The title of this article is a quote that has been credited to various men over time. Augustine, Peter Meiderlin, and Marco Antonio de Dominis have all had their names attached to this famous saying. The first time most of us heard this quote, it seemed like a grand way to settle all issues in the church. The problem of course is not the unity, liberty, nor charity but the essentials and opinions.
Defining the essentials has always been a problem for a people who take the Bible as their only rule of faith, worship, and practice. What is an indispensable and seemingly (to me) clear cornerstone of the Christian faith, may be less than clear and therefore not an essential to the doctrine which is to be obeyed from the heart, for another.
For instance: Within non-institutional churches of Christ, there are one-cup groups, head covering churches, non-divided assembly, and non-located minister congregations. For these sincere Bible students, each of these issues it essential to being an authentic, New Testament church. Ironically, these varying views have brought nothing like unity to Christians whose stated rule is to, “Speak where the Scriptures speak and be silent where the Scriptures are silent.”
So, how does this happen? (Opinion alert!) My experience has been, we tend to elevate our interpretation of Scripture, until we speak of our interpretation as if it is the very word of God. There is a sense in which this is understandable. I study my Bible as a humble, pliant, disciple of Jesus, and suddenly I am confronted with a truth that moves me. Since I view this teaching as an essential, those who do not understand or hold to my view of a truth, are in error and potentially in danger of God’s condemnation. At this point, what is a conscientious Christian to do? I must sound the alarm. I must defeat error. I must make every attack, even if in doing so I shred every clear teaching on how to love my neighbor as myself. After all, this is essential to getting to heaven!
Admittedly, this is not an easy puzzle to solve. I hold no delusions of my ability to affect a cure. But I would venture a couple of solutions.
- God can save us even if we are mistaken about something. Before you howl in disgust about such a liberal view; I remind you that someone in that third paragraph thinks you and I are in error on an essential. So either, almost every Christian within churches of Christ stands lost or God will save those who walk in faith but occasionally take an unknown false step. Praise God for his mercy!
- What appears evil to me, may not be evil. We all tend to elevate some behaviors to the level of sin because of our personal experience or Bible teaching. As a recovering alcoholic and addict, it would be a sin personally for me to drink a beer. Does that mean the Scriptures absolutely prohibit any and all use of alcohol? Not even if I wish it were so. When I was a kid, I Thessalonians 5:22 was used as a catch-all verse to justify calling something sin that was not clearly bound as wrong in Scripture. The KJV of the verse is, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” However that verse is not saying, “Son, if it appears evil to me, it must be.” The evil from which we are to abstain is “every form” of actual, defined sin. No Christian is to practice sin. Let’s be careful, we don’t elevate, “what seems evil to me” to an essential over which we divide.
“Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”-Romans 14:4
Praise God! It is not perfect understanding that saves but the sinless blood of Jesus!
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