Unity around the gospel

The most dangerous truths are half-truths, dressed as whole truths, which are really not truths at all.  In an age where tolerance is the ultimate virtue, to say that you have the truth and that another person is wrong is the ultimate evil. There is truth behind tolerance when understood rightly. We tolerate those we are wronged by so that we might express Christ’s unconditional love.[1] But tolerance when understood as mere acceptance, though it sounds like truth, is really no truth at all. In a world that values open-mindedness above certainty, do we value open mindedness to know the truth or to avoid the truth, or worse, to reject the truth. G. K. Chesterton wisely said, “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid. Otherwise, it could end up like a city sewer, rejecting nothing.” Its is so easy for the false values of the world, values like tolerance, and open-mindedness to creep their way into the church under the guise of unity and love. And the next thing you know, you have a broad-church movement that only affirms what we have in common with others, and never those distinctive’s that may set us apart. In a society where discernment means hate and correction and discipline mean oppression and abuse, will we allow scripture to transform our minds to think rightly about the issue of unity? As Paul says in Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The reformers were transformed by the word and understood the necessity of holding to the truth, being willing to disunite from Roman Catholicism as it denied salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone through scripture alone for the glory of God alone. As Calvin remarked, “a dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent." How may we reflect the love of God, whilst defending the truth of God? We must let scripture transform our mind.

To begin to answer those questions I think it’s important to first define unity. The bible presents unity as a common agreement on gospel truth that overcomes other worldly causes for division; “be united in the same mind and the same judgment”[2] in a knowledge of Christ the matures us; “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”[3] This knowledge that builds us up into unity in Christ is called “the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.”[4] Gospel unity then, is the means through which we defend one another against false teaching “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”[5]

So when Eph. 4:3 says that we are to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” It is a plea that, in humility, gentleness, patience and love[6] to return back to the gospel, the word of truth, and agree in it, and build one another up through this word of truth. So then, before biblical unity can take place, critical gospel content must first be figured out. We must be clear in communicating what these doctrines are, and discern when they are not present. This also involves discerning when a certain teaching undermines an aspect of critical gospel content. For example, when people deny complementarianism in places like 1 Tim. 2:8-11 on the basis of some external authority outside the bible, they are placing another authority above the bible and this can become a gospel issue if the authority of scripture jettisoned on other issues that pertain to critical gospel content. The principles the egalitarian position used to interpret and apply Scripture are soon broadened to many other areas of life, ultimately leaving no moral command of Scripture safe from its destructive procedures. As this happens the church ends up simply mimicking the popular views of its culture in one issue after another, and Christians are no longer subject to the authority of God speaking through His word

In more liberal denominations a predictable sequence has been seen:

1. Abandoning biblical inerrancy
2. Endorsing the ordination of women
3. Abandoning the Bible’s teaching on male headship in marriage.
4. Excluding clergy who are opposed to women’s ordination
5. Approving homosexual conduct as morally valid in some cases
6. Approving homosexual ordination (eg. the American Episcopal Church in Aug 5 2003)
7. Ordaining homosexuals to high leadership position (eg. United Methodist Church in April 2004 voted to retain the high church office of a lady who recently ‘married’ her lesbian girlfriend.”[7]

In an important sociological study published by Harvard University Press, Mark Chaves traces the history of woman’s ordination in various denominations in the United States. He observed that “two groups of denominations are particularly resistant to women’s ordination: denominations practicing sacramental ritual and denominations endorsing biblical inerrancy… Biblically inerrant denominations are… resistant to formal gender equality.”[8] Such evidence has lead Mark Dever to write:

“it is my best and most sober judgment that this position [egalitarianism] is effectively an undermining of—a breach in—the authority of Scripture. . . . it seems to me and others (many who are younger than myself) that this issue of egalitarianism and complementarianism is increasingly acting as the watershed distinguishing those who will accommodate Scripture to culture, and those who will attempt to shape culture by Scripture. You may disagree, but this is our honest concern before God. It is no lack of charity, nor honesty. It is no desire for power or tradition for tradition’s sake. It is our sober conclusion from observing the last 50 years. . . . Of course there are issues more central to the gospel than gender issues. However, there may be no way the authority of Scripture is being undermined more quickly or more thoroughly in our day than through the hermeneutics of egalitarian readings of the Bible. And when the authority of Scripture is undermined, the gospel will not long be acknowledged.”[9]

Many people say such issues are controversial as a reason not to divide. If people demand that we are not to divide over controversial issues, who becomes the determinant of what is controversial or secondary? Culture does. But, does not the bible determine this? If we allow culture to determine this then we ultimately become the judge over God’s word and inevitably fashion God’s word into our own manmade gospel. As Augustine said: “If you believe what you like in the gospel and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.” To avoid this pitfall, let us therefore allow God to dictate what is to be believed, especially, what is to be united around. Critical gospel content involves such doctrines as:

The Holiness, righteousness, justice, sovereignty and goodness of God the Father[10]

• Total depravity and original sin[11]

• Christ’s deity, perfect obedience, penal substitutionary atonement, resurrection, ascension, reign and return.[12]

• The Holy Spirit as God, the sanctifier, the giver of life and author of scripture[13]

• The inerrancy, infallibility, inspiration and authority of scripture[14]

• Future judgment of the wicked in hell for all eternity and the bodily resurrection of the saints to eternal life with God[15]

• Our response of faith that unites us to the person and work of Christ through imputation, which produces repentance[16]

On matters that do not affect critical gospel content, we are to bear with those of weak consciences[17] and do all we can to “[bear] with one another in love”[18] as we seek to express the removal of ethnic and social barriers by expressing our reconciliation to one another as part of the one body.[19] Our unity is to be expressed within the diversity of the body of Christ, as each uses its gifts to build the others up.[20] It is through humility, thinking of yourself with sober judgment,[21] and a genuine love for others that Thomas Brooks frames twelve remedies against Satan’s devices of unbiblical disunity:

1. Spend more time considering evidences of grace in other Christians than you do pondering their sins and weaknesses.
2. Consider that spiritual safety comes through spiritual unity. 
3. Meditate on God’s many commands demanding that we love one another. 
4. Spend more time considering areas of agreement than disagreement.
5. Consider your peaceful God.
6. Renew in your mind and heart what it means to be at peace with God. 
7. Meditate on the unique relationship between Christians.
8. Count the cost of disunity.
9. Be the first to seek peace and reconciliation. 
10.  Walk and work together with other Christians as far as possible, making the Word the only judge   of your actions.  
11. Judge yourself more than you judge others. 
12. Pursue humility.[22]

Thus to achieve unity, we must become discerning, and then call out false teaching when we see it. In Jude v 3 he says "contend earnestly for the faith”, the verb ἐπαγωνίζεσθα literally means "agonize against" or “to struggle for”[23]- it describes an intensive, arduous, drawn out fight. And to this end we are “be alert”[24] and to have a disposition that inclines us toward carefully “test[ing] everything,”[25] and to seek to guard “the deposit” of the gospel.[26] This is because the bible expects false teachers to have “crept in unnoticed.”[27] Jesus says "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”[28] About a quarter of the New Testament is devoted to expecting, refuting, restoring and condemning false teachers. The ultimate implication is that those who avoid unpopular teaching in the Word of God and teach what is contrary have to answer to the Lord for their negligence on the Last Day and risk judgment.[29] The comfort is that God is sovereign over false teaching. God uses false teaching so that genuine believers may be revealed, refined and strengthened. “for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.”[30]

God does not tolerate false teachers. Paul is clear of this point in Galatians 1:8 when he says “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” John, the apostle of who speaks most about love firmly says “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” In The Truth War, John MacArthur says of false teachers that "Influential people who profess or pretend to believe the truth although they do not savingly believe it are probably the greatest internal danger the church faces"[31] and that such "false teachers aren't necessarily even that obvious. They don’t wear badges identifying themselves as apostates. They usually try hard not to stand out as enemies of truth. They pretend devotion to Christ and demand tolerance from Christ's followers."[32] “In a time like this of tolerance, listen, false teaching will always cry intolerance. It will always say you are being divisive, you are being unloving, you are being ungracious, because it can only survive when it doesn't get scrutinized. So it cries against any intolerance. It cries against any examination, any scrutiny—just let's embrace each other; let's love each other; let's put all that behind us. False doctrine cries the loudest about unity. Listen carefully when you hear the cry for unity, because it may be the cover of false doctrine encroaching. If ever we should follow 1 Thessalonians 5, and examine everything carefully, it's when somebody is crying unity, love, and acceptance.”[33]

And so, we are not united with such people and so we seek to express that by not welcoming them or partnering with them; “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him stakes part in his wicked works.”[34] We should not share a platform with them, we should not endorse their music, we should not do anything that expresses to others that we welcome them. We do this at the same time as trying to save some “by snatching them out of the fire.”[35] I do not think you can separate the person from their teaching as is sometimes argued. I do believe that it can be helpful to address people’s teaching without generating bias due to rhetoric or character flaws. That being said, the New Testament is clear that we are to name false teachers as Paul names “Hymenaeus and Alexander” in 1 timothy 1:20. So that they may be personally confronted and that others might be warned to avoid them; “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”[36] (Rom. 16:17), and so that they may be confronted as Paul says to Titus “rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith.”[37]  The goal is unity in the faith through unity in the gospel content.

One illustration of how I see this playing itself out is with a friend of mine who has spend his entire life at Hillsong. Up until he started attending the university Christian group at aged 20, he had never heard the doctrine of sin taught, in 20 years of weekly church attendance, not even once. Rather, the emphasis was on experience which became the authority in their church, distancing itself from the gospel of the cross. Thus as you can imagine, he had a warped view of the character of God and his holiness, and consequentially didn’t understand why Jesus died. Sin, the character of God, and the atonement are all aspects of critical gospel content so myself and my minister told him to leave that church and begin attending another church. That he could not express unity with them because they could not “be united in the same mind and the same judgment”[38] in a knowledge of Christ’s gospel.

Sadly, such discernment of charismatic theology has been resisted by many in evangelical circles. "Charismatics have spent the last hundred years establishing falsehoods about the Spirit and pushing back all efforts at correction by labeling those who question their teaching as unloving, unkind, divisive, and intolerant. The castigation of those who criticize their dishonoring views on the Holy Spirit has, in effect, silenced the church by intimidation. As a result, the Holy Spirit continues to be mocked, monetized, and blasphemed. … Having an errant view of the Holy Spirit takes the entire paradigm of our sanctification and corrupts it. Certainly this is not a matter that can be deemed off limits to biblical discernment for the sake of false unity."[39] One of my close friends, who I started out my Christian walk with, was caught up in Charismatic teaching, coming to believe that he had achieved sinless perfectionism as part of the triumphant higher life we can all expect in this life if we have enough faith. I remember him saying to me, “I have moved on from the gospel to experience the fullness of what we can claim now as part of Christ’s victory.” Rather than remaining in it, my friend had wandered away from the gospel, and stood outside of salvation as 1 John so clearly states, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” [40] As much as it grieved me, I could no longer unite with him. For if I did, I would be saying publically that he was right with God, and such a claim would further prevent him from seeing his blindness and send believers and unbelievers alike a faulty view of the gospel by my welcoming of him. We must be clear not to use the apparent evidence of good works, and the apparent participation of true followers of Christ in such churches as excuses to ignore the serious biblical mandate to condemn false teaching. There will be some charismatics we should unite with, and others that we shouldn’t. We must ward against the extremes of being reactionary, whilst protecting the flock.

This is a completely different how I have responded to a friend who is going to a church that has a false view of what is gospel work and what endures to the new creation. I have encouraged this person to continue to go to this church though I have alerted him to some of the issues that he will experience so that he might discern such teaching in light of scripture. Issues such as how church is run, baptism and one’s millennial views are examples where unity can exist as such views rarely impact on a critical gospel issue. In such situations, we bear with one another, we welcome one another, we learn to listen to and appreciate those we disagree with, though sometimes we might choose to work in different churches or denominations so that we might incur less disagreements and be better focused to get on with gospel ministry.

Radical self-examination is required for this process, which includes awareness of cultural biases as our heart is deceptive above all things.[41] Self-examination and awareness is always hard, but necessary. In Jesus famous sermon on the Mount, he warns his disciples to remove the log from their own eye in order to helpfully remove the speck in anothers. He also warns of the danger of not following his teaching and thus remaining blind, that such men will lead both themselves and their followers to “fall into a pit?”[42] Paul says in 2 Cor. 13:5 “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” Only by doing this can one expect to help another to understand and embrace the true gospel. “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”[43] A way we can prevent our biases from undermining our engagement with others is by listening to others well and clearly articulate those things you are concerned about to see whether they are true. I believe we can turn to those we trust, who we know to be godly and faithful, who have personally investigated the teaching of others in making a fair assessment if personal engagement is too difficult, as Paul does this in 1 Cor. 5:1 with the sexually immoral man.

I need to constantly remind myself that our battle is spiritual, and dependence on God is necessary for any one person to repent of false teaching. I am always reminded of 2 Timothy which says: “And the Lord’s servant” must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, table to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”[44]

We must be willing to endure conflict for the sake of the gospel because the people’s lives are at stake. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it “False doctrine corrupts the life of the church at its source, and that is why doctrinal sin is more serious than moral. Those who rob the Church of the gospel deserve the ultimate penalty, whereas those who fail in morality have the gospel there to help them.”[45] “Truth is more important than outward harmony and peace. Christian fellowship and unity are built on truth, never falsehood. No matter what the beneficial prospect might seem to be from a human perspective, compromise can do nothing but weaken the church. Peace that is preserved by compromising God’s truth is the pseudo-peace of the world and is not of God. “The bond of peace”[46] is not peace at any price but peace based on God’s Word and established by God’s Spirit.”[47]

And so, in the words of Calvin “Let us be peaceable as near as we can: let us relent of our own right: let us not strive for these worldly goods, honor and reputation: let us bear all wrongs and outrages, rather than be moved to any debate through our own fault. But in the meanwhile, let us fight for God's truth with tooth and nail.”[48]

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[1] 1 Pet. 3:8-11

[2] 1 Cor. 1:10

[3] Eph. 4:13

[4] Eph. 1:13

[5] Eph. 4:14-15

[6] Eph. 4:2

[7] Wayne Grudem, Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism? (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2006).

[8] Mark Chaves, Ordaining Women: Culture and Conflict in Religious Organizations (Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, 1999).

[9] Mark Dever, ‘Together for the Gospel’, Undermining Tolerance of Egalitarianism, 2006.

[10] Gen 1-2, Deut. 32:36-39, Isa 45:6-7, Acts 17:26, Matt 6:26, prov. 16:9, Jer. 10:23, Amos 3:6, Lev 19:1; Ps 9:7-8; Isa 6:1-5; 1 Pet 1:14-17, Deut 32:4, 1 John 1:5, Hab 1:13, Rev. 15:3-4, Ps 145:17

[11] Gen 6:5; Jer 3:17, 7:24, 11:8, 17:9, Isa 1:4-6, Ps 51:5; Rom 3:10-20, Rom 8:6-8, 1 Cor 2:14, Rom 5:12-21, Ps 51:5, 1 Cor 15:22, Rom 5:10; Col 1:21, Rom 5:12, 6:23; Eph 2:1

[12] Mt 3:17; Heb 5:8-9, Rom 3:25, 5:8-10; Gal. 3:13; Heb 2:17, Acts 2:24, 27:31, Acts 2:36; Phil 2:9-11

[13] John 6:63 Phil 1:29, John 3:5, 6:63, 2 Tim 2:25, Phil 2:13, 1 peter 1:2, Acts 5:3-4, 13:2, 28:25-27, Ps 93:2,  95:7-11, Heb 3:7-10, 9:13-14, Lev 26:11-26, 2 Cor 13:14, Rom 15:19, 1 Cor 2:10-11, John 15:26, 16:3-4, Matt 12:31-32, Mic 5:2, John 16:7-10, 12-16, Eph 1:13-14, Ezekiel 11:19, 36:25-27, Jeremiah 31:33

[14] Heb 4:12-13, John 6:63, 2 tim. 3:15-17, Ps 18:30, Ps 12:9, Ps 19:7, Prov 30:5, 2 Pet 1:20-21, 1 Thes 2:13, John 17:17, 1 Cor 10:11, 2 Pet 1:3-4, 10-11, Rom 15:4

[15] Acts 17:31; 2 Cor 5:10, 2 Thess 1:8-10; 2 Pet 3:7, 1 Pet 1:9)

[16] Acts 2:38 ;Rom 3:21-24, 4:5, 10:9-13; Eph 2:8-10, John 6:29, Acts 2:38, 26:20; Heb 6:1; 2 Pet 3:9, Matt. 5:14, 1 Thess. 1:9-10, Jn 3:3, 5; Eph 2:8-10, Jude 1:24-25, Phil. 1:6, 1 Thess. 5:23, Gal 5:16, Rom 7:15-25, Heb 3:14, 1 John 2:19, Mat 7:21-23, 15:8, John 10:27-30, 17:12, 1 Thess 5:23, John 3:16, 4:14, 5:24, 6:35, 39, Phil 1:6, Rom 8:30, 1 Pet 1:5, Jude 24-25

[17] 1 Cor. 9

[18] Eph. 4:2

[19] Eph. 2:16

[20] 1 Cor. 12

[21] Rom. 12:3

[22] Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satans Device, Or, Salve for Believers & Unbelievers Sores ... by Thomas Brookes ... (S.l.: EEBO Editions, ProQuest, 2011). Ch. 5.

[23] Walter Bauer and Danker, Frederick, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Third Edition.; University of Chicago Press, 2001).

[24] Acts 20:31

[25] 1 Th. 5:21

[26] 2 Tim. 6:20

[27] Jude 3

[28] Mt. 7:15

[29] 2 Cor. 5:10, Gal. 1:8, 2 John 1:9

[30] 1 Cor. 11:19

[31] John F. MacArthur, The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 2008). P 65.

[32] MacArthur, The Truth War. P 68

[33] John MacArthur et al., Irreconcilable Differences: Catholics, Evangelicals, and the New Quest for Unity (John MacArthur Jr., 1995).

[34] 2 John 9-11

[35] Jude 23

[36] Rom. 16:17

[37] Titus 1:13

[38] 1 Cor. 1:10

[39] John MacArthur, ‘GTY Letter’, June 15, 2012.

[40] 1 John 1:8

[41] Jer. 17:9

[42] Luke 6:39-42

[43] 1 Tim. 4:16

[44] 2 Tim. 2:24-26

[45] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (1st edition.; New York: Touchstone, 1995).

[46] Eph. 4:3

[47] John MacArthur, The Macarthur New Testament Commentary: Galatians (First edition.; Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1987). P 52.

[48] John Calvin, Sermons on Galatians (trans. Kathy Childress; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1996).