Thesis 16- We must practice wisdom in judging what are minor and what are major issues in the church.
Whenever we find disagreement, there is more often than not at least two levels of disagreement. First, there is the issue itself. I may believe that the Pittsburgh Steelers are the greatest professional football team ever, while you may mistakenly believe otherwise. The other disagreement, however, is over the relative importance of the issue itself. The strength of my conviction is often matched by my conviction of its importance. You on the other hand may find the matter to be of supreme indifference.
Consider the cliché we use to describe the propensity of believers to squabble and divide. Christians, we are told, have been known to split churches over the color of the carpet. On the other hand, we are likewise known for our credulity. Several years ago I read an article in an evangelical magazine celebrating the rapprochement between two different Pentecostal denominations. The petty issue they were happily putting behind them? The doctrine of the trinity. One “denomination” denied the Trinity; the other was merely betraying it. But at least they were learning to get along.
Christians are not, on this side of glory, going to be able to agree on everything. What we have to learn is to distinguish between the varying levels of importance of the things we disagree about. Jesus said to the Pharisees “you tithe your mint and your cumin, but you neglect the weightier matters of the law, like justice and mercy.” Here Jesus speaks against a common evangelical misunderstanding. Wanting to affirm that breaking any law of God makes us lawbreakers, wanting to affirm that all sin is at root cosmic treason, wanting to affirm that hating our brother unjustly is a violation of the commandment against murder, we make the mistake of believing that all sins are equally grievious. This error in turn encourages us to believe either that no sin is worth separating over or that all sins require us to separate.
When Jesus affirmed that some matters were weightier than others, He did not give us a flow chart listing the relative seriousness of all sins. He instead calls us to wisdom. We are called to discern which sins are those which love covers a multitude of. We must discern which sins call us to separate from others. But there is at least one other category. We must recognize that some issues call us to vigorous debate, followed by warm fellowship with those with whom we disagree. Most of the theses we’re covering fall into this broad third category.
That men of good will can disagree on some issues does not mean that they are not issues. That men of ill will can part company over some issues does not mean they are issues. One thing, however, that we can all agree on- that we need wisdom to discern and that God is the source of that wisdom. May He be pleased to bless us with that wisdom in all our churches.