One might think that Christian disagreements arise because one side isn’t reading their Bibles and the other side is. Yet, in many cases, arguments on both sides of an issue often claim the Bible as their main source of authority. One such case, plaguing my denomination right now, illustrates this. Members on one side of the issue use Scripture to support their cause and declare that those who oppose their views are simply using modern culture as their foundation. Interestingly, it is exactly the same argument their opposing side uses against them! How can this be? Can the Bible really support both sides of an argument? How can cultural ideas be the foundation of both sides of an argument, yet be different?
The majority of these conflicts appear when a topic does not have a clear “Thou shalt” in the Bible. Whenever anything having to do with the church cannot be clearly seen in scripture, we have the tendency to come to different interpretations. But is it wrong to see things differently? Is it bad if we do not agree on everything?
In my studies in Scripture, I have not found one passage that says that God’s people would always agree on everything (I may have missed it—if so, please direct me to the passage). Instead, I have found several stories that show disagreements between the people who follow God. In most of these disagreements, however, His people were able to remain united.
I believe this is our real problem: we don’t seem to be able to disagree and stay united. Of course, too often we view doctrinal agreement as equal to being united. Again, in my experience, this is rarely true. I have, on some occasions, experienced a strong unity with people who believe differently than me, while on other occasions, I felt a lack of unity with people who claim to believe the same as me. Yet, some suggest that certain topics are so important that we must agree on them to remain unified. But which topics meet this inconsistent level of importance?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t take a very important issue to cause division. How many churches have been split over the color of new carpet? A church can have heated arguments, and almost split, over the position of the piano—on the right or the left of the pulpit? Surely carpet colors and piano positions must be of great importance. What about diet? Music maybe—that’s a really nice hot potato. Oh, wait. I know. How about women and their ability to be ordained? If anything, one of these has to be the topic that is vital enough to unite us or, as far as I can tell, justify a lack of unity.
Wrong. No doctrine, regardless of how much we may value it, is supposed to be what unites us. Likewise, no topic, regardless of how much we may disagree with it, should divide us. Doctrines were not meant to be the deciding factor of our oneness. Actually, quite the opposite: divisions simply based on religious beliefs are called factions in the Bible, and are listed among the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19–21. This is the list that is in opposition to the Fruit of the Spirit: love, patience, long-suffering, etc. According to scripture, divisions among fellow believers are not the result of God’s Spirit in our lives. Actually, it appears to be the result of a lack of God’s Spirit in our lives.
You see, according to Jesus, there is only source of true unity: being in Him and the Father (John 17:21–23). It was His prayer that His followers would be one; that we might be unified. He did not say that our unity would be through agreement on beliefs (or, more realistically, agreement on opinions), but that our unity would be based on the fact that we walk with Him. Basically, Jesus is saying that those who hold on to Him, those who are in Him, will find themselves united to each other as well.
Think about Jesus’ illustration of the vine and the branches in John 15: what makes the branches united? It’s their connection to the Vine. This connection is what really matters. This is what will bring true unity among the believers.
So why are we still arguing amongst ourselves instead of spreading the gospel, and whining when we don’t get our way, and purposely causing divisions among our fellow believers? Why does unity seem so difficult? It is because we are trying to use our own methods to become unified. Unfortunately, all we do is further fragment Christianity. We are only forming more doctrinal cliques. Maybe that is all we really want. Maybe we don’t truly want to be one in Christ. Maybe all we want is to be right in the eyes of others in our group. I pray that this is not so. If it is, our Adversary has already defeated us.
This is not a call to doctrinal uniformity—I’m not suggesting that we run back to some centralized, mother church—nor I am suggesting that we cease standing up for our beliefs. I am only suggesting that we find unity amongst ourselves in our mutual love for our Savior; that we embrace each other in Christ. So many people with so many different beliefs and opinions may never completely agree, but we can be one like the Father and the Son are one.
If anything, we are truly united in this one fact: we are all sinners and we have the same Savior. Let us hold on tight to this gospel truth! Without this truth, everything else is meaningless anyway.