Denominational Unity

 

God in His wisdom has made the Bible so that a sincere person who reads it while seeking Him will understand it. Many times a Christian will read the Bible for years, maybe decades, and have a nice sincere understanding of the simple pure Gospel because they’ve read it with common sense and without denomination bias. They will know to love and serve God and people with the wisdom that comes from God, in practical helpful ways, and abhor all kinds of evil (sins) and ills (e.g. bad manners). The Bible is very clear on all the important matters, called “weightier matters” in Matthew 23:23, 24. E.g. putting off greed, immorality, coveting, slander, immodesty, lying, murder, theft, gossip, laziness, etc and putting on humility, love, faith, patience, forgiveness, etc while reaching the lost and hurting world. There are over 30 things like this (link here), and they should be admonished and strongly taught (Colossians 3:16) without the slightest compromise. The wisdom that comes from God is to grow in these things (James 3:17-18, 2 Peter 1:5-11) and to carefully guard them in our doctrine. But there are many other unclear issues that are not critical and so they shouldn’t divide us, but many times they do. So this article is written to encourage us to stay focused on the weightier matters and seek unity in the church. You’ll see this is very Biblical. Below are just a few verses; you’ll find many more interspersed thru the article. They should pop up when you hover over them. 

 

5 The aim of our charge [the goal the teaching] is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. 1 Timothy 1:5-7

 

8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. 9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Titus 3:8-9

 

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. Ephesians 4:11-15

 

The weightier matters are typically clear to a sincere conscience and obvious to us. The principal feature of the new covenant was prophesied to be living by our conscience (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26). This is also clearly taught in the New Testament in over 20 verses (Romans 2:14-15, 1 Timothy 1:5, Acts 24:16, etc). Of course bad church teaching or other circumstances can cause the conscience to be overly sensitive on some issues (see Romans 14:14), or conversely it can be dulled over time by worldly deception (1 Timothy 4:1-2), and sometimes people need time to grow in issues (Philippians 3:16). So we do have to be careful; but in general that’s the first good commonsense litmus test of a weightier matter – do we know it’s wrong in our conscience. When the long-awaited Messiah came bringing the new covenant, he summed it all up in Matthew 22:37-40 by two commandments, love God (which also means righteousness and abhorring evil) and love people. Every weightier matter can be traced up to these two. Then a couple chapters later, in Matthew 24:45, He gives His last message before His death, which was focused on this 2nd commandment of helping people. In this last message, He gives three strong parables about helping people: the servant faithfully giving food to the other servants in Matthew 24:36-51, using (not hiding) talents in Matthew 25:14-28, and the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46. These are all about helping and reaching people and they are in context of the final judgment that we will all face when we stand before Him, so this is specifically what He said we will be judged by.

 

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Matthew 25:31-36

 

We should all have this verse memorized or posted on our wall. You’ll find this focus on righteousness and helping people throughout the Bible (James 1:27; 2:14-26; 3:13, 1 Timothy 6:1-12, 1 Timothy 6:18-21, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Titus 2, Titus 3:1–11, Hebrews 5:12-14, 1 Peter 3:13-23). It was in the Old Testament too (Proverbs 11:30, Daniel 12:3). Jesus’ whole life of ministry was characterized by constant selfless service and simple teaching on these two basic commandments, out among the people (even unlovely people). It was not the life of a deep theologian arguing fine points of obscure knowledge in meeting halls. The focus on talking about and searching for hidden truth is actually spoken against (1 Timothy 1:6, 1 Timothy 6:20-21, Titus 1:10, Hebrews 13:9, Revelation 2:24). In fact, it was the Gnostics (the Greek word “Gnosis” means “knowledge”) that had that focus of a higher and fuller secret knowledge that they were trying to use to lead people to their cult. Scholars think it was starting to make its way into the church even while the Bible was being written so they think certain verses were directly against it (Colossians 1:19 – note that “fullness” was a Gnostic term, Colossians 2:2-4, 1 Timothy 1:4, 1 Timothy 4:1-3, 1 John 2:27). So if we’re going to follow Jesus’ example, life is all about practically helping and reaching people. And though all these weightier commands are fairly simple and obvious, they are against our sinful nature, so it’s difficult in that way, and they will keep us plenty busy working on ourselves and exhorting others in them our whole lives. These are the things we should be focused on. 

 

Paul and the Apostles used this same style as Jesus, but as they address specific issues that come up (often from difficult people) or in other teaching, they sometimes mention things in passing without defining them, or they leave loopholes in their teaching because they were writing 2000 years ago in a mid-eastern mindset that assumed commonsense, unlike our Western mindset where we are so legalistic and careful to define things without loopholes in important writing. When you use common sense and benefit of the doubt, their writing can be understood just fine on the important issues. And remember, God had a plan for their writings, but they thought they were just writing simple letters. I’m sure they would have been more careful if they’d have known the letters were destined to become part of God’s sacred book for thousands of years – the most popular and best-selling book of all time. But God knew what he was doing and made sure the important stuff was all well-defined, especially if you use common sense. To illustrate this commonsense everyday vernacular: it’s like me telling someone to go and get some bread from the store. This is how we talk all the time and it’s easily understood, but it leaves all kinds of loopholes. The person can steal the bread and be within my direction to “get the bread”. So my statement had built in assumptions: pay for the bread! It would obviously be ridiculous to say that I think you can steel bread from the store because I didn’t specify paying for it, but that’s exactly what people are doing with Biblical statements. So the Bible requires this same commonsense mentality. I hope you get that idea if you don’t get anything else out of this article. I see all kinds of problems because people are not using this principle. Since the Bible is a sacred and extremely important book, it’s hard for us Westerners to interpret it as we would a letter from a friend. But that’s how much of it was written. And this leaves tons of opportunity for division with the Bible if we don’t interpret it this way. The article on hermeneutics gives examples of how things can be twisted – you’ll find it surprising how much can be twisted. Furthermore, the Bible was written and meant to be understood as whole books, so it is especially easy to lose the commonsense big picture focus on those weightier matters when you “go beyond what is written” and start reading things in between the lines in unclear areas. Peter warned against this in 2 Peter 3:15-18. No, we should just look for clear teaching in large portions as it was written and use common sense. 

 

Paul even talks about “disputable issues” in Romans 14 and 15 where multiple views are perfectly fine and he clearly tells us not to argue about them. So again, God in His wisdom was sure to make the important issues very clear (with common sense) and those can keep us very busy doing important things for Him our whole lives. That’s what this article exhorts; to not “wrangle about words” and to “avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness” 2 Timothy 2:14-16. 2 Timothy 2:22-23 and Titus 3:9 has the same exhortation. Of course the reason you’re “wrangling” is either because it’s not a clear issue, or because their conscience is seared and they aren’t accepting the clear common-sense meaning. Either way you should probably just leave it alone after a quick discussion. The word used there and in 2 Timothy 2:14 is “avoid” (G4026), not “abhor” (G655) as you would do with evil (Romans 12:9). So maybe you can quickly discuss an issue, but the idea is to quickly get off of these kinds of discussions and focus more on those weightier matters. Certainly don’t argue over a lighter matter until you break unity over it. 

 

I’ve noticed that Christians have a natural tendency to zero in on our differences over these unclear issues and discuss or sometimes argue about them. Going out into the world to win souls is hard, risky and scary. So we tend to stay within our walls, and we need something to talk about, so we often gravitate to discussions about these unclear issues. And this isn’t entirely bad. It can be done with a lot of fun and unity and not disrupt the unity in the body of Christ, as long as it doesn’t take too much of your time and energy so it diverts you from this true calling we have to focus on the lost and hurting world. That would be the first danger. The other danger is if you notice that it is breaking unity or that a person is using these discussions to create divisions and draw people unto themselves. If we notice either of these, then we must make that conscious choice to focus on those weightier matters and a world that desperately needs us to be united and helping them. This is in line with how Paul interrupts a discussion of doctrine (tongues and gifts of the Spirit) in 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 to stop and talk about the “most excellent way”, giving us the famous love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. So when discussing an issue, be sure to always keep in mind that love and unity are very important and taught throughout the Bible (Acts 4:32, 1 Corinthians 1:10, 2 Corinthians 13:11, Ephesians 4:3, Philippians 2:1,2). Let that be an important background in any Biblical discussion. Jesus said the world would know God loves them by our unity (John 17:22, 23). I’m giving this exhortation because I’m guilty of wrangling too, so I know some of us have (or had) more of a tendency to lose sight of these big picture requirements and to argue about these unclear areas. Some churches actually encourage it. Cults are the worst of course. Cults would say the exact opposite of what I’m proposing. They think we need to dive deep into obscure details of doctrine and read between the lines of these unclear verses. And so of course they want you to attend their Bible studies or read their materials to direct you in the “true interpretations” of scripture and then go to their church. Paul predicted in Acts 20:30, 31 that people would distort the truth to draw disciples to them, not God (see also 1 Corinthians 1:10-13). It’s so much easier and safer to draw people from other churches than to try to win the lost. So I’m proposing that the overall makeup of the Bible is that if God didn’t make it clear, it’s not worth arguing about and creating division. Instead, we need to focus on these weightier matters which are clear and very critical, and fairly hard. That will keep us plenty busy until He comes back. e.g. witnessing to the lost is hard and we need to encourage each other and give each other ideas how to do it, with lots of prayer.

 

So yes, the things we should talk about are how to best reach and help the world thru dependence on God. There are many things we can talk about this way. So if a sincere person comes pushing a church or minister by wrangling about some unique doctrine they have, you can listen for a short time and ask a few questions maybe, and depending on how devout they are and how well you know them you might make a few quick corrective comments or a short discussion as needed, and if it’s a trivial matter that’s not worth parting over, politely ask them something like this in a friendly manner, “That’s pretty amazing. You’ve obviously done a lot of study. Let me ask you, what methods do you think are the most effective at reaching the lost?” There are plenty of sincere people that engage in these kinds of divisive discussions (unfortunately), so a sincere person will see what you’re doing and probably appreciate the reminder to focus on the weightier matters. But there are also people who really don’t have a love for God or the lost, but for some reason they love to engage in these disputable doctrines – maybe because of pride or building a “special” church or supporting a divisive ministry, etc. If they are too divisive, you will probably find that in time you need to practice Paul’s advice in Titus 3:10-11 and stay away from them. But do note that I’m saying “probably”, there’s always exceptions. And all doctrines aside, you also want to watch for a person who has their heart set on the world and not God. This is what will influence you and your family, many more times worse than someone with a difference in doctrine on one of these lighter matters. Ang again, there are some doctrines that do very much affect the weightier matters, things that make light of sin for example, and those are worth parting over. Another article gives some examples to the difference. 

 

The Moravians are an interesting group to study and a perfect example of what I’m saying because persecution forced them to join together as a church in spite of differences among them on these unclear issues. And they became a powerful mission-minded church that focused on those two commandments, and had great fruits, to the point of accidentally becoming world-renown (which is not our goal of course). In free countries like America, we don’t have this oppression, so we have been free to start many churches, and denominations have naturally formed over the interpretations of the unclear verses. And maybe that’s not so bad, as long as we can keep our unity and focus on the weightier matters.