Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” (Generally attributed to a 17th century Lutheran theologian).
On the surface, this saying sounds great! But what I’ve seen is that Christians can’t even agree on the essentials. Every church adds their own twist.
The ancient church (first couple hundred years after Yeshua’s (Jesus’) life) had it right. And they were known for the love and care for one another. What is the western church known for now?
John 13:34-35 (NASB) states, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Most people in a church, when asked what their church is known for, will respond, ‘this is a very loving church.’ They answer only about their own church, not in regards to the church as a whole.
When we read these comments and commands we invariably interpret them as to apply only within our small group or church. Yet the Bible was written with all the followers of Christ in mind, not just those in your group or church.
Paul writes, in Phil. 2:3-4 (NASB): “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”
This doesn’t just apply to our use of our physical resources (and it isn’t paid much attention to even in this regard), but it also applies to how we treat others from other churches regardless as to whether or not we agree with everything they say.
We will be following Yeshua’s (Jesus’) words when we can love those from other churches, and fellowship with them, without having to agree with everything!
This doesn’t mean you have to go to their church regularly, it just means accepting others as also brothers and sisters in the Messiah! What kind of message would that send to “the world” if we actually accepted one another and loved one another regardless of which church one goes to! That would be a fulfillment of Yeshua’s words – ‘the world will know you are my disciples.’
No, we’d rather stand on our ‘statement of beliefs’, and if you don’t adhere to (most of) them, then you aren’t considered as being worthy or fellowship, or even worse, as being a child of God. As if it is our job to judge another’s position with Yehovah (the LORD)! And we don’t even realize that the ‘statement of beliefs’ that we hold so dear are not presented as foundational in the Bible! (Okay, there may be one or two things in different church’s belief statements that is foundational, but it is actually rare!)
In the book of Revelation, chapters 2 to 3, Yeshua addresses churches and even says things like, “you think you are doing great!”, yet I will vomit you out of your mouth!
Its funny that when I think of this particular letter in the book of Revelation, I ponder the response I get from people of different churches when I bring this up. It is invariably a form of the answer, “that isn’t my church; we are not like that!”
Yet Yeshua took the time to say these things! So who does it apply to?
Then in Matthew chapter 7:21-23 (NASB), Yeshua gives a parable, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ “
Did you catch that? He’s addressing people who seem to be ‘on fire’ Christians, claiming to do wonderful things in His Name! Yet he tells them to go away; very reminiscent of what he tells the Laodiceans in the book of Revelation.
So, why do I write all this?
Because the church has a huge unity problem!
“Unity” does not mean uniformity. It is okay to view things of the Bible differently!
God Himself knew we, as humans, would tend to clique up and say, our way is the right way! So, He gave us His appointed times (His feasts, often inaccurately called Jewish feasts), and told the Israelites that they shall all come to worship Him together, 3 times a year! If you think that the Israelites were all uniform in all they thought and did, and in their traditions and rituals, you really need to go study some history! This is like telling independent evangelical protestants, baptists, Methodists, Mennonites, and …, that they should meet together 3 times a year to worship and praise God together!
Yet that is what He wants, and such behavior would be a wonderful example to the world!
I’m not saying that individual churches don’t get noticed by ‘the world’ when they do things, but what I’m saying is that it is on a very small scale. Why? Because the church is so fragmented and most groups don’t want anything to do with other groups! What does that tell the world? Do I need to spell it out? It is just like every other religion in the world where one sect doesn’t like the other. Actually, other religions often are better than the Christians in this respect. Example: Sunni and Shiite Muslims basically don’t get along and often fight one another, yet both groups will go to Mecca and mix with one another!
You can start small: invite a speaker from a different church & denomination to your congregation, and accept him/her, even if you don’t agree with him/her. Or, as one church in my town does, pray for a different, unrelated church each Saturday or Sunday. (And pray that the group would be blessed!)
So, think about it. When the Bible is talking about ‘you’, it very often means all fellow Christians (in the broad sense of the word: protestants, lutherans, messianics, … and on and on and on… )!
And if you are worried about the ‘essentials’, go through the Bible to discover what the essentials truly are! I’ll be doing a post about that very soon.
Shalom!
Yosef
