Nothing more quickly leads to spiritual deadness than controversy, by which men attempt to divide the church of God. The debates stirred and cherished by men who long to prove themselves right, while pretending to defend the truth of God, are nothing but the gratification of a man’s own wicked lusts. — James asks, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” God’s truth does not need to be defended, but simply declared. We best defend the truth of God when we declare the crucified Christ in all the fulness and glory of his redemptive accomplishments as the sinners’ Substitute.