Unity

I remember the first time I discovered that my wife and I disagreed about something. Actually, I don’t remember what it was that we disagreed about, but what I do remember was that I was crushed. We were already married and only now had I discovered that she didn’t believe something that I did, and furthermore, that she still wouldn’t believe it even after we discussed it at length! What was to be done? Well, get a divorce of course. Isn’t that what we are supposed to do when we discover that we have differences in thought or in practice from others? Isn’t that what people in the church do every time they have a disagreement that they cannot ultimately resolve?

Through the centuries Christians have divided over a multitude of issues, from differing ideas on communion, the millennium, the rapture, tongues, and even the amount of water that should be used in baptism, to what television programs they watch (or if they watch any at all)! And because of these disagreements many of those within the church have either broken fellowship with those they disagreed with or worse. Worse? One such instance was the disagreement over the mode of baptism that raged in the Church of Scotland many years ago. One side passionately held to the belief that baptism is to be done by immersion, while the other side believed, just as passionately, that it was to be done by sprinkling. The disagreement in the church elevated to the point where they began to shoot one another over the issue! They were willing to murder their brother in Christ over their disagreement with them on how much water to use in baptism!

Now don’t get me wrong. It is rare that brothers go to blows over disagreements anymore, but how common is it for brothers to stop fellowshipping with others because they disagree with them doctrinally (and by “doctrinally” I am not meaning essential issues of the Christian faith like the deity of Christ, the virgin birth or salvation by faith alone). The differences in doctrine that cause this division can be, and often are, relatively minor issues. Now I certainly believe that most of these people think that they are defending the truth. Most of these people think that they are worshipping God the way He has commanded. Most of these people have a high regard for the truth of Scripture and its application in life, as every Christian ought to. But, I believe, the divisions that occur do not do so because of differences in doctrine or in practice, but because of lack of character in the ones holding those doctrines. Division and discord occur within the body of Christ because of our lack of love, our lack of kindness, our lack of goodness and faithfulness and our inability to be long-suffering. We divide ultimately because our desire to be right is greater than our desire to love our brother.

Let me illustrate…
Shortly after I was saved I became aware of the fact that many of the things I believed about Christianity were not true. I was full of all kinds of misconceptions and ideas about God and salvation and the rest. It took me several years of studying and learning before I assured myself that everything I believed about Christianity was right. I had studied it all and knew what was true, what was false and how to lead others to the truth. The problem was that not everyone was compelled to change their minds by my astounding intellect, knowledge of the Scriptures and persuasive argumentation. Of course it then became impossible for me to worship with such arrogant, prideful people who refused to change their views when they were so obviously wrong. After all, ones beliefs affect their worship and their maturity, and if they did not have right doctrine, like I did, then their worship was impure and they were terribly immature.
Then one day my eyes were opened to see that part of what I had believed about the rapture was wrong, and so I, being humble as I was, changed my belief and then assured myself that now I possessed the whole Christian truth. Then shortly after that I discovered that what I believed about predestination was wrong, and after that I realized that much of what I perceived the love of God to be like was incorrect, but all along I knew, even though I was oftentimes wrong, that I was always right.

It seems strange now, I must admit, that even though everything I believed was right that I was continuing to revise and change my belief system. Yet the one thing that never changed was that I was absolutely persuaded that I possessed the whole truth of Christianity and that anyone that did not hold to what I believed was wrong.

Though doctrine is about truth, how we deal with others over doctrine is about character, and our character affects our worship of God as much as our doctrine does. Did it ever occur to us that walking in mercy and humility rather than in self-righteousness and arrogance is the very point behind these doctrines and practices that we cling to?

It appears that we have forgotten that these doctrines which we hold to so tenaciously are given to us so that we will love the Lord our God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. But rather than standing upon them to do this we use them as a platform to not associate with our neighbor, to look down on them, and to gossip about how ungodly they are for not believing what we do, which in turn affects our worship of God. If I then approach the altar of God with the satisfaction of knowing that I used the correct amount of water in baptism, and yet have ought in my heart against my brother, will my worship be acceptable? Will I be able to boast before God that I was right and that my brother was wrong about this one thing? Will the Almighty applaud my correct doctrine and yet ignore my arrogant self-righteous boasting about my being right? Will He delight in the fact that my being right about this issue has caused me to dislike and disassociate with my brother? Or perhaps God wants me to love my brother despite our differences. Isn’t the way of Christ to lay down our lives for our brothers, not to lay down our brother’s life for the justification of our beliefs?

You see, our worship of God is not limited to a couple of hours on Sunday mornings. All of life is worship. Therefore, the way I worship God moment by moment is by striving to do his will moment by moment in all of the details of life. My life is an act of worship, and when I love my wife as Christ loved the church I am worshipping God, I am pursuing God, I am glorifying God. Our primary worship of God is then done in the context of our relationships with others, be it our wives, our children, our parents or siblings, unbelievers and our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is why loving our neighbors is so important. It is how we manifest our love for God in the details of life.

True doctrine has one purpose and one purpose alone, and that is for us to love God. Our tendency is to love our doctrine of God more than we love God Himself, and to boast in (what we think is) our right doctrine of God, forgetting that the truest manifestations of these doctrines are humility and loving our neighbors as ourselves. True doctrine manifests itself in righteous living, and a fruit of righteous living is living in unity with the brothers that we disagree with. Therefore, true doctrine lived-out manifests itself not in division but in unity, not in malice but in love.

Doctrinal and practical differences will always arise in the church. It is inevitable. We will all eventually find something to disagree about. Yet if we think about it, true biblical unity never included the idea of perfect doctrinal agreement, because if it did then we have never had true biblical unity in the history of the church! Rather true unity was, and is, brothers and sisters in Christ that love one another, that carry one another’s burdens, that comfort and exhort one another, and that lay down their lives for one another in spite of their differences, be they few or many.

Most of the time we consciously avoid building relationships where these conflicts will occur, and we are the worse off for it. We in the church have followed after the culture of selfishness and pride, and so we enter into relationships keeping a fixed distance between us, and when conflict arises, no matter how insignificant, we break those relationships. We avoid and/or break fellowship with other believers for just about every conceivable reason and intentionally keep from building relationships with brothers that differ from us in thought or in practice. Because of this we are a shallow people, a people of little patience, a judgmental people, a people of pride. Rather than displaying the fruit of the Spirit through working hard on relationships and struggling to love one another through conflict, we simply go the other way, and, in so doing, affirm ourselves in our unbiblical, unloving pride. Why do we do this? Because we lack character, we lack the fruit of the Spirit.

Doctrine that does not manifest itself in the fruit of the spirit is practically useless. If we want a true test of our doctrines, the best test might be in placing ourselves in the midst of people that disagree with us. Then we will see whether these beliefs produce love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control or whether they breed pride, contentions, anger, jealousies, and fits of rage.

If we live out right biblical doctrine we will find ourselves in strong biblical relationships where our love for one another surpasses our differences. Our doctrine lived-out will produce deep, intimate relationships with our brothers, where we are open to change, where we accept reproof and correction, and where we sharpen one another. These relationships will address difficult issues of lifestyle and of doctrine. They will produce in depth biblical discussions where both brothers will vehemently defend their beliefs and then patiently and humbly listen to their brothers defense of theirs. And at the end of such conversations the brothers will love one another and be more dedicasted to one another than before the conversation began, even if, in the end, they had to agree to disagree. In the end, true doctrine will cause you to love your brother more than your need to be right. In the end, true doctrine will produce humility, it will produce love, it will produce trust around our common Savior and God, and it will draw everyone involved to love God more.

Paul put it aptly, “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”