It is surprising, in view of the teachings of Jesus, to find quarrelling in the church, but it happens in the church just as it does in any large organisation. Different people, based on their differing backgrounds and life experiences, often have differing ideas about the right way to do things. The Christians in the early church in Galatia encountered this issue when some were claiming that all male followers of Jesus had to be circumcised. In chapter 5 of his letter to the Galatians, Paul says:
Friends, you were called to freedom. Do not use your freedom for selfish indulgence, but through love become servants to each other. The whole law is summarised in one sentence: “You must love your neighbour as yourself.” But if you keep biting and devouring each other, be careful that you are not destroyed by each other. Walk by the Spirit, and you will not give in to sinful cravings.
Paul seems to equate the arguments – in which each protagonist claimed to know the right way of doing things – with “selfish indulgence” and “giving in to sinful cravings”. In a sense, they are opposed to the “freedom” to which Christians have been called, because the freedom includes freedom from sinful cravings. Thus the desire to be proved right, while it masquerades as righteousness, is actually a form of sin.