It seems like I remember my mother giving me advice much like the words in the above title. Likely, they were offered in response to my coming out on the losing end of a confrontation with some bully on the playground. This principle touches on one of the harder lessons we learn in our youth, i.e. when to stand up against the opposition and when to ignore them and hope they will go away. The choice is based on what we think is best for us.

This cliché may be good playground diplomacy, but it is not universally applicable. There are times when we must stand and fight regardless of the bumps or bruises me might incur. Now is the time to fight—for God.

In Satan’s ongoing efforts to convince people of the irrelevance of the Bible, he’s still using one of his same old tricks: Ignore what God Has Said.

Rather than a face to face confrontation like the one we read about in Genesis 3, he works through others, like a group of leaders in the Irish Catholic church. Their advice to the Vatican stems from their concern over the possible misunderstanding of N.T. passages regarding wives. 

Note their advised solution: “Catholic bishops in Ireland contend that Paul's notorious admonition, ‘Wives, submit to your husbands,’ and a handful of similar New Testament texts are so often misconstrued as ‘anti-woman’ that they may contribute to a climate of abuse. Last week (August, 2000 - kd), the Irish prelates urged the Vatican to drop the offending passages from the church's official reading list… Ireland's Conference of Catholic Bishops identified seven texts they said ‘are liable to give contemporary society an undesirably negative impression regarding women.’ Six of the passages--Colossians 3:18; Ephesians 5:22-24; 1 Corinthians 11:3-16; 1 Corinthians 14:33-35; Titus 2:4-5; and 1 Timothy 2:11-15--are ascribed to St. Paul. The seventh, 1 Peter 3:1-6, is attributed to St. Peter. All strike themes that some readers find are grossly out of sync with modern notions of marital partnership and gender equity. For example, Paul writes that wives should remain ‘busy at home’ and ‘subject to their husbands.’ They should be ‘submissive,’ writes Peter, and of a ‘gentle and quiet spirit.’” The bishops went on to say the passages “reflect a different time and culture” and “should be omitted from the new lectionary”. From: US News & World Report  09/00

So, when God’s word gets in our way, Satan says, “Ignore it…it will go away”. Such playground diplomacy is nothing short of a deal with the devil compromising truth. God still wants women to “be workers at home”, etc. Those Irishmen need to reread 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Rev. 22:19, et al and take heed! We do too.