If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve probably noticed that there has been a lot of press lately about various church denominations that are facing possible splits over theological issues. Perhaps the most publicized battle recently has been within the Episcopal Church here in the United States following the election of an openly homosexual bishop. But I’m convinced that though they receive far less publicity, fractures within local bodies of believers are far more prevalent. I’m sure that most of us here this morning have either been part of a church split or know someone else who has been involved in one.
Although many church splits seem to occur because of theological disputes, I’m not so sure that the disagreements on doctrine aren’t merely a smokescreen to cover up a more fundamental problem. That’s why I was really interested in an editorial in the January/February 2005 edition of Berita Magazine, a publication of The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) Malaysia. Here’s an excerpt from that editorial:
In the past, doctrinal issues and heretical teaching were the main reasons for church splits and divisions. The scenario has changed over the years. Today, the main cause is most likely – the conflict of personalities. A church on the verge of splitting may appear to be fighting over controversial issues, but in reality, it is the protracted struggle, clash or opposition between personalities, ideas, and interests of strong-willed individuals that are tearing the church apart...
A church split usually finds its roots in our passion to make ourselves – our needs, our opinions, our group, our goals, our theology – the centre of our egoistic pursuit. It is the “I” factor; the self-centeredness and individualistic mind-set that cause the separation. The attitude of many Christians is that unless something represents their views, or conforms to their positions and beliefs, it is not acceptable.
I guess by now we shouldn’t be surprised, but the Apostle Paul addressed this very situation in his letter to the Ephesians. Let’s read together our passage for today as we continue our journey through Ephesians.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1-3 (NIV)
Paul is obviously very concerned about the unity of the church. As he makes the transition from his description of what God has done for us in the first half of his letter to how we need to respond to God’s work in our life in the second half of the letter, he begins by stressing the need for unity in the body as we apply these life principles.
In this passage, there are two very important principles that as first glance seem to be somewhat unrelated. But the more I looked at them this week, the more it became apparent that both of these principles work hand in hand to preserve unity in the church.
1. My practice does not determine my position, but my position does determine my practice.
I really enjoyed recently talking with Dana Yentzer about some of his experiences growing up in a small town. When his father became the mayor of that town, you can imagine what it must have been like for Dana. Because of his position as the son of the mayor, the standard of behavior that was applied to his life by others, right or wrong, was much higher than they applied to other boys his same age in that town. Now Dana had done nothing to earn his position as the son of the mayor. In fact, I might suspect that he didn’t really relish that position much at all. His position was totally and completely outside his control. It was strictly a function of his father’s action. But that position certainly had a great impact on the way he attempted to live his life.
In many ways that is similar to our position in Christ, the main difference, of course, being that we certainly do relish our position in Him. And it is that position in Him that ought to determine our practice. Let’s take a look at both sides of this first principle:
• My practice does not determine my position
...of the calling you have received...
Obviously in just a moment we’re going to focus on this whole idea of living a life that is worthy, but I think it’s important that we first determine what it needs to be worthy of. When Paul writes of our calling, it seems to me that he is once again summarizing everything he has written about in the first three chapters of Ephesians. It includes all those spiritual blessings that Paul describes there – everything from being chosen by God to being filled with all the fullness of God.
All of that together comprises our position In Jesus Christ. All of those spiritual blessings are 100% a result of what He has done for us. Not one part of my position in Christ is dependent on my own practice. There is absolutely nothing that I could ever do to earn or deserve all that God has done for me.
You’ll notice the word “then” near the beginning of verse 1. Most other translations render that word “therefore”. As we ought to know by now that is a connecting word which makes it even more apparent that Paul is referring back to what he has written in the first three chapters of his letter when he refers to our calling.
So it is very clear that my practice, my behavior, does not determine my position in Christ, but this passage makes it equally clear that...
• My position does determine my practice
...I urge you to live a life worthy...
The word translated “worthy” comes from a root word that means to balance the scales. It came to be applied to anything that was expected to correspond to something else. For instance, a person who was worthy of his pay, was someone whose work effort corresponded to the amount he was paid.
Paul is urging us here to live our lives in such a way that they are in balance with, or correspond to our calling. He is saying that there needs to be a balance between our doctrine and our doing, between our position and our practice.
In his commentary on Ephesians, James Boice has one of the best commentaries on this balance between doctrine and practice that I’ve ever seen. Listen to his words:
There are some Christians who are primarily intellectual in nature. They love books, enjoy study, and delight in the exposition of the Bible’s great doctrinal passages. This is a good thing. It is proper to love doctrine and rejoice at what God has done for us in Christ. Paul himself obviously did this; we can tell from the way he has unfolded his doctrines in the first three chapters of this letter. But the intellectual believer faces a great danger and often has a great weakness as a result of failing to overcome the danger. He loves doctrine so much that he stops with doctrine. He reads the first three chapters of Ephesians and delights in them; but when he comes to chapter 4 he says, “Oh, the rest is just application. I know all about that.” Then he skips ahead to the next doctrinal section and neglects what he perhaps most needs to assimilate.
On the other hand, some Christians are primarily oriented to experience. They thrive under the teaching found in the second half of this book. They want to know about spiritual gifts and their own exercise of them. They are excited about Paul’s teaching about the family and other such things. This is “where it’s at” for them; they find the doctrinal section dry and impractical.
But, you see, each of these is an error. Doctrine without practice leads to bitter orthodoxy; it gives correctness of thought without the practical vitality of the life of Christ. Practice without doctrine leads to aberrations; it gives intensity of feeling, but it is feeling apt to go off in any (and often a wrong) direction. What we need is both, as Paul’s letters and the whole of Scripture teach us. We can never attach too much importance to doctrine, for it is out of the doctrines of God, man, and salvation that the direction and impetus for the living of the Christian life spring. At the same time, we can never attach too much importance to practice, for it is the result of doctrine and proof of its divine nature.
In a similar passage in Colossians, Paul reinforces this concept of balancing our position in Christ and our practice:
And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:10-14 (NIV)
Paul begins by pointing out the importance of living a life that is worthy of the Lord and he even describes what that looks like – it involves bearing fruit, growing in the knowledge of God and having endurance and patience. But you’ll also notice that he encourages his readers to give thanks to God, because He is the one who has given them an inheritance and He is the one who has rescued them from the dominion of darkness and brought them into the kingdom of His Son. It is our position that determines our practice.
At first, this principle didn’t seem to me to have a whole lot to do with maintaining the unity of the church. But the fact that we all have a common position in Christ is indeed a crucial unifying factor. We are all members together of this body because of what Jesus has done for us. That ought to be the driving force for the way we all live out our lives.
2. My attitudes do not create unity, but my attitudes either preserve or destroy unity
Before he begins to write about the kind of behavior that results in a life that is worthy of our calling, Paul first deals with some attitudes that are crucial if we are going to be able to live that kind of life. So again, let’s look at both sides of this second principle.
• My attitudes do not create unity
... keep the unity...
Paul makes it very clear that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, are not responsible for creating unity in the body. It is quite apparent from what Paul has already written that Jesus Himself has already established that unity through what He has done for us:
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,
Ephesians 2:14, 15 (NIV)
So our responsibility, as His followers, is merely to maintain or preserve what Jesus has already established in his body, the church. And it seems to me, based on the context of Paul’s letter, that concept applies to both the universal church as well as our local body.
• My attitudes either preserve or destroy unity
Although we can’t create unity, our actions either work to preserve that unity or they lead to the destruction of that unity. In his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul emphasized the need four us to do everything in our power to live at peace with our Christian brothers and sisters:
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Romans 12:18 (NIV)
But, as Paul rightly points out here in Ephesians, the key to preserving unity is to focus on the attitudes that promote peace. Paul describes for us...
o Four attitudes that preserve unity:
Each of the four attitudes that Paul writes about in this passage are very similar. Each of them are an antidote to the “me-first”, self-centered culture that we live in today. We’ve already addressed that issue several times in our journey through Ephesians, We’ve seen that the church was never intended to strictly be a place where I come to get my own needs met, but rather it is a place where the followers of Jesus Christ come together to serve each other and our world so that we can demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God both here on earth and in the heavens. In order for that to happen, we need to develop these four key attitudes:
Humility
The word for humility literally means to think lowly of oneself. It means that I put the needs of others ahead of my own. I particularly like Lawrence Richards’ definition of humility:
It is not a weak man’s surrender, but a strong man’s rejection of selfishness and determination to be actively concerned with the needs and interests of others.
Without a doubt, the best example of humility is Jesus Christ. Paul very vividly describes that humility for us in Philippians 2 where he describes how Jesus gave up all the glory of heaven to come to this earth to meet our greatest need – a need that we could never meet on our own.
A church that is full of people who are here to meet the needs of others, rather than to focus on their own needs will never have a problem with keeping the unity.
Gentleness
This word could also be translated “meekness”, as it is in the KJV. But unfortunately in our culture that word carries with it the connotation of weakness. But the word Paul uses here is a word that indicates power under control. As we might expect, it is a word that Jesus used to describe Himself:
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 11:29 (NIV)
Certainly Jesus wasn’t weak, but he was gentle or meek in the sense that the great power he possessed was always under control.
Perhaps Barclay describes the idea of gentleness best:
He patiently bears wrongs done to himself but is ever chivalrously ready to spring to the help of others who are wronged.
In other words, gentleness means that rather than fighting for my rights, I focus on what is best for others. Again, when we have a church full of people with that kind of attitude, preserving unity is an easy task.
Patience
The word Paul uses here is a word that literally means “long tempered”. The KJV very accurately renders this word “longsuffering”. Vine’s defines it as “...that quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish...” It is the same word used to describe God’s attitude toward us.
Barclay described patience like this:
[Patience] is the spirit which bears insult and injury without bitterness and without complaint. It is the spirit which can suffer unpleasant people with graciousness and fools without irritation.
In the church, this means that we’re willing to put up with people that insult us and frustrate us. It means that, just like God does with us, we’re willing to put up with the actions of others that hurt us without seeking to get even. It means that we’re willing to put up with those who are less spiritually mature and often don’t know any better. Obviously that doesn’t mean that we don’t deal with conspicuous sin or that we don’t try to encourage others to grow spiritually. But it does mean being willing to be long-tempered with those people and allow God to work in their lives in His own time.
Bearing with one another
While Paul encourages unity, he never expects uniformity in the body. Every one of us has different personalities, abilities and temperaments. Paul is encouraging his readers to make allowances for the uniqueness of each individual part of the body. It means that we are to allow for the faults and failures of others. Once again, Paul is not saying that we are to tolerate blatant sin in the body, but we are to put up with and tolerate those who are different than us.
Bearing with one another is more than just an outward façade. It is a decision to love others in spite of our differences.
Up until now, I’ve addressed these four attitudes in a very general sense. I’ve given you some definitions and some examples of what these words mean. But let’s get more specific and practical for a moment. How do these attitudes really function in a local body like ours? Let me give you just one example as some food for thought;
There is a sense in which I’m reluctant to even bring this up since it can be such a divisive issue, but music and worship styles seems to be an issue that continues to provide the opportunity for conflict, not just in our church, but in every local body. Our church is certainly not immune to this. In fact, it seems like Denny and I get more feedback about our music than about anything else we do in this church. I often wonder whether we would get that much response if we got up here and preached something that was clearly not Biblical.
I know that there are some of you who love traditional hymns. Your personal preference is that we would sing them more. In fact, some of you are of the opinion that we should sing only hymns. On the other hand, there are those of you who prefer more contemporary music.
As much as some of us would like to make it one in order to support our preferences, this is not a doctrinal or scriptural issue. Frankly, there is not a whole lot in the Bible about what kind of music to use in a worship service, but what we do have indicates that we are to use a variety of types of music in our worship. So what we’re dealing with here is really a potential conflict that is based on the personal preferences and opinions of people who have a variety of backgrounds, traditions and temperaments when it comes to music. And the fact is that no matter what kind of mix of music we use each week, there is no possible way to meet everyone’s preferences.
When we select music each week, our purpose is to choose music that will reveal something about God and then allow us to respond to Him based on that revelation. Although we use both traditional hymns and more contemporary music for those purposes, I’ll be real honest with you - we’ve made a conscious decision to weight our music more toward the contemporary music. We’ve done that for several reasons.
Five times in the Psalms we are commanded to sing a new song. And there are two references in Revelation to a new song that will be sung in heaven. My sense is that God enjoys it when we learn new songs that give glory to Him. One of the problems with songs that are so familiar to us is that after a while we just sing the words without really thinking about what we’re singing. That’s the reason that I really like some of the new arrangements of the traditional hymns or doing like we did this morning and combining a hymn and a more contemporary song into a medley.
When we meet here on Sunday mornings, we have a variety of people here. For some of you who have been followers of Jesus Christ for a long time, the hymns are very meaningful to you because you’ve been singing them for a long time. But to unbelievers who might be our guests, some of those same songs may not have the same effect. Can you imagine what someone who has very little Biblical background would think when we ask them to sing “Are You Washed in the Blood?”
And sometimes I’m convinced that even many of us don’t really think about what we’re singing. How about the second stanza of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” that begins with these words: “Here I raise mine Ebenezer, Hither by thy help I’m come.” My guess is that very few of us have any idea what that means.
If we’re going to reach a whole new generation of unchurched people then we need to be willing to set aside some of our own preferences so that we can offer music that both glorifies God and is understandable and relevant to the unbelievers we are trying to reach as well as to followers of Jesus Christ.
So we have a choice when it some to church music. We can gripe and complain. Or we can even just “sit there and take it.” We won’t say anything, but we don’t have to like it either. Or we can do as Paul instructs us and respond with humility, gentleness, patience and bearing with others. Only one of those responses will preserve the unity of the church.
I know that all of us would like to think that there could never be a split at Thornydale Family Church. But we’re not immune to the “me-first”, self-centered world we live in. The only way that we can make sure we preserve the unity we have been blessed with is to continue to develop attitudes of humility, gentleness and patience and learn to bear with one another in love.
