Beliefs, Grace, and Gentleness (2)

Intro

I think it’s important, as we approach a subject like conviction to include some teaching on beliefs, grace, and gentleness. You see, our convictions are to burn with the fires of truth, and our love is to indeed be supplied by the warmth of truth. And this even serves as a tag to my sermon on Sunday. But it also behooves us to talk about the roles of grace and gentleness as we talk conviction. Another word we could use here is “understanding.”

Importance of Grace and Gentleness

Christian unity is vital to our faith. Remember Jesus’ prayer for his followers:

John 17:21 (ESV)

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Jesus desired that we would be one. One as in unified and together under the name and banner of Christ. Brothers and sisters, so far as it depends on you and me, we should strive for unity in our local church and with likeminded sister churches. We should always be seeking legitimate bridges of fellowship, and not ready to pounce on the latest reason to cut off fellowship with true brothers and sisters in the faith.

So in the interest of keeping the fruit of the Spirit at the forefront of our attitudes, let us remember that the white-hot heat of conviction can also be a source of warmth on a cold night. This is done with kindness and gentleness in such a way that we are able to communicate our convictions not only with confidence, but love.

Compare the positive commands for a gentle spirit with the negative commands against harshness.

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

A gentle spirit or a harsh attitude:

Colossians 3:19 (ESV)

Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

Colossians 3:21 (ESV)

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

I love this passage as an example, because the father has spiritual leadership in the family. So we are to recognize that this behavior sets the tone for how Christians go about daily life! This principle is not JUST set for the family, though it is primarily set in the family. Harshness is to be reserved for extenuating circumstances, not our modus operandi. And even then, harshness should NEVER extend to ever abusing another person.

So let us begin with gentleness in our convictions. And if we want to do this well? We have compassion.

Let us not forget brothers and sisters, that the sins of the world were once the sins that we were caught up in.

1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV)

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Do you recognize what book this verse was written in? The church of Corinth. How much grace was Paul showing in saying such a thing, knowing what sin they had been sweeping under the rug?

The church at Corinth was a mess, and yet Paul still recognized them as a church. Now, I think there are some things at work in the Corinthian church that we must be aware of… Perhaps there were factions in the church at Corinth that Paul would not consider to be true believers, and maybe he was winnowing some of the chaff out from the wheat in his letters.

In a Christlike way, Paul displayed grace and gentleness to a church in deep sin and disarray. When you read the whole of Corinthians, you get a picture that Paul was upset with the church, but still chose to believe they could pull out of their sin if they would only repent and rely on the Lord’s wisdom.

That’s what gentleness should look like in the body of Christ. An honest estimation of one another’s accountability before the Lord, and a belief that those who are in Christ will get it right given truth and the opportunity to repent.

And that’s how I try to treat those in Christ who are in error. I try my best to believe that those who are in Christ, who believe the Bible, will be convicted by the Word of God and come to a knowledge of the truth given the opportunity. It may be a while, but Christians who are being sanctified by the Spirt have a long trend of growing more and more like Christ.

But theres some things in my realm of beliefs and convictions that don’t merit my attempts to convince or sweat over.

A really helpful tool that I have used over the course of my ministry is the Theological Pyramid.

Theological Pyramid

*Draw the pyramid, or display it on a screen*

So given that we are to pursue unity as far as it depends on us as believers, reconciling and bearing with one another, but also given that we are to pursue Christ in the purest way we know how, recognizing the truth He has given us, and honoring the Word that guides us, we need ways to help us think about things that are necessary in convictions and things that we can bear with one another on.

There’s a few different ways to give the concept of convictions we hold tight versus beliefs we may hold personally but don’t expect others to hold.

One way of describing this is open-handed vs. close-handed beliefs.

A closed-handed belief is a belief that you are unwilling to part with. This is core to what I believe, and I cannot let it go. You may say, “Jesus Christ is God,” and that should be a closed-handed belief. It’s not up for debate. Scripture settles it.

An open-handed belief is one you could be convinced of otherwise. For example, many were convinced that Jesus would return in the 80s. There were books about it, right? 88 Reasons Jesus will return in 1988. I hope none of us broke fellowship with people that believed differently back in that day… Great example of an open-handed belief. It’s something that shouldn’t break your faith if you change on it.

But the tool I love to use the most is what I call the theological pyramid.

Foundation

At the foundation, you have your core Christian beliefs. In other words, if someone does not believe the thing in this category, they are not Christians, but are either of another faith, or heretical. It’s not just that someone doesn’t believe quite like I do, it’s that they believe a lie, and their souls are in danger of hell still, even if they use the nomenclature of “Christian.”

There are foundational, ground level beliefs every Christian must have. These are Gospel beliefs, Gospel issues. Subjects like atonement. Christ died, and His sacrifice atones for our sin once and for all. Christ is our substitute payment for our sin. Now, because of that atonement, we are made at one with God.

Christ’s deity. If someone believes Jesus is merely a man, then they have rejected Christ as the true Messiah. Without the deity of Christ, the sacrifice is insufficient. Jesus was not merely a man. It took the death of God in the substance of man to pay for the sins of man.

The resurrection. If one does not believe Christ raised from the dead, where is the victory over sin and death?

Salvation through faith and grace alone.

Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

If you are relying on your works for salvation, you will be sorely mistaken on the day of judgment.

Foundational beliefs are non-negotiable in the Christian faith. If someone rejects a foundational belief, you don’t have a mere difference of opinion, brothers and sisters. You have a different faith from them.

And so your response should be measured in a certain way. There should be this sense of, “Oh, okay, I’m not dealing with someone who merely has a different set of beliefs from me… I’m dealing with someone who is not a Christian at all. I am dealing with someone who is still lost in their sin.” And look, the hard part about this is you will meet nice heretics, right? Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met were in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mormons. And they were as lost as can be. They told me they believed in Jesus, and they told me they were Christians just like me.

And they’re not. It is not loving to affirm their false beliefs. It is in fact UNloving to do such a thing, because we would be UNcaring about the eternal state of their souls. Doesn’t matter how nice we are to them or them us. Our relationship to mormons, who tell us they are Christians, who tell us they believe in grace, who tell us they are just like us, is most lovingly displayed when we can show them in truth and kindness, that, no, we are different, and here’s how. Mormons need the completed work of Christ, as they do not trust that His sacrifice atoned for sin. They just have a modified universalism, really, with differing levels of Heaven.

A muslim will tell you they believe in Jesus, but merely that he was a great prophet. This is not a salvific belief in Jesus.

So again, If someone has a differing understanding of a foundational belief, we probably need to treat that as an opportunity for evangelism, not an opportunity to affirm someone in their error.

Doctrine

Next is doctrine. Now this is where things can get a little hairy. Doctrine is what separates churches and denominations. There’s varying levels of doctrinal difference. But if someone has a different conviction at the doctrinal level, we probably shouldn’t attend the same church. And I use the should word pretty pointedly there.

Let’s look at some cases of doctrinal differences, and where those may land.

John Wesley had a particular doctrine that would make us shudder. I have good esteem of John Wesley. He was an important Christian, and probably responsible for birthing the modern Sunday School/Small Groups movement. I believe we will be in Heaven one day. But there’s a few things that would cause me to say that Wesley and I are not the same, and I probably wouldn’t put myself under his preaching. Namely, Wesley had a doctrine of Christian perfectionism. Wesley believed that Christians could be sanctified on this side of earth to the point of effective perfection. That we could be sinless.

That’s what I would call an over-realized eschatology. In other words, I believe Wesley sees what awaits us in Heaven, when we have glorified bodies, and gets his timeline wrong. Does that make him unsaved? No. Is it a potentially dangerous doctrine? We’ve seen that at work in certain charismatic churches that esteem their pastors to be sinless, and that pastor is given immense leeway to be able to abuse his church. But I don’t think Wesley saw that coming, necessarily, and wouldn’t have affirmed it to that extreme, either. So was Wesley in error? Yes. Do I affirm him as a brother in Christ? Also yes. Would I join in church membership with him as pastor? No. And I don’t think it’s unloving or unnecessarily divisive to say such.

Another example would be mode of baptism. As baptists, we have a few beliefs about baptism that makes us distinctive: we believe baptism does not save. We believe Christians SHOULD be baptized as an act of obedience. We believe baptism is necessarily by immersion, save some extenuating circumstance that would prohibit someone from such. We believe baptism is a Christian’s first public declaration of faith, and thus they are baptized into church membership.

Some good Christians, on the other hand, believe differently about baptism. They have a more covenantal view. They believe baptism should be extended to all members of a believing family, so they will baptize infants. I strongly disagree with this practice. I think it is confusing to unbelieving family members and Christians alike as to what constitutes a public profession of faith. I think it confuses the role of church membership and what being a member of a church means. Membership is an affirmation that someone is a fellow believer and that we join arms together in cooperation for gospel furtherance and glorification of God. If someone is unsaved and a baptized member of the church, that’s, in my mind, a false unity.

However, as I said earlier, I think conservative presbyterians have a good understanding of the Gospel. I don’t mind listening to a Presbyterian preach. But I’m not going to join a Presbyterian church. There’s too much difference there. I’ll affirm that I will see them one day in Heaven. I will not affirm their mode of baptism. From the way I read scripture, I cannot get behind their understanding of baptism. Thats okay. The separation is necessary so that they can follow their conscience, and we can follow ours. To do otherwise would be to violate one another’s consciences. Can’t do that.

Romans 14:20–23 (ESV)

Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

How about spiritual gifts? This is one that can kind of border between doctrine and the next level, which is belief. Some may believe gifts have ceased. Some may be open to gifts, but cautious in their approach. Some still may believe spiritual gifts are not only active, but meant to be practiced every Sunday, and they’ve invented some gifts to go along with it.

Example: Person believes the gifts ceased when the Scriptures were complete. Okay. Person B is open to the idea of gifts, but again, is cautious in their practice. These two can probably worship together. But the third person who believes in tongues and believes a church should have someone speak in tongues every Sunday? For us as a church, that would be an issue of order. They probably wouldn’t want to worship here because we don’t practice that and we really don’t have any plans to.

So there’s degrees of separation in this one. It gets odd from issue to issue. But if we approach in humility and a pursuit of the truth, I think we can get to areas of fellowship that make sense for all of us.

But let’s move to that next level: Beliefs

Beliefs

Every person in here probably has a different personal belief in regard to their walk with Christ and their practice of church. Great example of this would be your view on End Times. I suspect the majority of folks in our church believe a certain way, but I suspect there’s probably a lot of folks who may have a differing view on whether you’re pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib, de-trib, re-trib, or free-trib. The main thing is that Christ will return and defeat death once for all. The particulars will work themselves out according to Scripture and God’s Will. We can worship together with someone who may have a different view on End Times than we do.

Another may be your beliefs on evangelism. Some believe the Gospel is best shared in compassion ministry. Others may take a more hard stance on verbal proclamation of God’s Word. Now, I think both of those come from different roots, and I firmly stand on the belief that evangelism is necessarily a verbal act of communicating the Good News of Christ. But I have worshipped alongside people who would misquote Francis of Assissi in saying “Preach the Gospel at all times, use words when necessary.” Man, I disagree strongly with that quote. Francis probably also didn’t really say it, but that’s another issue. But I believe we should live the gospel, but the Scriptures are clear: how will they hear without a preacher?

Romans 10:14 (ESV)

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

But I can still worship with someone who may believe differently from me on this, provided they’re not coming from a background of outright progressive theology. I’m still going to try to convince them, though.

Someone still may manage their household differently from me in the way a husband leads the home spiritually. Some take Scripture to mean the husband should have this role or that, and the wife should have these responsibilities or those. Those are belief issues we can overlook, as one another seeks to fulfill his conscience before the Lord and scripture, and there are degrees of that that are okay, provided we are being serious with Scripture.

Conclusion

So you can see how important gentleness and grace are in the realm of dealing with differing levels of belief. I love how one teacher taught it:

In essentials: unity;

In non-essentials: liberty;

In all things: charity.

Kindness is the spice of relationships.