Is there grace for wrong beliefs?

Is there grace for wrong beliefs?

I asked that question last week with a purpose in mind. I was working on a sermon where a Roman officer came to Jesus. This officer misunderstands what Jesus would like, but he understands that Jesus is the one to go to. Despite the officer's flawed thoughts, Jesus worked. This was contrasted in the section of Scripture with the religious people of the day missing out on Jesus. They had religion down, but missed Jesus. Do we have all our "right beliefs" and miss out on Jesus? The opportunity is there for all of us who are willing to come to Jesus and let him improve our lives. We need to just come to him. Jesus doesn't expect perfect behavior or perfect beliefs. If he did, we would all be screwed. Instead, he desires relationship. He wants us to know him and his father who sent him.

The purpose of the question has both a political and spiritual ramification. I would love for people to be a little more loving toward those they disagree with. The way to bring someone to right belief is through love, not dogmatic statements. Not from being demeaning and the loudest. Not from being the best debater. Love. This is true in the political world and the spiritual world. Telling someone they are a libtard, a snowflake, a heretic, a nazi, deplorable, or any other demeaning label because they have a different belief is the path of self-righteousness.

Our world is overdosing on self-righteousness. It may make the person labeling someone feel lofty, but it is only a temporary high and actually destroys. We are called to teach the truth in gentleness and love. In that framework, there is grace. Without grace, there is no gentleness and love.

As our society has moved away from God, it seems that we are also moving away from speaking with love to those we disagree with. Although we Christians have failed at that way too often in the past and continue to fail at it, there is a clear correction in the teachings of Jesus. We are challenged to be loving to our enemies. We need to grasp hold of that and walk that less traveled path with that principle at the forefront. With Jesus at the forefront. Come to Jesus. It means more than just theology and doctrine; it means a life of love. Loving God and loving our neighbor. A life of joining in on Jesus' work of restoring this world to what God intended it to be. A beautiful calling.

It's the Christmas season. Spread Jesus and his love, not more hate. If God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, we can at least be loving to those we disagree with.

Our Zeal Tempered With Loving Those We Disagree With

In the Protestant world (or Reformed if you prefer), each viewpoint eventually becomes an issue worth dividing over. Time and time again, churches splinter and people leave churches over the silliest of issues. Each denomination and religious group has a heritage of splintering because each Protestant group divided from another group at their origin. This fragmentation is exacerbated by our desire to be right on the truth and stand up for what we believe in. During the whole process, we have the tendency to demonize the people sharing another viewpoint. Forget sharing the "truth in love;" we share the truth and leave no room for dissenters.

We turn every stance into a reason for separation. Even on the essentials, we need to make sure that they are always expressed in love. Not having a clearly defined statement on what the essentials are, we find ourselves in a world of confusion. What issues are worth standing up for? The trinity, the structure of the church, the role of women, spiritual gifts, the Lord's Supper, loving our neighbor. We are left with every point, including the minutest points that we understand differently from everyone else, becoming an essential because it is essential for us to live out the truth, even to the minutest details, as we understand it.

I was recently stuck with looking in the mirror when I read through Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution. Encountering someone that follows Christ in a way somewhat different from myself, I realized how I must sound to those that follow Christ differently than me. Being so excited and zealous for the way I am called to live out the gospel, I confuse my personal calling for a universal calling. I have the tendency to try and shoehorn everyone into my way of following Christ.

The blessing, and frustration at times, of the Bible is that it is vague on the specifics of how we are to live out the life of Christ here and now. We are given broad principles - love your neighbor, glorify God, make disciples - but we are left without many specifics on the lesser details. I should always view that as a blessing. Being a Christian is not about some legalistic checklist that we can complete and be done with; it is about knowing God and bringing about his will in our specific circumstances. Every person alive has a different situation that they find themselves in, yet there is a best course for that situation. We need to be close enough to God that we can discern his leading and the path we are supposed to go down. Being a Christian is not about knowing a book but about living the life God would have us live here and now. The Book should be a tool to help us do that.

We need to find a way to let our passion be kindled while at the same time always exemplifying love to those we disagree with.

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."

Our Failed Witness - The Broken Church

We've been talking about Satan's tricks to divide us and ruin our witness this week.  The other trick Satan uses to dampen the church’s effectiveness is to influence us to badmouth other churches.

Paul wrote, "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift [Eph 4:4-7 (ESV)].

Jesus has one Church that crosses all manmade divides.

Yet we have temporarily divided over the worst things.  Everything from gender, race, our nation, and for the past five hundred years, denominations.  Every denomination has a doctrine, usually a right teaching, that they just will not budge on.  For the brotherhood I am in, that has been adult believer baptism.  I have even heard people go so far as to rebaptize people because the right words were not uttered over them when they were baptized.  If Jesus wanted a specific phrase to be uttered, it would have been consistently and clearly presented throughout the Scriptures.  We serve a gracious God who honors the act of baptism, whether a person is doing it out of obedience or because they believe it is an act of salvation.  The heart is what matters.  A heart circumcised to the lord.

“And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” Deut 30:6 (ESV)

Are we eager to maintain unity, are we trying to be tuned to God?  Or are we antagonistic, wanting to fight, looking for opportunities to divide?  If we are looking for unity, we will find things to unify over.  If we are looking for division, we will find things to divide over.  We see what we are looking.  Paul taught that we are to approach one another with humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love?  That's not too divisive, nor is it too American.  I have been raised from birth as an American to be bold, brave, and fight for my freedom and rights.  But as citizens in the kingdom of God, we’re called to be humble, gentle, patient, and bear with one another in love.
 
Is that how we live in our houses, in our workplaces, in our social activities? 

Even within our own churches, do we let people lead there ministries, encourage them to follow God and do their best, or do we tear them down?  We might be in the same church, but that does not guarantee that we are unified.  Two cats with their tails tied to each other and be hung over a clothesline; they might be together but that does not mean they are unified.

Dwight L. Moody taught, “There are two ways of being united -- one is by being frozen together, and the other is by being melted together. What Christians need is to be united in brotherly love, and then they may expect to have power.” (Moody’s Anecdotes, pg. 53)

May we be united together.  If you take a bunch of loose gold ore, melt it together, and let a master craftsman shape it, you will have beautiful gold jewelry for the world to see.  May people see us, united together and not help but recognize the Master Craftsman who has shaped us into who we are.  May people see Jesus when they see our love for one another.

Our Failed Witness - The Broken Local Church

Local churches are often tragically filled with power struggles, gossip, and tearing one another down.  Instead of living int his fallen state, we need to intentionally use every opportunity to build one another up rather than to tear each other down.  Nobody wants to go to a church where people attack one another, but they will want to go to a church where they are encouraged, challenged, and uplifted. 

What we do is contagious.    Love fosters more love; gossip fosters more gossip.  Have you ever noticed how you start being negative around a negative person?  Have you noticed how other people can bring out the best in you?

Studies have shown that yawning is contagious. 

But even more seriously, I have noticed that our sins are contagious.  I had a professor who was once the youth minister at a church where the pastor was arrested for molesting children.  It eventually was uncovered that four adults were molesting children.  What we do in secret has a tendency to be contagious whether we want it to be or not.  I can’t explain why, just like scientists can’t explain why yawns are contagious.

A bad group of people will tear one another down and prohibit one another from reaching their potential.  A good group of  people will build one another up helping each another achieve far more than they ever thought possible.  So in our families and in our churches, let’s focus on being people that build one another up.  We need to be a culture of truth and love, a culture where people can experience Jesus’ love.  A culture where our love is contagious.

But we have an enemy who does not want that.  This week someone started a fire at the Park Station, the future home of the Antwerp Community Youth Center.  Since I believe that there is an evil force in this world, I think that Satan is trying to stop our work.  He doesn’t want the youth center to go forward because it would change lives for the better.  But Satan’s attacks aren’t always as obvious as a fire.  They can come in the off-handed comment toward someone or the telling of a negative thing about someone behind their back; the more we give in to these negative attacks, the more vicious they become.  If Satan can divide us, the church will be ineffective.  So we need to be careful to not let him get a foothold.  Our mission here is too important to jeopardize through bad mouthing or gossiping about one another.

A.W. Tozer taught in The Pursuit of God, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

We are unified with people, no matter what church they worship at, if we are tuned to the same Jesus.  Seeking unity does not make unity happen; unity happens when a group of people seek God and let Him shape them into what He wants them to be. When I go to church, I see many good people who give a lot of their time to help one another and make their community better.  With all that said, every church needs to keep Jesus as their focus.  Imagine what can be done if we would be the church that God wants us to be, loving the community the way God would have us, encouraging one another when we get together, and seeking out God’s better way for our lives through teaching and study of the word.  We will grow and be able to do more.  We will be contagious, in a good way.

Our Failed Witness - The Broken Family

A Jewish town had a shortage of men for wedding purposes, so they had to import men from other towns. One day a groom-to-be arrived on a train, and two mother-in-laws-to-be were waiting for him, each claiming ownership on him.

A rabbi was called to solve the problem. After a few minutes of thought, he said: "If this is the situation, you both want the groom, we'll cut him in half and give each one of you half of him."

To this replied one woman: "If that's the case, give him to the other woman."

The rabbi said: "Do that. The one willing to cut him in half, is the real mother-in-law!" (from Ahavat Israel)

Jesus taught:
“Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.”  Matt 12:25 (ESV)

The original audience would have understood this passage much more vividly because they were the recipients of what became the model for dividing and conquering.  In the mid 50s BC, a Jew named Alexander led a nearly successful uprising in Judea.  This uprising was eventually stopped by Aulus Gabinius, a Roman general under Julius Caesar.  After stopping the uprising, he divided Judea into five sanhedrins where Jewish priests would rule each one.  By doing this, he prevented the Jews from being united.  As we could see at the time of Jesus, the Sadducees, Pharisses, Essenes, and Zealots were all fighting against one another; consequently, the Romans did not have to worry about them unify and fighting together against their oppressor.  Divide and conquer.  It’s been a successful strategy of oppressors for over 2000 years.

So when Jesus said that a kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, the original audience would know that the nation of Judea was nothing compared to its former glory.  It had been divided, and it had crumbled.

But that trick, divide and conquer, might have been first observed in recorded history in the 50s BC, but it is still a trick used today.  It appears to be one of Satan’s greatest tactics to prevent the church from being as effective as it can be.  Jesus, in his prayer in John 17, prayed that the church would be one.  

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me [John 17:20-23 (ESV)].

But we have divided over various issues over time.  In the next few days, I'll talk about the church, but before moving on to that I want to talk about the unfortunate witness of Christians because of our families. 

We see division in our families. 

Barna released a survey around the turn of the century.  It showed the following:

It is through dividing us, whether it is in criticizing our spouse, or going even further through losing our love for one another and cheating on one another that our family loses its effective witness.  Chances are that some reading this come from a family that is already divided.  It’s sad and tough, and it was not God's design.  As far as it is up to you, live at peace with everyone.  Bring Jesus and his love back into those broken and hurting relationships.  That division that is there might be able to be mended.  Things probably won’t go back to the way they were, but they could. 

As followers of Jesus, we need to be people of peace and reconciliation because division in the family causes so much hurt and undue strife.  It’s sad all of the pain people have to go through because we fail at unity.  We fail to deal with one another in humility, patience, gentleness, and love.  May we learn to be patient, humble, gentle, and loving to those we interact with the most for the sake of our happiness and the witness of Jesus. 

Legalism's Attack on Unity - A Discussion on Essentials (Part Four)

The more legalistic we get, the more divided we become.  Look at the remnants of the Restoration Movement, that’s the movement our churches were birthed out of in the 1800s.  We started as a unity movement trying to be like the early church.  It was our goal to restore that church we see in the New Testament, something we still have a lot of room to work on.  Our movement allowed anyone from any denomination to join around the Lord’s table as brothers and sisters for the Lord’s Supper.  We accepted anyone, no matter what denomination they were part of, as brothers or sisters in Christ if they claimed to be His follower and showed fruit, and we did not expect them to leave the denomination they were part of but to remain part of that group and to help the churches they were involved in to put an emphasis on studying Scripture.

Now, we, a mockery of unity, have three major strands, the Disciples, us as the independent Churches of Christ/Christian Church, and the non-instrumental Church of Christ, as well as many minor strands.  As legalism over certain pet doctrines solidified over the years, sectarianism crept in, and people refused to accept one another as brothers and sisters in Christ over issues such as musical instruments, baptism, supporting missionaries more centrally, local autonomy, drinking, and the list goes on and on to the shame of us and the disgrace of Jesus.  Gandhi as an outside observer of Christianity had it right, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” 

In the more legalistic settings, people seem to fake that they believe certain things or hide their “inappropriate” behaviors because they want to be accepted by the legalistic leader or group.  Once we create an environment where people have to fake and hide things, which a broad list of essentials inevitably fosters, then we cannot have true fellowship with one another.  I once went to a church where the official stance of the church was that people in their church should not drink.  What happened?  Most of the people hid that they drank.  This unscriptural teaching on drinking led to falsehood.  Fellowship - real, authentic community in Christ - becomes impossible in an environment where people are fake, secretive, and deceptive. 

When we stray from being people of love into people of legalism - I’ve seen this with most legalistic churches - we stop loving people, we stop meeting their needs, and we just worry about the truth.  But a truth that does not spur us toward love is not the truth of Jesus.  And legalism causes us to refuse to love others with people who are different than us.  We should never refuse to do loving actions with someone because they believe differently than us.  If we are loving others, then we should look at the opportunity to show God’s love no matter how that opportunity presents itself.  For so long, the church would not love unless the love was done in a way that directly presented a verbal gospel rather than just loving people.  If the reason we are loving others is to get them to believe what we believe, then our love is not sincere and it is just a form of manipulation.  Our heart must be as pure as we can get it to be in order for our love to be genuine, as Scripture states our love should be (Romans 12:9, 2 Corinthians 6:6)

James wrote, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” [James 1:26-27 (ESV)].

I know “religion” has become a dirty word in today’s world.  But if this is religion – visiting orphans and helping orphans while being in the word yet remaining unstained from it, then I want to be religious.  Pure and undefiled religion.  It’s the type of church we need to be.  If we are not people who take care of orphans and widows and remain unstained from the world – if we think that talking about Jesus is enough, then we are deceiving ourselves like James warned and are far from being the people God wants us to be. 

If we believe in a minimal set of essentials in order to foster unity and freedom in Christ, then let us refuse the ensnarement of legalism, the desire to broaden the essentials to exclude others, and our tendency to look down on others to puff ourselves up.  Instead, may we be servants like Jesus was.  May we focus on the essentials of loving God, loving neighbors, loving one another, developing the fruit of the Spirit in our life, and continue to proclaim that Jesus is Lord.  In that we will find unity and freedom in Christ.

A Proposed Minimal Set of Essentials - A Discussion on Essentials (Part Three)

In the previous two posts, we have talked about essentials and division in the church.  In this post, I would like to propose four passages of Scripture that should be the cornerstone of what we believe is essential:  Love God, love our neighbors, love one another, accept people as brothers and sisters in Christ who show fruit and claim that Jesus is Lord.  That’s it.  Once we start broadening beyond that, we start alienating people and continually add to our essentials creating a list that will keep growing and never stop.

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  [Matt 22:34-40 (ESV)].

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.  [John 13:34-35 (ESV)].

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. [Matt 7:15-20 (ESV)].

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. [1 Cor 12:1-3 (ESV)].

So where does teaching come in?  When we say that we will accept people who show the fruit of the Spirit, what do we do with right doctrine?  When it comes to what Scripture teaches, we keep teaching what we believe is right, but if you are like me, you need to be humble in doing it.  Over the years, things that I once thought were solid as a rock have shifted and thinks I thought did not matter, have gained in importance.  Humility is the key when it comes to being a teacher.

Jesus said that He did not come to judge (John 12:47).  If Jesus did not come to judge and condemn in regards to eternal life, then we to avoid our natural tendency to judge others in that light.  Let us be studious of the Scriptures, sensitive to the Spirit, and full of love.

We don’t even have to agree with others on everything that we think are clear teachings of Scripture.  Riverside Christian Church has a list of core convictions.  One is that “We believe in a minimal set of essentials in order to foster unity and freedom in Christ.”  If we make every teaching that we believe Scripture teaches an essential, then we will soon be dividing amongst ourselves because there are not two of us that probably agree on everything.  Somewhere we must draw a line, and the best way to do that is with a minimal set of essentials.

More Tomorrow.

For further reading:
Being a Church Involved in the Community - A Discussion on Essentials (Part One)

Christ is not Divided - A Discussion on Essentials (Part Two)

Christ is not Divided - A Discussion on Essentials (Part Two)

We know God’s people, not by them agreeing with us hook, line and sinker on every issue we believe.

One thing I love about the Church of Christ/Christian Churches is our heritage.  Early on, one of the driving statements of our movement was the traditional church statement, “In essentials, unity.  In opinions, liberty.  In all things, love.”  We were the first non-denominational movement in the world, and now non-denominational churches are the fastest growing churches in the land.  The problem is that we have strayed from being non-denominational into being a denomination.  Some people in the Church of Christ will not even accept the non-denominational churches as being on the right track because they are not non-denominational the way we are.

Some of us have become more sectarian than the sectarianism of the denominations our movement was founded to free the church from.  We claim to have no book but the Bible as our guideline for fellowship and the faith, but we all too often place our interpretations of pet Scriptures or even beliefs that are not even expressed in Scripture as issues of fellowship.  In denominational churches, they typically have handbooks that describe what the church believes, what it requires to be a leader in the church, and how people in the church should live.  We have no handbook outside of Scripture, but all too often, we have erred in making unwritten, ever-changing handbooks, a handbook just as legalistic as those in the denominations, except we are not transparent about them and people do not know what is expected of them.

Our conviction at our church is to no longer be that way.  We want to be non-denominational, not anti-denominational.  There is a big difference.  Anti-denominational people think that people in denominations cannot be right with God because they are in a denomination.  Non-denominational means that we choose to be locally led, but we don’t hate denominations.  Through non-denominational lenses we do not see the man-made lines we have created.  Non-denominational people do not get hung up with denominational names and view each person as an individual, right with God based upon their own faithfulness to Him and not on their church affiliation. Condemning people in other churches and dividing over the names we use to call ourselves is so contrary to Scripture.

Paul actually had to deal with this in the Corinthian church.

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”  Is Christ divided?   [1 Cor 1:10-13 (ESV)].

Let’s put it in modern words.

For it has been reported to me by people on Facebook that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Luther,” or “I follow Wesley,” or “I follow Calvin,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided?  [not 1 Cor 1:10-13 (ESV)].

I wish I was as faithful at following Jesus as Luther or as Wesley.  They were great Christians, faithful to the point of selflessness.  I understand why people thought they were on the right track on how to follow Jesus and desired to follow Jesus the way Luther or Wesley did.  And if we are honest with ourselves and study the history of the Restoration Movement, we follow Jesus in the same vein as Alexander Campbell followed Jesus, although we might not have ever read him, really don't even know about him, nor do we call ourselves Campbellites.  We should not be arrogant or look down on others who follow Jesus differently because they come from a different heritage; we come from a heritage that has taught us how to study Scriptures and follow Jesus the way we do.. 

Paul concluded his section on division in the early chapter in Corinthian by stating:

So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.  [1 Cor 3:21-23 (ESV)].

All are Christ’s.  Even those who follow him like Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Luther, Calvin, or Wesley – Christ is not divided.  We need to stop quarreling among ourselves and with our brothers and sisters in Christ in other churches because bickering destroys our witness to the world.,  We need to have the heart of Jesus and figure out how we can serve one another.  In order to do this, we need to clearly understand the essentials that we are willing to divide over.

More tomorrow.

For further reading:
A Discussion on Essentials (Part One)

Being a Church Involved in the Community - A Discussion on Essentials (Part One)

The churches in Antwerp are working together on the Antwerp Community Youth Center, and things just keep moving along.  God keeps blessing it.  The donations keep coming in, we've been given a great location with great rent, and we were recently given a free pool table.  I’m excited about what can be done in this community by the churches working together for a common cause. 

For the longest time, the church I minister at was not involved in the community – our ministers would not be on the ministerial association, we would not participate with the other churches in the community Thanksgiving or Easter services, let alone bigger things like the school supply project, the kid’s clothes closet, or the youth center, but now we are involved with the our brothers and sisters in other churches, trying to follow Jesus as best as we possibly can.  We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg when we allow God to work among us.  God has more in store for us if we remain faithful to Him, surrender our lives, learn to hear His voice and listen to his leading, and live to bring Him glory.  Through it all we can live the best life possible and encounter God in ways we haven’t even imagined.

Like many churches, our church once had this misguided thought that we were the only ones right with God because our beliefs, all of them, were essential.  When we started changing, people left this church over our refusal to condemn the unbaptized, the name on the building, our modern worship style, where in the building we gathered, that we will not condemn casual drinking, my title as pastor, that we accept people in the other churches in the community as brothers and sisters, and other issues that I probably don’t even know about.  We once fostered an environment where maintaining the rituals of church attendance, being baptized, and participating in the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis were what made a person right with God.  This was done to the exclusion of more significant matters.  I am so glad those days are behind us.  Let us be careful to never stumble back.

There is a disease that causes churches to lose focus on the major things and become obsessed with the minors.  This disease can permeate a church and cause us to isolate ourselves from other believers because of differences in beliefs and actions?  Obviously, we believe what we believe is right or we would not believe it.  Every other church believes what they believe is right or they would not believe it.  Both of us can not be right, but, more than likely, neither of us are right on all things.  The dilemma we face is to discern at what point should we accept another as a brother or sister.  What are the essentials to being a Christian?

More tomorrow.

Unity, Public Discourse, Hostile Letters, and Being One in Christ

In our local paper, the West Bend News, people have been getting pretty vocal and hostile toward one another over religious issues.  The local ministerial association decided to write a letter on unity to publish, and they nominated me to write the draft.  Unfortunately, the process never made it past that process.  We have been busy getting a youth center up and going, so it is understandable.  This letter only expresses my views and was not approved by the ministerial association.

***

We are saddened by the recent, well-intentioned “religious” letter wars that we see unraveling every week in this paper.  It is unfortunate that followers of Jesus portray our friend and savior in such a bickering and condescending light.  If you are a seeker, looking for God in the midst of this wonderful and heartrending journey of life, we hope that you do not give up on Jesus because of the argumentative behavior of those who, like ourselves, try to follow Jesus to the best of our fallen ability.  Despite our faults, each one of us can tell you how Jesus has changed our lives for the better, how he has used us to bring hope to others, and how he can do the same for you.

Jesus prayed that those who believe in him might be one (John 17).  The churches of Antwerp are on the verge of something special as we strive to do God’s will.  Through His grace we are learning to worship, serve, and love together.  We are excited to be working side by side, and we hope that this spirit of unity will continue during the years ahead.  We understand that we aren’t going to agree on everything, but we can agree on Jesus and his call to love our neighbor.  It is our hope to work together where we share common ground while understanding there are reasons that we are different.  Those areas of differences are best discussed in the context of a friendship over shared meals where we can learn from one another rather than the stark letters of black on white in the newspaper.

Jesus taught, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” John 13:34-35 (ESV).  “Love for one another” is what Jesus taught would let people know we are his disciples.  Notice that he did not say that it would be our words or our intellectual propositions.  Too often, those divide, but love draws us together.  Jesus wants us to love our neighbors, co-workers, family, and friends.  Our community can be a much better place than it is today if we all take seriously Jesus’ teachings to love one another even when it is difficult.  And that is something we can get excited about doing together.

As we learn to love together, we will face hiccups and struggles, but we need to be careful to not divide over issues that are not clearly taught in Scripture.  Many traditions teach, “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love.”  It is our hope that in Jesus and his teachings to love, we can find common ground to serve while understanding and accepting that we are different in other areas.  Let us not fail our special calling by surrendering to our natural tendency to divide and demonize one another.  Rather, let us learn to love and live in unity with one another, drawn together by the grace, love, and guidance of our Lord Jesus.

One Faith, One Body, No Lines

There is one faith and one body, but God does not see the denominational lines that we have drawn. Just because one worships at a church that has a book of doctrine (that you might or might not agree with) does not exclude that person from the body of Christ. Likewise, just because one worships at a church that does not have a book of doctrine does not mean they are automatically part of that body. A church without a book of doctrine, like the Churches of Christ/Christian Churches, still have a lot of unwritten doctrines that are extra-scriptural. God is glorified in the lives of faithful followers of His who might go to a Lutheran church or a Nazarene church just as he is glorified in the life of a faithful non-denominational Christian. The name on the building does not determine what is in the people’s hearts.

Everyone usually goes to the church that they think are doing things the best and have the best grasp on Scripture. But for pride and self-glorification, people argue that their sect is the best and put others down rather than try and build one another up. This is nothing new. It was happening in Corinth.

Paul addressed it in 1 Corinthians 1.
"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. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 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."

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."

Those who claim to follow Christ alone can be just as divisive as those who claim to follow Christ the way Luther did, the way Wesley did, or the way that any other human did. It is arrogant to think that we follow the Scripture alone without any influence from those who have paved the way for us. I read the Scripture the way that Alexander Campbell taught that Scripture should be read, that is a different way from the way that Martin Luther or John Wesley read it. But that does not mean that my faith is far greater than a Lutherans, a Methodists, or a Nazarenes. My intellectual pursuit of the faith might be different, but we will not be judged by our intellectual pursuit. Rather, we will be judged by whether we have a heart that is totally surrendered to God.

Isaiah 29:13 states:
"The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men."

Israel was God's people. There was no group that was more God's than them, but they were still out of step with God. Their title or ethnic origin had nothing to do with whether they were right with God; God wanted their hearts. Likewise, God wants our hearts, anything short of that is not enough. We can give him our hearts whether we are in a Catholic church or in the middle of the woods alone. The key to the healthy Christian life is that we realize nothing but a total surrender of our heart makes us right with God. There are acts of the faith that we will participate in when we surrender, but I do not think that God looks down and decides who has given him their heart based upon what church they attend or how they read the Scripture.

The law stated and Jesus repeated, "But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul."

Anything less than our whole being surrendered to God does not make us right with Him, not the name of the church we attend nor the lack of formal doctrines and creeds.

The sectarian lines that we have drawn in the sand wash away in God's eyes. Being part of one sect or another does not outweigh a heart that is totally surrendered to God. It is one of the founding principles of the Church of Christ/Christian Church that we are not the only Christians, we are Christians only. Too often we have turned that into: “We are the only Christians because we are Christians only” or "If you are not a Christian like me, then you are not a Christian."

So let us not be like those who divided the early church by claiming to follow Christ, Cephas, Apollos, or Paul. Let us follow Jesus with our whole heart, not being judgmental, and loving those that we encounter every day. Let us help everyone we encounter to take their next faith step, whether that is their first or the next one after a life of total surrender of ninety years.