jack Northart

The expression "bury the hatchet" is a term which means to forget the bad, forgive and make peace. The term comes from the American Indian tribe of the Iroquois. A ceremony in which war axes or other weapons were literally buried in the ground as a symbol of newly made peace between different tribes. The war axes were never again to be dug up to fight against each other.

When we use this expression today, it is usually between two different people. However, it can also refer to any group of people as well. The goal of burying the hatchet  in today's terms is not unlike it was many years ago; forget the bad, forgive and make peace. Within this context, burying the hatchet could be applied to every type of conflict between people, including between Christians believers.

Before the Iroquois however, there was a term that made this point much more effectively in the New Testament.

Ephesians 4:31,32
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Although believers tend to talk about letting go of all bitterness, wrath and anger, they rarely actually do it. Although they talk about not speaking evil of other believers, they seldom find the right occasion to speak only good of another. It's much more convenient and "in vogue" to carry on a conversation that includes bad-mouthing another person. The reason that this is the case is because the second part of this record in Ephesians is not adhered to, namely,
"...be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another." To find occasion to bless another person's life is generally not woven into the habit patterns of many Christian believer's.
"What have you done for ME lately?" tends to be the outcry of most. Yet, God has set the standard for our behavior on matters of forgiveness; "even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

Colossians 3:12-13
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

We can do this because we are the elect of God. We can forgive because He forgave us.
The outstanding quarrels that remain after many years are because we refuse to forgive. It seems easier to carry on with the criticism of someone who did us an injustice, rather than forgive. Maybe it is easier, but that shouldn't matter if we want to have a good spiritual life of power and abundance with our Heavenly Father. We must cease from fault-finding and judging our brethren. We must forgive and be merciful, kind and forbearing to those who have wronged us.

Matthew 7:3-5
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Jesus was instructing his disciples on this subject of fault-finding in others. He didn't mince words when he called those who did that sort of thing, hypocrites. Before we starting pointing out the little flaws in another believer's life, we should recognize that we have plenty of flaws of our own. From that vantage point, it's a bit clearer on how we should conduct our behavior when talking about or dealing with others.

I Corinthians 1:10
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

There is no judgement between ourselves and other believers because God has already rendered a judgement for all Christian believers: FORGIVEN! Therefore, we can speak the same thing, we can have the same mind of forgiveness one toward another.

Philippians 2:2-3
Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

We are to have the same mind have the same purpose. We are to have the same love, and be in full accord like a symphony orchestra that has one harmonious intention. We are not to have factional and selfish motives, but rather we are to regard each other better than ourselves. We cannot do these things if we cannot start by forgiving one another. We must "bury the hatchet" and move on.

Philippians 3:13-14
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead. We press toward the goal to win the heavenly prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us, which is an upward calling.