Per·pet·u·al [per-pech-oo-uhl]

“Continuing or continued without intermission or interruption; ceaseless” 

Pet·ti·ness [pet-ee-nis]

“The quality of complaining or getting angry about things that are not important;  not very important or serious; frivolous, littleness, smallness, mean-spirited.”

Does this describe you?  Are you constantly getting angry over little things, and does it cause you to be mean-spirited?  If the answer is yes, you need to change immediately.  Pettiness is another one of those things that we need to do all we can to avoid.

Pettiness is a sign of a lack of love.  Paul’s personification of love in 1 Corinthians 13 shows that it is the antithesis of pettiness.  Pettiness causes a person to be mean toward others, while love is kind.  Pettiness often behaves offensively and rudely, but love is never rude.  Read the entire list that Paul gives to describe love and compare them to the definition of pettiness.  You will discover that they have nothing in common.

Pettiness is a church killer.  It is hard for a local church not to be negatively affected by perpetually petty members.   Petty members often get angry at the leadership of the local church.  They are easily offended by things that are said or done, and, because they are so petty, they seem to never get over it.  It stops them from working for the Lord and being an asset to the church.  That means the church can never reach its full potential while having members who allow pettiness to get the best of them.

Pettiness also hurts the church by causing friction among its members.  When that exists, it will not only slow down the progress of the local church, it could, potentially, lead to critical problems.  A local church with internal strife is in trouble, but it is hard to fix when members are perpetually petty.  Do you really want to be a damaging influence upon the local church of which you are a member?  If you are petty, that likely is what you are.  You should consider the words of Paul.

1 Corinthians 3:17 (ESV)
¹⁷  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

The temple Paul is referring to in this passage is the church.  The saints at Corinth were in danger of destroying the local church, partly because of their pettiness.  It was causing friction among them, even to the point that they were taking one another to court over frivolous things that they should have been able to handle among themselves (1 Corinthians 6:1-5).

Finally, Pettiness is a sign that a person is selfish and arrogant, two things that often go hand in hand.  The person who is always  complaining over unimportant things is self-centered because he thinks higher of himself than he should (Galatians 6:3).

It should be clear why we should avoid being petty.  It is not good for anyone, and in the end, will cause us to be lost.  While we all might be petty once in a while, let’s do our best to avoid being perpetually so.    

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.