Defaulting to grace over worldviews: Part three

Speaking the truth in love

I started writing this chapter in August of 2021, at the height of the COVID pandemic. Two-and-a-half years later, most of it still holds. If anything, churches are often more divided over world views, and if not divided, more deeply entrenched in their cultural belief systems, turning away from the beautiful simplicity of the gospel to promote a social agenda on either the left or the right.

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Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy shortly before his execution by Rome. Knowing his death was near, Paul focused on the most important things Timothy needed to remember. One focal point in both letters to Timothy was an admonition for church members to avoid arguing over minor quibbles, but rather to teach the truth in the faith and love found in Jesus (2 Timothy 1:13). Paul entreated believers to avoid quarreling 15 times in his letters to Timothy and Titus alone. Then, as now, human nature argued to be right before stopping to listen to the other side.

God knew that, given free will to choose love, people would prefer themselves over both others and God, Himself. When a scribe asked Jesus for the greatest commandment, Jesus gave him two: Love God and Love your neighbor. He added, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and Prophets” (Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12: 28-34; Luke 25-28). It should be so simple, but, like our ancestors, we inevitably fail to maintain those two simple ideas. Why?

James didn’t mince words about why Jesus’ followers quarrel:

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel… Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law…Who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:1-12).

Ouch.

When Jesus said that loving God and loving others was the foundation of the whole law and prophets, he took away the “right” to speak against other believers, not because he wanted Christians to share a hive mind with no differences of opinion, but because he desired a Bride that reflected unity in diversity. When we bicker over politics, worship service styles, Bible translations, dispensations, eschatology, education, or whatever preferences we have, we destroy the unity we should have as fellow image-bearers of God. When we delight in being “right” about something, it is not the Spirit that rejoices, but our flesh. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” (Galatians 5:15). “If we live by the Spirit,” he continued, “let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:25-26).

The call to avoid foolish controversies and not be quarrelsome requires that we “pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace” (2 Timothy 2:22). That means we must practice a few hard things: listening to hear, thoughtful responses, remembering that even the people we may not like are made in the image of God, as we are, and that Jesus came for them, just as he did for us.

Unity in the church begins when each member considers the gospel more important than being on “the right side of history” when cultural and societal issues infiltrate. When every individual is “rooted and grounded in love,” we can have beneficial conversations about difficult topics (Galatians 3:17). We can “agree to disagree” on nonessentials when our foundation is the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the unknowable love of Christ (Galatians 3:18). When we speak the truth in love, disagreements become opportunities to grow (Ephesians 4:15-16). Hostility is unbecoming in the world; how much more so in the Body of Christ?

Are there times when some of us need correction? Are there instances where we may misinterpret the Scripture, no matter how long we have been in a relationship with Jesus? Absolutely. One reason to attend a local body of believers is to hear an explication of the Word by pastors and priests whose vocation is to study and teach the Bible. Participating in Bible study with others helps us correct aberrant ideas, however innocently conceived. Daily study, constant prayer, and a continual awareness of the Holy Spirit’s nudging all help keep us growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3:18). However, we may need to correct someone’s misunderstanding or wrong teaching. When that happens, we cannot judge but correct others with gentleness, kindness, and patience (2 Timothy 2:24-25). And when we need correcting, Jesus is glorified when we accept reproof with humility (Proverbs 15:31).

The goal of any such correction, whether given or received, is to restore peace and unity, not necessarily uniformity. The Church is not beige. The Church is a mosaic of color and texture made of multiple perspectives, traditions, ethnicities, languages, cultures, and stories, all brought together in love, unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-7). Grace is given to us all so we might spill that grace onto people whose lives we touch as we love God and love one another.

Resources

The Gospel Coalition. “Tim Keller | What a Minor Prophet Teaches Us About Nationalism and Race, Grace, and Mission.” YouTube, uploaded by The Gospel Coalition, 3 Apr. 2019,

Keller, Timothy. “The Sin of Racism.” Gospel in Life Quarterly, https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/the-sin-of-racism/.

Phillips, Rick. “Why Isn’t There Unity Among Christians?” Question Box Series, Tenth Presbyterian Church, 8 July 2001, https://www.tenth.org/resource-library/articles/why-isnt-there-unity-among-christians/.

Wax, Trevin. “I Wish Christians Would Argue More.” The Gospel Coalition, 27 Feb. 2017, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/i-wish-christians-would-argue-more/.