Can't We All Just Get Along?, Part 3

October, 2002

by: Jack Hughes

• The Church and Church Issues

In an age of ecumenicalism (cooperation between different faiths) and tolerance, the church is struggling to find its biblical moorings. In the last two Calvary Reviews, we have been answering the question, “Why can't we all just get along?” So far we have discovered that the Christian is called to be a war–maker, a soldier, one who battles for the truth. Second we have seen that a Christian is called to be a peace–maker in several ways. As Christians we should choose not to be combative or obnoxious. We should strive to be at peace with all men by walking in the fruit of the Spirit. We are also to strive for peace by preaching the Gospel of peace bringing reconciliation between God and men. There is no peace for the wicked, but once a person is saved, they experience forgiveness from God, reconciliation to God, and for the first time they have peace with God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

In this Calvary Review we want to explore unity between professing Christians. There are many people who profess to be Christians and they are crying out for tolerance, peace, and unity. What do we do with them? How can we be warmakers, peace–makers, and still strive for unity with other professing Christians? Let's see what the Word of God says.

Striving for Unity

First we must acknowledge that the Bible calls believers to strive for unity. Scripture makes it clear that unity is a godly characteristic (e.g. Psa. 133:1; Jn. 17:23; Eph. 4:3; Gal. 5:16-23). The problem is not whether the Scriptures teach that professing believers should be united; the problem is “What does it mean to be united?” Most professing Christians want to have peace with other professing Christians. Yet, the more inclusive you want to be, the lower you must set your doctrinal standard.

Truth, doctrine, and theology, as we learned in the first part of this series, is a sword that divides. Doctrine is like a screen which strains out error. Each doctrine makes the holes in the screen smaller. If you want to be more “inclusive” you must choose to set aside certain doctrines as “non–essential” so you can have unity with more people. As your doctrinal convictions decrease, your ability to be “united” with differing faiths increases.

The setting aside of doctrine is why many Christian schools, colleges, and churches have gone liberal. They are looking for higher enrollment and the money that comes with it. They want to be “accepting,” “inclusive,” and promote “unity” with as many professing Christians as they can, so they lower the doctrinal standard so low that anyone can fit through the grid. They may ask, “Do you believe the Bible?,” “Do you believe in Jesus?” and “Do you believe that you must have faith?” Many cults could answer yes to those questions and yet they are not Christians.

The Bible makes it clear that the only kind of unity that is pleasing to God is being united around the truth of His Word. In Rom. 15:5-6 Paul said, “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul did not ask for unity of “different minds” “different accords” and “different voices,” but “the same mind,” “one accord” and “one voice.”

Paul, describing the kind of unity we are to strive for in Phil. 2:2 said, “make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” Notice, he did not say we should have unity built around “different minds,” “different love,” “different spirits” and “different purposes.”

Christianity is built upon a single body of harmonized truth. There is only one church, one Holy Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one Christian faith, one baptism, and one God. Those who strive for unity based on different churches, different spirits, a different hope, a different Lord, a different faith, a different baptism, or a different God, are not united at all in a biblical way, they are merely accepting those who are teaching false doctrine. We only have unity, which is pleasing to God when we are united around the truth of His Word. If we reject God's Word and we set aside doctrines clearly taught in the Scripture, then we cannot have biblical unity.

Some have tried to deal with the problem of unity by trying to divide doctrines up into “essential” and “nonessential” doctrines. Some have tried to define “essential doctrines” as those doctrines necessary for salvation. For instance who is Jesus, what is the gospel, and what is saving faith. The problem with this is that the Bible does not say, “You can be of different faiths and different minds as long as you don't disagree on the doctrines of salvation.” The Bible tells us that all the Word of God is important and that all that the Bible teaches is important. We are, in the words of Jude, “to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). This is everything the Bible teaches — “the faith.”

While some try to make distinctions between essential and non–essential doctrines, the Bible teaches all doctrines are essential, if they were not, they would not be included in the Bible. If a doctrine is clearly taught in the Scriptures, then obviously God wants us to know, believe, and live it. Consider this, is homosexuality, stealing, murder, or lying doctrines that are “essential to salvation?” Do they have direct bearing on who Jesus is, what the Gospel is, and the nature of saving faith? You see some want to ignore certain doctrines and push them aside as “non–essential” in order to tolerate ungodly behavior. Men are not saved by avoiding the sins just mentioned, but they are saved “from them” and those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5).

The Christian faith is a united body of teaching and the Word of God does not give us permission to organize doctrines into essential and non–essential categories. They are all essential and they all make up the “one faith” which all Christians are called to be united around.

Tolerance

In II Cor. 11 Paul was called to defend his Apostleship against false teachers who were trying to both discredit Paul and corrupt the church. Remember, these false teachers professed to be “Christians.” Paul said, “I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” Then Paul begins to rebuke them for their worldly tolerance when he says in vs. 4, “For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.” Accepting a different spirit or different gospel is not godly, it is satanic.

Paul goes on to show the folly of unbiblical toleration in vss. 13-15 when he says, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”

In their desire to have unity and avoid conflict they invited workers of Satan into the church to devour God's sheep with false doctrine. This is verified in vss. 19-20 where Paul gives them a scathing rebuke saying, “For you, being so wise, tolerate the foolish gladly. For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face.” There is no place in the Christian's life to tolerate false teachers, false doctrine, or wicked behavior.

Consider why Jesus commended the church of Ephesus in Rev. 2:2. Jesus praised them saying, “you cannot tolerate evil men and you put those to the test who called themselves apostles, and they were not, and you found them to be false.” Notice that Jesus praised the church of Ephesus for 1) putting people to the test, 2) examining them to see if they were false, 3) exposing them if they were false, and 4) not tolerating them. While Ephesus was strong in this area, a couple of the other churches Jesus wrote to were not.

In Rev. 2:14-16 Jesus rebuked the church of Pergamum because they were tolerating some who held to the teaching of Balaam, who counseled Israel's enemies to engage Israel in sexual immorality and idolatry, and they were also tolerating some who held to the teaching of the Nicolaitans, an early pseudo–Christian cult. Their toleration of both false teachers and their doctrines brought Jesus' threat in vs. 16, “Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.”

Finally, in Rev. 2:20 Jesus had to rebuke the church of Thyatira and said, “But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess, and she leads My bond–servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.” Notice that Jesus is against tolerating people who promote false doctrine because it always leads to ungodly behavior. His warning in vss. 21-23 is severe, “I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. ‘Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.’” In vs. 24 He reveals the source of the false teaching calling it “the deep things of Satan.”

What do we learn from this? We learn that the only kind of unity and tolerance that is pleasing to God, is unity and tolerance around which is in submission to the Word of God. Any other kind of unity or toleration is not pleasing to God. Beware and be warned, the Bible calls all Christians into a war for the truth. It calls all believers to be peace–makers by sharing the Gospel. It promises that we will all be persecuted when we live for Christ in this world. It warns us that friendship with the world, is hostility towards God. We can only get along when we are all submitting to one Lord and one faith, being of the same mind, same purpose, and same judgment according to the Word of God. Be alert and sober, the world wants you to lay down the truth of God's Word in order to achieve an unbiblical unity, which tolerates false doctrine and wicked behavior.