The Gospel Union: Playing it safe

Monday, January 10, 2005

Playing it safe

One of the greatest concerns in associating with Christians of diverse opinions is that it is somehow unsafe to do so. The idea is that we are in some way compromising our beliefs to enjoy Christian communion with folks who do things or understand things differently, and that we ought to play it safe and segregate ourselves.

The problem with this philosophy is that it is not playing it safe at all. In fact, we are playing dangerously close to the edge of the precipice when we refuse to receive a brother for whom Christ died because of disputes over doubtful doctrines and shades of opinion. I don't know how we can consider it "safe" to maintain prejudice against brethren who send their kids to a Christian college, an issue that can only be decided by extrapolated deductions, all while we're in absolute violation of instructions to be longsuffering with our brethren and not to resolve the body of Christ into factions. The extrapolated deductions may even be correct. The factionalism definitely is not.

If a brother truly feels it is safer not to support or endorse a Christian college in any way, then by all means he should not do so. We just need to understand that engaging in the mutual edification of our brethren does not equate to the endorsement of errors we may perceive on their part. Each person needs to take the safest route that his own conscience dictates without forcing others to take the same route. It is not "safe" to force my conscience on others.

I can practice my faith in the utmost safety without fear that singing, praying, or studying with a brother who is in error on some point will somehow lead to my exclusion from the Kingdom. It won't. His conscience is his own, and just as I am not in subjection to his, I cannot place him in subjection to mine. We can certainly submit and defer to each other in love. We can also share our opinions and hope to persuade each other, but at the end of the day, we should continue praising God together with one heart, one mind, and one voice.

Embracing our brother who may be in error on some point is not the same as embracing his error. If it is, we can embrace no brother whatsoever, because we are all in error on some things. It is not compromise to receive him as a brother, because we can remain just as firm in our opinions as we always have. But if he is truly our brother, we have an obligation to receive him in love, to edify him, and to be edified by him. That is the only way to play it safe if we don't want to risk slivering the body of Christ into warring factions.

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Choice scriptures:

Romans 15:1-7 - "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up...May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."
(NIV)

2 Thessalonians 3:1 - "Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you."
(NIV)

Romans 1:16 - "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."
(NIV)

John 17:20-21 - "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
(NIV)

Choice quotes:

Alexander Campbell - "We will not hearken to those questions which gender strife, nor discuss them at all. If a person says such is his private opinion, let him have it as his private opinion; but lay no stress upon it; and if it be a wrong private opinion, it will die a natural death much sooner than if you attempt to kill it."

Alexander Campbell - "But men cannot give up their opinions, and therefore, they can never unite, says one. We do not ask them to give up their opinions--we ask them only not to impose them upon others. Let them hold their opinions, but let them hold them as private property. The faith is public property; opinions are, and always have been private property. Men have foolishly attempted to make the deductions of some great minds the common measure of all Christians. Hence the deductions of a Luther, and a Calvin, and a Wesley, have been the rule and measure of all who coalesce under the names of these leaders. It is cruel to excommunicate a man because of the imbecility of his intellect."

Alexander Campbell - "Dear sir, this plan of making our own nest, and fluttering over our own brood; of building our own tent, and of confining all goodness and grace to our noble selves and the "elect few" who are like us, is the quintessence of sublimated pharisaism. The old Pharisees were but babes in comparison to the modern: and the longer I live, and the more I reflect upon God and man--heaven and earth--the Bible and the world--the Redeemer and his church--the more I am assured that all sectarianism is the offspring of hell; and that all differences about words, and names, and opinions, hatched in Egypt, or Rome, or Edinburgh, are like the frolics of drunken men; and that where there is a new creature, or a society of them, with all their imperfections and frailties, and errors in sentiment, in views, and opinions, they ought to receive one another, and the strong to support the weak, and not to please themselves. To lock ourselves up in the bandbox of our own little circle; to associate with a few units, tens, or hundreds, as the pure church, as the elect, is real Protestant monkery, it is evangelical pharisaism."

Alexander Campbell - "I have tried the pharisaic plan, and the monastic. I was once so straight, that, like the Indian's tree, I leaned a little the other way. And however much I may be slandered now as seeking "popularity" or a popular course, I have to rejoice that to my own satisfaction, as well as to others, I proved that truth, and not popularity, was my object; for I was once so strict a Separatist that I would neither pray nor sing praises with any one who was not as perfect as I supposed myself. In this most unpopular course I persisted until I discovered the mistake, and saw that on the principle embraced in my conduct, there never could be a congregation or church upon the earth."

Alexander Campbell - "I have no idea of adding to the catalogue of new sects. I labor to see sectarianism abolished and all Christians of every name united upon the one foundation upon which the apostolic church was founded."

The Gospel Union

Monday, January 10, 2005

Playing it safe

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Choice scriptures:

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