What is the supreme care of this world? Strife! The right to
be ugly if you want to…the right to talk against your brother if
you want to…the right to be fussy if you want to…the right to
say whatever you want to! The most worldly thing that exists is
strife! Satan is strife itself. It is worldly. It is sin. It is deadly, and
it brings disease on its wings almost 100 percent of the time.
James 3:16 says, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion
and every evil work.” The Apostle Paul in his letter to the
Galatians listed strife along with adultery, fornication, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, murder and drunkenness (see Galatians
5:19-21). You can see that when a man gets in strife, it is easy
for him to commit murder, adultery or these other things. Strife
is the motivating force. When a man is operating in love, he
won’t act that way. If he is operating in the love of God, he
won’t look at another woman to lust after her. It is when you
are thinking of yourself that lust gets in.

Strife is the number one tool of Satan. Jesus said in Mark
11:25-26, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought
against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive
you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your
Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Unforgiveness
and strife are under the law of sin and death, and God’s forgiveness
through Jesus Christ is the only way the power of this law can
be broken in a person’s life. Each time a person operates in
strife and unforgiveness, he submits to the law of sin and death,
and he cannot get God’s forgiveness until he forgives his brother
and gets the strife out of his life. Satan knows how this works,
and he will try to keep you in strife. He will attack your weakest
area first and break you down if he can.

Make up your mind at this point that you will never again
operate in any area of unforgiveness. You can’t afford to play
around with it. Faith works by love. The very instant you get
into strife will be the very instant your faith begins to falter. If
you notice your faith weakening in some area, look at your
household, your family, your friends—strife is involved somewhere.
Find it, repent of it and get it straightened out. It doesn’t
matter what people have done to you. Love them in spite of it!
Give love and you will get love. It may take a day, a week or a
year, but it will come! Love never fails!

“And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as
hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold,
some sixty, and some an hundred.” When you receive the Word
into your heart, it will bring forth fruit, as much as a hundredfold.
Praise the Lord.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Colossians 3:19
NKJV—Husbands, love your wives and
do not be bitter toward them.

Amp—Husbands, love your wives—be
affectionate and sympathetic with them—
and do not be harsh or bitter or resentful
toward them.

Weymouth—Married men, be affectionate
to your wives, and do not treat them harshly.

1 Timothy 2:8
NKJV—Therefore I desire that the men
pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands,
without wrath and doubting.

Amp—I desire therefore that in every
place men should pray, without anger
or quarreling or resentment or doubt [in
their minds], lifting up holy hands.

Weymouth—So, then, I would have the
men in every place of worship pray, lifting
to God holy hands without anger or strife.

1 Timothy 5:8
NKJV—But if anyone does not provide
for his own, and especially for those of his
household, he has denied the faith and is
worse than an unbeliever.

Amp—If any one fails to provide for his
relatives, and especially for those of his
own family, he has disowned the faith [by
failing to accompany it with fruits], and is
worse than an unbeliever [who performs
his obligation in these matters].

Weymouth—If a man makes no provision
for his own relations, and especially for his
own household, he has disowned the faith
and is behaving worse than an unbeliever.

1 Peter 3:7
KJV—Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with
[your wives] according to knowledge, giving
honour unto the wife, as unto the
weaker vessel, and as being heirs together
of the grace of life; that your prayers be
not hindered.

NIV—Husbands, in the same way be
considerate as you live with your wives,
and treat them with respect as the weaker
partner and as heirs with you of the gracious
gift of life, so that nothing will hinder
your prayers.

Amp—In the same way you married men
should live considerately with [your wives],
with an intelligent recognition [of the marriage
relation], honoring the woman as
[physically] the weaker, but [realizing that
you] are joint heirs of the grace (God’s
unmerited favor) of life, in order that your
prayers may not be hindered and cut off.—
Otherwise you cannot pray effectively.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Proverbs 5:18-19
KJV—Let thy fountain be blessed: and
rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her
be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let
her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and
be thou ravished always with her love.

NIV—May your fountain be blessed, and
may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her
breasts satisfy you always, may you ever
be captivated by her love.

Amp—Let your fountain—of human life—
be blessed [with the rewards of fidelity],
and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant
doe [tender, gentle, attractive]; let her
bosom satisfy you at all times; and always
be transported with delight in her love.

Proverbs 16:7
KJV—When a man’s ways please the
Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at
peace with him.

NIV—When a man’s ways are pleasing to
the Lord, he makes even his enemies live
at peace with him.

Proverbs 18:22
KJV—Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good
thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.

NIV—He who finds a wife finds what is
good and receives favor from the Lord.

Amp—He who finds a [true] wife finds a
good thing, and obtains favor of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 7:3
NKJV—Let the husband render to his
wife the affection due her, and likewise
also the wife to her husband.

Amp—The husband should give to his
wife her conjugal rights—goodwill, kindness
and what is due her as his wife; and
likewise the wife to her husband.

Ephesians 5:25-33
KJV—Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church, and gave
himself for it; that he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the
word, that he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,
or any such thing; but that it should
be holy and without blemish.

So ought men to love their wives as their
own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his own
flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even
as the Lord the church: For we are members
of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

For this cause shall a man leave his
father and mother, and shall be joined unto
his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning
Christ and the church. Nevertheless let
every one of you in particular so love his
wife even as himself; and the wife see that
she reverence her husband.

NIV—Husbands, love your wives, just as
Christ loved the church and gave himself up
for her to make her holy, cleansing her by
the washing with water through the word,
and to present her to himself as a radiant
church, without stain or wrinkle or any
other blemish, but holy and blameless.

In this same way, husbands ought to
love their wives as their own bodies. He who
loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one
ever hated his own body, but he feeds and
cares for it, just as Christ does the church—
for we are members of his body.

“For this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to his
wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
This is a profound mystery—but I am talking
about Christ and the church. However,
each one of you also must love his wife
as he loves himself, and the wife must respect
her husband.

Amp—Husbands, love your wives, as Christ
loved the church and gave Himself up for
her, so that He might sanctify her, having
cleansed her by the washing of water with
the Word, that He might present the church
to Himself in glorious splendor, without
spot or wrinkle or any such things—that she
might be holy and faultless.

Even so husbands should love their
wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies.
He who loves his own wife loves himself. For
no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes
and carefully protects and cherishes
it, as Christ does the church, because we are
members (parts) of His body.

For this reason a man shall leave his
father and his mother and shall be joined
to his wife, and the two shall become
one flesh. This mystery is very great, but
I speak concerning [the relation of] Christ
and the church. However, let each man of
you (without exception) love his wife as
[being in a sense] his very own self; and
let the wife see that she respects and reverences
her husband—that she notices
him, regards him, honors him, prefers
him, venerates and esteems
him; and that she defers to him, praises him,
and loves and admires him exceedingly.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Proverbs 5:15
KJV—Drink waters out of thine own cistern,
and running waters out of thine own
well.

NIV—Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.

Amp—Drink waters out of your own cistern
[of pure marriage relationship], and
fresh running waters out of your own well.

Song of Solomon 7:10
KJV—I am my beloved’s, and his desire
is toward me.

NIV—I belong to my lover, and his desire
is for me.

Amp—[She proudly said] I am my beloved’s,
and his desire is toward me!

Song of Solomon 8:7
KJV—Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it.

NIV—Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away.

NAS—Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor will rivers overflow it.

Mark 10:9
NKJV—Therefore what God has joined
together, let not man separate.

Amp—What therefore God has united—joined
together—let not man separate or divide.

1 Corinthians 7:14
NIV—The unbelieving husband has been
sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving
wife has been sanctified through
her believing husband.

Amp—The unbelieving husband is set
apart (separated, withdrawn from heathen
contamination and affiliated with the
Christian people) by union with his consecrated
(set-apart) wife; and the unbelieving
wife is set apart and separated through
union with her consecrated husband.

Weymouth—A woman who has an unbelieving
husband—if he consents to live
with her, let her not put him away. For the
unbelieving husband is hallowed by union
with a Christian woman, and the unbelieving
wife is hallowed by union with a
Christian brother.

1 Corinthians 11:3
KJV—But I would have you know, that
the head of every man is Christ; and the
head of the woman is the man; and the
head of Christ is God.

Amp—But I want you to know and realize
that Christ is the head of every man, the
head of a woman is her husband, and the
Head of Christ is God.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
NKJV—Love suffers long and is kind;
love does not envy; love does not parade
itself, is not puffed up; does not behave
rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked,
thinks no evil; does not rejoice in
iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears
all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things. Love never fails.

NIV—Love is patient, love is kind. It does
not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is
not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth. It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.

Amp—Love endures long and is patient
and kind; love never is envious nor boils
over with jealousy; is not boastful or vainglorious,
does not display itself haughtily.
It is not conceited—arrogant and inflated
with pride; it is not rude (unmannerly),
and does not act unbecomingly. Love
[God’s love in us] does not insist on its
own rights or its own way, for it is not
self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or
resentful; it takes no account of the evil
done to it—pays no attention to a suffered
wrong. It does not rejoice at injustice and
unrighteousness, but rejoices when right
and truth prevail.

Love bears up under anything and
everything that comes, is ever ready to
believe the best of every person, its hopes
are fadeless under all circumstances and
it endures everything [without weakening].
Love never fails—never fades out or becomes
obsolete or comes to an end.

Weymouth—Love is forbearing and kind.
Love knows no jealousy. Love does not
brag; is not conceited. She is not unmannerly,
nor selfish, nor irritable, nor mindful
of wrongs. She does not rejoice in injustice,
but joyfully sides with the truth. She
can overlook faults. She is full of trust, full
of hope, full of endurance. Love never fails.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

There is a documentary about an abused child
which I have seen twice. It is about a little girl who
was abused by her parents. A pastor and his wife
adopted her, not knowing the extent to which she had
been abused by her biological parents. She was just
a small child when the couple adopted her, but that
little girl wanted to kill the whole family. She was
asked about it:

“What were you trying to do to your brother when
your mother pulled you off him?”

“Kill him.”

It didn’t bother her at all to talk about it. The psychiatrist
asked, “You mean you wanted to kill him?”

“Yeah.”

“Were you hurting him?”

“Yeah.”

“What were you doing to him?”

“Well, I had my hands on his throat, beating his
head against the floor.”

“Was your brother screaming for you to stop?”

“Yeah.”

“But you wanted to kill him?”

“Yeah, I was gonna kill him.”

“Why did you quit?”

“I heard Mama.”

The girl showed no remorse whatsoever about
what she had done. She had tried at one time
or another to kill her whole family with some
butcher knives.

“Where did you get the knives?” she was asked.

“Out of the dishwasher.”

“What did you do with them?”

“I hid them.”

This was an eight-year-old little girl. In
school she had made it clear that she wanted to
kill everybody in her class.

I want to inject this note. It will show you Satan’s
nature and what man is like when he is separated
from the knowledge of God.

Satan is mean. He has death in him. Without a
bonding to parents, many children wind up in the
devil’s clutches. The streets are full of them today.
They don’t care whether anyone else lives or dies.

Why? Because their parents didn’t care whether they
lived or died. Their parents never bonded with them.
They never taught them anything. They just threw
them out with the garbage and let them grow up any
way they could. Today we have an entire generation of
godless people.

This little girl was placed in a home run by
Christian people who knew how to treat this kind of
child. There were some nine year olds in that same
place who had committed murder, and didn’t care.

They were dangerous.

These adults begin to bond with the children.

The youngsters couldn’t do anything without adult
supervision. They had to ask for every drink of water.

If they didn’t ask for it, they didn’t get it. They had
to get permission for everything they did. They were
watched 24 hours a day. They had alarms on their
doors. They couldn’t move at night without somebody
being there to watch them.

The counselors were constantly working with
these children, telling them over and over again, “God
loves you, and I love you.”

A year or two after the little girl was sent to this
place, she was interviewed again and asked the same
questions. This time she was holding a little white
Bible in her hand, and she was so proud of it.
“What were you trying to do when you were hurting
your brother?” she was asked.

“It was trying to kill him,” she answered. But this
time, she started weeping and couldn’t talk about it.
What had happened to make such a change in
her? She had been born again. She had become honorable
toward her brother, her parents and God.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries