churchesofChrist

I am frank to confess that in the realm of permissible differences among brethren I have been growing and changing ever since I became a Christian.  ”Either the NEW TESTAMENT CLEARLY AND SPECIFICALLY DELINEATES EVERY ACTION, ITEM, AND INSTITUTION TO BE EMPLOYED BY THE CHURCH IN ITS WORK, or it IMPLIES THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH TO EXERCISE HUMAN JUDGMENT IN CERTAIN INSTANCES. There is no middle ground here. If the New Testament provides exhaustive instructions, there is no room for human judgment. Divine judgment would be available on every subject in such a case. 

                Can we not assume that there is general understanding that we can never get perfect agreement on everything, and that we don’t have to agree on anything in the realm of necessary judgment which God has left by the silence of His Word? Does not nature teach us of the value and reality of diversity? Is not nature the glorious creation of God for our good and enjoyment because of its unity with diversity? Some things are so fixed and settled in nature that we erect the concrete term “law” to define them. 

  Diversity that endangers the gospel facts and commands or jeopardizes the nature and the work of Christ, or which undercuts our salvation is to be condemned, exposed, and opposed. The Christian is prohibited from an unrestricted fellowship:

     Four classes of persons are to be rejected from fellowship.  Those who are not “in Christ” are to be rejected–Muslims, Buddhists, modernists who deny Christ as the unique Son of God, those who reject the miracles of Christ’s virgin birth and resurrection, or those who oppose or deny His lordship over their lives. Deliberate rebellion of the individual against the authority of God’s word in matters of faith, fact, and teaching is evidence of unbelief and of being not “in Christ.”

      Furthermore, there are those out of the fellowship because they have become immoral, unrepentant sinners. The Spirit wrote through Paul,

     But in this letter I tell you not to associate with any professing Christian who is known to be an impure man or a swindler, an idolater, a man with a foul tongue, a drunkard or a thief. My instruction is: “Don’t even eat with such a man.”…It is your plain duty to expel from your church this wicked man! (1 Corinthians 5:11-13. Phillips).

      Again those who are unwilling to repent of personal wrongs against brethren and who thus introduce disharmony in the body are to be dealt with and, if all else fails, they are to be excluded from the fellowship according to Jesus in Matthew 18:15-17. Everything is to be done to win back and reconcile the offender, but the ultimate obligation is to maintain the honor of Christ, the integrity of His body, and to protect the body against even its own members. Cancer seems to be cell production that has become too diversified and prolific. It may lead to the destruction of the body. When all else has failed, surgery is a necessity, an obligation for the welfare of all the other members of the body. So it must he with the impenitent sinner in the body of Christ.

     Finally, there is the sinner who brings dissension and division into the body of Christ, the factious man.  I fear our local cofC preachers fall here. ( Johnny, James, and Norm )

     Factious stresses the contentious, perverse, or turbulent provocation of party spirit or a tendency to break up into embittered and irreconcilable factions: only when it implies as a result the destruction of peace in the group as a whole does it suggest indifference to or defiance of constituted authority….

The Holy Spirit through Paul states,

     And now I implore you, my brothers, to keep a watchful eye on those who cause trouble and make difficulties among you, in plain opposition to the teaching you have been given, and steer clear of them. Such men do not really serve our Lord Christ at all but are utterly self-centered. Yet with their plausible and attractive arguments they deceive those who are too simplehearted to see through them. (Romans 16:17-18. Phillips).

     Obviously the overseers of a congregation are charged with the spiritual welfare of the souls of the simplehearted as well as those of mature saints, and they cannot ignore the factious man. Paul writes to Titus and says, “As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful; he is self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-l1).

          Now let us summarize our findings about diversity. The fact of diversity cannot be denied, and we have admitted that there is helpful, beneficial, and needful diversity. We have seen that no family or congregation could possibly be united if 100% agreement was required of all members. Differences will always exist as long as we are finite and in this fleshly tabernacle. What really counts is how we handle these diversities from “within the name of Christ” who by His unmerited favor has redeemed us and commanded us to grow in grace and truth. We must be determined to let His Word instruct, rebuke, and fill us while we learn to appreciate and love one another more and more. We need to let the Holy Spirit convict us of our own sin, shortcomings, imperfections, and weaknesses–to see the beam in our own eye–so as to have sympathy and love for our weaker or stronger brethren.

     Again, we saw that we are in fellowship with those who sin because none is perfect. All of us have sinned and do sin, and it is only by the unmerited favor of Christ that we are delivered from hell. Yet there are specific sins which continued in and unrepented of must be recognized by the church or its overseers and dealt with firmly and scripturally, even to the disfellowship of the impenitent brother.

     Then in the realm of necessary judgment, where God has not clearly stated the what and the how of His will, each of us must speak in our own fashion to the best of our conscientious and sincere desire to do God’s will in all well-pleasing with the least disturbance to other brethren and being very careful not to bind our way of doing God’s will on another. We dare not carnalize the spiritual truth of God with our sectarian prejudices, human opinions, antique traditions, nor dare we deny what the Sovereign Lord has taught or commanded. Are we wiser than He?

     Those of us who have a robust conscience must accept as our own burden the tender scruples of weaker men, and not consider ourselves. Each of us must consider his neighbor and think what is for his good and will build up the common life…
     And may God, the source of all fortitude and encouragement, grant that you may agree with one another after the manner of Christ Jesus, so that with one mind and one voice you may praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In a word, accept one another as Christ accepted us, to the glory of God. (Romans 15:1-2, 5-7. NEB.)