CHRISTIAN UNITY
One of the main cries today among serious Christians is that the church is divided into many branches when we ought to be united in Christ. We painfully feel our division. We earnestly desire resolution. Yet the resolution is far more difficult than many would expect.
One of the commonly touted solutions is that men should abandon the practice of naming groups after men or doctrines—”I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Peter” — and take no name upon themselves but Christ. But in practice this is a failure in almost every instance. My 45 years of experience has stamped upon my heart the painful truth that no groups are more sectarian than those that take only the name of Jesus. I have never seen an exception. They have an inflated view of their faithfulness and a deflated view of the faithfulness of others. This is religious pride. Hardly good ground for unity.
Another commonly touted solution is that groups should drop all divisive teachings and just unite around the core teachings of Jesus and the gospel. This sounds great in theory, but it fails on several accounts. First of all, we have an obligation to the entire counsel of God, not merely to a core of teaching. If every church and group dropped divisive doctrine in this manner, the truth would suffer. Points great and small would be lost. Secondly, men being men, doctrinal platforms that tend to sneakily insinuate their teachings into churches would continue to do so. This means that error will always be doing its dirty work, sowing division. Thirdly, men being men, there would always be folks who think that a core truth is being left out, and would make it their life mission to convince everyone. This would bring a fresh round of division.
The ideal solution is that every circle should make such a humble, candid, serious study of the Scriptures in robust and consistent application of the historical-grammatical hermeneutic that every circle would drop every error they hold. The downside to this approach is that we men are not half as humble and teachable as we think we are. It is hard enough for individuals to implement this without inconsistencies and shortcomings. To apply this on a corporate level is even more difficult. Existing circles are going to continue with the same application of the historical-grammatical hermeneutic that they started with–be that exceptional or mediocre. Only on the rarest basis do churches or groups go forward together in this process. Thankfully, we will find this unity in heaven when we sit in Emmaus Road 101, Hermeneutics 101, Theology 101, Eschatology 101, etc.
The pragmatic solution is that every circle continue forward as they are, not intentionally relinquishing any truth they believe they ought to stand for, while at the same time recognizing that God truly is working in the midst of other groups who have the core issues right, despite their doctrinal error. We need to embrace them as real Christians though we have disagreements with them, sometimes serious disagreements. We need to work hard at keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3). The unity is based on the indwelling Holy Spirit. We can’t break or hinder this unity. It simply exists. It is an unshakeable, unbreakable fact regardless of whether we recognize it or not. But we can work at obtaining and maintaining the bond of peace. The way we do this is by agreeing to disagree. By showing love and grace when others show anger and bitterness and pride. By not responding with meanness when others are mean to us. By not making wild accusations when others make wild accusations against us.
THE BOND OF PEACE AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR
At times maintaining the bond of peace is very difficult. The biggest problem is when men propagate error under the influence of the spirit of error. They feel at liberty to passionately teach their position and vigorously challenge everyone else to be real students and not followers of men and to engage in real iron sharpens iron investigation. Yet when others challenge their arguments and conclusions with weighty facts and arguments, they show zero grace and bountiful petty pride. They immediately exit the arena of objective investigation and iron sharpens iron, and jump into the arena of subjectivity and ad hominem arguments. They make zero effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. Instead, they strain the bonds of peace with their personal attacks and accuse those who disagree with them of breaking the bonds of peace. In reality, the Lord Jesus Christ will hold the errorists accountable at the judgment seat for breaking the bonds of peace. Not by the error itself but by their petty, prideful defense of the error, whose ultimate defense is always accusations not defensible facts.
Somehow, by the grace of God, those in the camp of truth need to find great grace to maintain the tattered, battered bonds of peace, rather than adding to the fires of division. How can we be faithful to the truth, to iron sharpens iron, to the historical-grammatical hermeneutic, yet also be faithful in an attempt to maintain the bonds of peace with a spirit of grace and humility? This is a monumental task which requires men and women of God to go deeper in grace than they have ever gone before. We dare not let go of truth, iron sharpens iron, and the historical-grammatical hermeneutic. But neither do we dare let frustration, bitterness, and anger undermine grace in our life. Somehow, by the grace of God, we need to be on the high ground of grace as well as the high ground of truth. There is no guarantee here that we can fix every spirit of error situation we face. Likely, we will only fix a few and ameliorate a few more. Perhaps we won’t fix any. But our chief focus is the fact that we will give account to the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ for how we handled these frustrating circumstances. May God help us all in this matter.
Eyes Wide Open, Brain Engaged, Heart on Fire
Lee Brainard
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