"Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).
The ancient creeds described the church as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Last post, we briefly considered how a great deal of fragmentation resulted from the Reformation, and how the ecumenical movement is seeking to bring about unity by blurring doctrinal lines. But, as we saw in Paul’s letters, the body is to be “of one mind.” We are not to sacrifice truth and doctrine at the altar of unity. Yet, we are to cover over a multitude of sins in love, to put petty differences behind us, and to seek unity. This balance is not always easy to achieve. Too often purity is sacrificed for the sake of shallow unity, or unity is sacrificed for the sake of a rigid conception of purity.
When the Bible exhorts believers to seek unity, it does not mean we are to be pluralists, tolerating all views and beliefs. In a very real sense, the Christian is called to be intolerant. There can be no tolerance for grave error or heresy. This does not mean that there won’t be error in the church, but it does mean that when such error reaches a disruptive point or when it deviates from the fundamental teaching of the Scripture, it can no longer be tolerated. For example, someone who does not believe in the substitutionary atonement of Christ for salvation, who does not believe in the incarnation, or the Trinity, cannot be accepted into the Christian church because such beliefs are contrary to the fundamentals of Christian doctrine. However, if a person believes that we should drink grape juice at communion instead of wine, this person should definitely be accepted into a church that believes wine is the proper element in the Lord’s Supper (as long as he or she isn’t disruptive about it). I offer this just as an example of diversity in unity.
Too often, disunity occurs in a church because of a lack of grace among its members, because members do not have the maturity to tolerate minor differences of opinion. Of course, it is not always easy to discern what is minor, but one thing we can check is the attitude of our hearts. Are we being loving and gracious to others? Are we bearing with the weaker brother, recognizing that we all don’t grow at the same rate? People are not perfect. The Ephesians weren’t perfect, neither were the Corinthians, but Paul suffered long with these churches. May we do the same as we press toward unity in truth and in love.
Do you tend to tolerate even fundamental differences for the sake of unity, maybe even saying something like, “All that matters is that we love Jesus”? Or do you tend to be overly scrupulous, refusing to give anyone a break on minor issues? Whichever may be the case, repent and pray for true unity.