If you say it louder, it doesn’t make you right.

Have you ever had someone try to explain something to you and you didn’t get it?

So you ask them to explain it again, to which they respond with a sigh and attempt to say it again, but louder and with some annoyance.

You’ve probably even done it yourself.

The assumption is that the person who didn’t understand the first time just didn’t hear the message clearly.

The reality is, they didn’t understand the message because there was missing context. Either the message deliverer didn’t explain it right, didn’t know the context themselves or the receiver didn’t understand the context in the first place.

This is what we see in all the conflicts happening right now in the world.

One group has a narrative they want to express themselves with. The world is not hearing it, or rejecting it, so the narrative gets louder. They either do not know how to articulate their narrative properly or the people who are supposed to receive it reject it based on their narrative. Then the opposing narrative gets louder.

The narrative becomes so loud it’s no longer ignorable. So, a battle must be fought to see which narrative is supreme.

The people with a narrative that has a weak or flawed foundation are always the first to attack. They start by mincing words. They attack verbally and twist definitions. Their narrative is full of lies.

If they’re not gaining ground and not put in check, the verbal attacks will turn to physical violence. This is because their narrative couldn’t hold up in a battle of brains. When the narrative battle becomes violent, the brain goes into fight or flight. It’s a matter of life or death for their narrative. They will win, or go down dying for the narrative!

This is the point where we typically enter civil or ideological wars.

The people who hold the truth are now forced into a situation they wanted to avoid from the beginning. They must prepare to die if they must to defend the truth. Because the only thing really worth dying for is the truth. And regardless if one dies or not, the truth will always exist, they just killed the messenger.

Some people think words and narratives are just opinions, it’s better to say nothing and avoid the conflict of narratives. The truth is, nothing is more powerful than words. As explained above, it is the man who lacks the ability to hold the truth that is often the attacker in the conflict of narratives.

John 1:1-5
In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

This is how powerful the word is. God used the word to create everything, he was the word. It all started with the narrative. Everything on earth starts with a narrative. But that narrative needs to be built on a foundation of truth in order to never be defeated. And of all the religions, cults, ideologies, etc, none have outlasted the God of the Bible. In countries that thought they killed out the message of Jesus Christ, only find that it comes back. It’s a light that always shines in the darkness.

It was Christianity that brought literacy to the common folk. They knew that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. It’s only through the ability to articulate the truth in the narrative does one win the spiritual war.

Christians are called to put on the armour of God in order to fight in the spiritual/narrative wars we are in. Not to be louder, not to start violence, but to be literate, to hold truth, to study narratives, to have discernment, and not to be deceived.

The world is full of false narratives causing great conflict.

Today it’s LGBTQXYZ+, Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, Feminism, Russia/Ukrainian war, the plandemic, environmentalism, and more.

Its purpose is clear. To create war. Because they’re all based on lies, the only way to defend themselves is through violence, not intelligence.

And this is why Christians are not to cause violence or take part in things that lead to violence. Because when you hold the truth, there is no need. Instead, they’re called to articulate their knowledge better through bible study.