When Will All the Fighting End?

“If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” – Philippians 2:1-2

At the commencement of a new year, given to us by the grace of God for the purpose of pursuing the final fulfillment of the great commission with which our Savior left us, it is on my heart to issue to the body of Christ a battle-cry for radical unity among our ranks. If we are Christ’s, we are not left on this earth for no reason. We have before us a monumental and divinely-appointed mission to take the good news of Christ’s great accomplishment of redemption to the ends of the earth. The Lamb is worthy of worshippers from every kindred, tongue, people and nation. It is our deepest privilege and joy to be graced with the opportunity to suffer for the sake of the Name. Christ suffered in order to win our redemption – how deeply grateful we ought to be that we are counted worthy to suffer in order to spread the effects of that grand victory which he has already won! The night is far spent; and it is high time that we begin to think seriously about our task of calling into the fold every sheep for whom Christ shed his precious blood, in every corner of the world.

This is a task for which none of us is sufficient in himself. Left to ourselves, how soon we would fall away, and come to naught! We are the body of Christ, and there is no member who is not utterly dependent upon the necessary and Spirit-filled functioning of the other members in the body. If we so desperately need the mutual support and encouragement of Christ’s body for the perseverance of our own souls, how then can we expect to carry out our commission of world-wide evangelism without unity in the Body? We are soldiers of Christ: if we exhaust our energies in bickering with one another, how will we be able to conduct our spiritual warfare against our enemy? Can our urgent warfare against that Deceiver of souls be effective before the fighting among our own ranks is put to an end? These are some of the things we must be asking ourselves at the dawn of a new year in which it is necessary for the Kingdom to increase.

Let us be earnest enough in the pursuit of our mission that the old, entrenched, and altogether unnecessary divisions in the church — the misplaced loyalties to movements and denominations over and above loyalties to precious brothers and sisters of every stripe who are redeemed by the blood of Christ — are rendered inconsequential. When people are quicker to say “I’m a Fundamentalist,” or “I’m an Evangelical,” than they are to say, “I am redeemed by the blood of Christ just as you,” then there is an underlying problem. The necessity of clarity and precision on doctrinal points should not be minimized, and the purity of the gospel should be maintained as the standard by which to accept anyone as a true Christian or not. But within the ranks of Christians (i.e. those who believe the gospel) we should recognize that all of us without distinction are saved sinners who still retain inconsistencies both in thinking and living, and who need each other to grow into the image of Christ. I can think of few things quicker to divide one needy Christian from another in the same geographical region than the idea that “I’m a Fundamentalist, so I’ll find other Fundamentalists to fellowship with,” or “I’m a Presbyterian…,” “I’m a Baptist…,” and so on. If we all recognize that we’re saved by the same Christ and believers in the same gospel, and still needing the same exhortation/encouragement from all other Christians, then differences in non-essential matters will be a lot less likely to divide. Our unity is not in shared membership in any movement, but shared membership in Christ’s body. When will we see a day in which all genuine Christians in a city, no matter how different doctrinally, will be meeting together in love, ready and willing both to be the instrument of change in the lives of others and to be changed themselves when confronted by the word of God?

Then, perhaps (by the grace of God), we will begin to see the world again turned upside down for the sake of our King.

2 Responses to “When Will All the Fighting End?”

  1. nathan says:
    January 3, 2006 at 4:56 am

    How different are our churches today from those in the New Testament! The model you call us to follow is the model given to us in every city Paul visited: a unified (albeit not perfect) single body dedicated more to the cause of Christ than any other cause. Without reservation, I accept and appreciate your Scriptural reminder and believe that a true reformation that sets aside the petty is past due. Other reformations have caused division and were used by God to accomplish an important purpose. Separation over the deity of Christ and the sufficiency of His Work, though, is a different matter than separation over semantics and personal standards of living. God forbid that we miss His blessing because of our misplaced and impossible desire for behavioral and ideological purity rather than our desire to fulfill the greatest command: love each other.

    As in other reformations of the church, a reformation of unity will still cause division (ironically enough). There will be those that stubbornly hold to an earthly ideal over biblical missionology. Again ironically, an obsessive hold on a misunderstanding of “love” will be one of these ideals, just as much as an unhealthy adherence to “purity.” This is the task, then, to teach in our churches what is biblical and what is man-conceived emotionalism. There is a middle ground that recognizes error while loving our brothers as Christ does.

    I hope that this will not be one of the posts that we skip over in our thinking in favor of a more controversial one. Thanks Pitchford.

  2. Bob Hayton says:
    January 3, 2006 at 8:49 am

    Great post! I definitely do not want to “skip over” this one in route to a more controversial one, as Nathan Fitzsimmons reminds us.

    My brother (Dave Hayton) recently mentioned something which relates to this topic. He said that what separates us should be what defines us. And so, we are defined by what we separate over. Let the body of Christ understand this point, if we separate fellowship based on petty differences of personality, church polity, or items of clear secondary importance like baptism or denominational affiliations, we are defining ourselves by something much less than the central thrust of the Christianity revealed in the NT. Love for brothers, and love for Christ, manifested in radical missions and radical support of both the brethren in need, and those who are destitute and without Christ is what gave the early church its clear identity in sharp contrast to the world. I shudder, when I think that so many would rather be defined by particular interpretations and applications of clearly secondary importance (like KJV only, pants-on-women, alcohol, local church ecclesiology, etc.) than be defined by a radical love for one another, that Christ prayed for in Jn. 17. May Rom. 15:5-7 be a rallying cry for the church to get over our differences and unite around Christ that Rom. 15:16b and Acts 1:8 might be realized.

    Some might have difficulty with this post, though. They may see unity despite of differences, or “welcoming” brethren despite contradictory practices and beliefs, as some kind of threat to the call for a defense of the faith. A desire to stand on what is true is certainly commendable, but we see both in the history of the Spirit’s work in creating unity in the widespread body of Christ, and in Scripture itself a clear emphasis on retaining unity and working for purity rather than a knee-jerk response of separation and denounciation. Paul separates from clear apostates only with tears, and when we are admonished to separate from disobedient brethren, we are exhorted to treat them like a brother (2 Thess. 3:6-15). How do you treat your brother? Close, and like a friend, right? That should be the way separation is carried out, in a loving way, which by no means closes the door on “fellowship in the gospel” (Phil. 1:5). A great resource along these lines, is the recent series of messages Pastor John Piper preached on Romans 14. Links are available to free audio and print copies of these sermons here.

    Again, thanks Nathan (Pitchford) for the post.

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