I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 1Corinthians 1:10
One thing is clearly taught by Jesus and the apostles, which hasn't been followed by most professing believers of the last few centuries, and that is Christian unity. Why do churches put the name of a denomination on their church signs and not the name of Jesus? And the teaching is so clear, but for whatever reason people put dividers between themselves and other Christians. Read this, and all you have to do is change the names to make it speak to today.
What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul'; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." 1Corinthians 1:12
Well, there is one name among the four that should always be. I'll let you take a guess as to what that name is. Read how Paul responds to it
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 1Corinthians 1:13
Tell me, how does it get more clear than that? We as Christians are to proclaim the name of Christ and stay unified in mind and spirit. The question for us is how we do that without sacrificing serious doctrinal beliefs. Sure, we could achieve unity in mind if we all numbed our minds, ignored the Bible and theology. That's one way to be ecumenical, but then we have committed a sin that's as bad if not worse. So how do we unify without sacrificing serious beliefs? The answer is the Bible and the Holy Spirit. We must study the word of God, use it for correcting false beliefs, and make it the physical counterpart of the Spirit that we unify around. The Holy Spirit is much more mysterious, as Jesus said of those born of the Spirit, "you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going." There is nothing physical we can do to direct the Spirit, except maybe to pray. But the Bible is the tangible counterpart of the Spirit. We can take the word of God and teach each other until we come to agreement on everything that needs to be agreed on. And in doing so we are not sacrificing serious belief, but actually fostering it, making our belief more serious and more heart-felt.
Does that mean that all real Christians will agree on everything? Practically speaking, I doubt there is any amount of Bible study that could conform every true believer to every other on every single issue. There simply will be some things we disagree on, like those topics in eschatology, or how exactly to interpret the first chapter of Genesis. That is just something we will have to acknowledge, and we'll just have to forgive each other for being wrong. I know I forgive people for being wrong a lot! (winks) Its a whole lot better to have a belief, say on the nature of Jesus' second coming, and disagree with another Christian than to disregard the issue entirely in an effort to keep the peace. We can keep the peace and still disagree some, right? Its the fundamentals, the pillars of the faith, that we must agree on. I like the saying 'what's plain is main, and what's main is plain', which of course is referring to the Bible. If its a central teaching of the church of Christ, it will be plainly written there in the Bible. And if a person, once shown the proof by Scripture, won't agree, then there's a problem. But if its a disputable matter, grace and flexibility should be shown on both sides for the purpose of fostering unity in the church.
One thing is clearly taught by Jesus and the apostles, which hasn't been followed by most professing believers of the last few centuries, and that is Christian unity. Why do churches put the name of a denomination on their church signs and not the name of Jesus? And the teaching is so clear, but for whatever reason people put dividers between themselves and other Christians. Read this, and all you have to do is change the names to make it speak to today.
What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul'; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." 1Corinthians 1:12
Well, there is one name among the four that should always be. I'll let you take a guess as to what that name is. Read how Paul responds to it
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 1Corinthians 1:13
Tell me, how does it get more clear than that? We as Christians are to proclaim the name of Christ and stay unified in mind and spirit. The question for us is how we do that without sacrificing serious doctrinal beliefs. Sure, we could achieve unity in mind if we all numbed our minds, ignored the Bible and theology. That's one way to be ecumenical, but then we have committed a sin that's as bad if not worse. So how do we unify without sacrificing serious beliefs? The answer is the Bible and the Holy Spirit. We must study the word of God, use it for correcting false beliefs, and make it the physical counterpart of the Spirit that we unify around. The Holy Spirit is much more mysterious, as Jesus said of those born of the Spirit, "you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going." There is nothing physical we can do to direct the Spirit, except maybe to pray. But the Bible is the tangible counterpart of the Spirit. We can take the word of God and teach each other until we come to agreement on everything that needs to be agreed on. And in doing so we are not sacrificing serious belief, but actually fostering it, making our belief more serious and more heart-felt.
Does that mean that all real Christians will agree on everything? Practically speaking, I doubt there is any amount of Bible study that could conform every true believer to every other on every single issue. There simply will be some things we disagree on, like those topics in eschatology, or how exactly to interpret the first chapter of Genesis. That is just something we will have to acknowledge, and we'll just have to forgive each other for being wrong. I know I forgive people for being wrong a lot! (winks) Its a whole lot better to have a belief, say on the nature of Jesus' second coming, and disagree with another Christian than to disregard the issue entirely in an effort to keep the peace. We can keep the peace and still disagree some, right? Its the fundamentals, the pillars of the faith, that we must agree on. I like the saying 'what's plain is main, and what's main is plain', which of course is referring to the Bible. If its a central teaching of the church of Christ, it will be plainly written there in the Bible. And if a person, once shown the proof by Scripture, won't agree, then there's a problem. But if its a disputable matter, grace and flexibility should be shown on both sides for the purpose of fostering unity in the church.
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