Sometimes I wonder what people who don’t believe in Christ must think when they see how many different denominations show up on the church page of the newspaper.
Best case might be, “Wow, looks like a fight, maybe I ought to see what their issues are.”
Worst case might be that they stay away thinking, “Don’t want to get in the middle of that slugfest.” Or, “They say they’re about love and goodness, but sure looks like a lot of bad blood to me.”
The oneness of his Family was a concern of our Lord just before he allowed himself to be subjected to the Roman Empire’s most cruel torture and execution (John 17:19-23).
But as we’ve acknowledged together in the past, some division is necessary. Even though the Apostle Paul confronted people in Corinth about the kind of taking sides that distracted from their shared mission and identity (1Cor 3:1-9), he also indicated throughout the same letter that there are issues that need to be divided over— to honor what God has clearly revealed (i.e. 1Cor 5; 11:18-19).
In the 11th chapter he again takes up the same theme of unnecessary roughness while sharing the “table” of those elements that represent the body and blood of Christ (1Cor 11:18-19).
I think I understand the rudeness, self-centeredness, and bull-headedness that could create sacrilege in those moments and places that deserve honor, reflection, and all due gratitude. I see the opposite of all of that childish junk– and more– lingering in me– let alone in anyone else.
What I’m wondering about now, is how many additional divisions happen around theological arguments that take both sides of a healthy disagreement beyond what is written in Scripture… where we start getting ambushed by our own pride.
For example. in the historic Armenian-Calvinist controversy that continues to fuel an ongoing civil war, both sides have Scripture which, when put together, reflect the mystery of how much God actually controls and determines while at the same time giving us a degree of freedom. The discussion becomes toxic not by acknowledging what the Scriptures clear say, and not by admitting that there is a lot that God has not told us, but with the rough-house presumption of thinking that any of us have the ability to flesh out a logic and consistent philosophy that enables us read between the lines of Scripture and to be able to fill in the gaps of what God has not told us. Seems to me that, even if we take Isa 55:8-9 out of context– it’s still true that, in unthinkable and inexpressible ways, God’s ways are different than our ways and his thoughts different than our thoughts.
That’s only one example. I wonder how many others there are of turning our backs on one another—while disagreeing about secrets that God has kept to himself (Deut 29:29).
It’s one thing to enjoy and pursue a debate until we find out what we don’t know—and need to trust God for… while respecting one another in the different ways we see it. It’s another to debate until we are saying more than we know— and using that ignorance to justify splitting the Family of the one who died for us– and who is offering to live through us.
So now I’m going to harp again on the same string that we’ve talked about before. Are we uniting around knowledge and wisdom that faithful people, on both sides of the aisle, admit are necessarily what God has revealed? Or are we doing harm over what the Scriptures might probably or possibly be implying?
What unites and divides us, the light… or the darkness?
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