Fellowship in Disagreement Part 1

As part of our “Priorities for a Pilgrim People,” I wanted to wrap up by talking about how to think about differences of opinion in the church. And as I worked on the message, I realized that the introduction was a sermon. And so this morning is the introduction to next week.

We really need to continue talking about unity, particularly when we come to different conclusions on issues. But as I studied and thought and prepared, I became more convinced that we need to discuss the theological basis of our unity.

John 17: Read and comment.

At the heart of Jesus prayer is a plea for the unity of his people. Unity, according to Jesus, is how the church demonstrates the reality of the gospel. So before we talk about masks vs no-masks, or whatever, we want to start even more basic. Doctrinal.

Colossians 3:5 tells Christians what they ought to “put off.” Verse 10 begins describing what Christians need to “put on.” And he says as we do this we are being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Verse 11: “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”

I want you to see the barriers here. There have always been barriers that keep people separated in the world. There are cultural barriers, language barriers, racial barriers, social barriers, religious barriers. And, according to sociologists, people are slow to cross barriers. We tend to accumulate in the groups that require us to cross the fewest barriers.

Now here, Paul is saying that in Christ, in our renewal, in our relationship with God and one another - these barriers are obliterated. In the church, because of the gospel, no more barriers.

Racial barriers: “Greek and Jew.” John Stott writes, “It’s difficult for us to grasp the impassible gulf which yawned in those days between the Jews on one hand and the Gentiles on the other...The tragedy was that Israel twisted the doctrine of election into one of favoritism, became filled with racial pride and hatred, despised Gentiles as ‘dogs,’ and developed traditions which kept them apart. No orthodox Jew would ever enter the home of a Gentile...or invite such into his home.” Jews despised the Gentiles. Read Acts 15. It was so hard for the early church to believe that God was saving Gentiles just like them, they had a council about it, and Peter had to stand up and set them right.

Acts 15:11: “But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as they will.”

Religious barriers: Paul goes on: there’s no “circumcised and uncircumcised.” This is a religious barrier. Some had been religiously rigorous Jews who had been circumcised, others had been unreligious and didn’t. Paul’s saying, in Christ, none of that matters.

Cultural barriers: Barbarians and Scythians. Here are cultural barriers. Barbarians were people who weren’t civilized like most Greeks. In fact, any foreigner who didn’t speak Greek and would have been culturally different were considered barbarians. The very word for “barbarian” is an onomatopoeia; they called them barbarians because they thought they sounded like “bar bar bar” when they talked.

Scythians: The Scythians were a northern people, located on the Northern Coast of the Black Sea, in what’s today southern Ukraine. Scythians were worse than barbarians. They were known as violent, uneducated, and uncivilized people. Josephus writes this of them: “Now, as to the Scythians, they take a pleasure in killing men, and different little from brute beasts.”

Social barriers: Slave and free. Perhaps there was a tension between those who were slaves and those who were free. In Rome, slaves were property. In fact Aristotle defined a slave like this: “A living tool, as a tool is an inanimate slave.” In other words, in his view, the only difference between a hammer and a slave is that the slave’s alive - you’ve gotta feed it.

But in Christ, slaves weren’t tools, they were brothers. Masters and slaves served the Lord Jesus side by side. But Paul says: “Christ is all, and in all.” Christ brings unity to all people, because he indwells all believers, and he unites them in his name, and he is making up this new humanity comprised of people of every social group, every cultural group, every, every racial group. Barriers are broken, hearts are united.

Can you imagine it? Imagine coming to the Lord’s Table in this Colossian church. There’s a Jew - who has been tempted all his life to hate Gentiles, standing next to one. There’s the clean cut, person with the religious background, and the irreligious, former pagan. There’s a barbarian - someone you’d have a hard time understanding because of their accent. There’s a Scythian - someone you’re tempted to be afraid of. There’s a slave, and there’s a master, and there’s a free man - and they’re all shoulder to shoulder, before the cross.

And they all come to the same table, with the bread and the wine. And they say, “I am unworthy, but I have been redeemed by the blood of my Savior. Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain!”

Barriers are abolished at the cross. The world has nothing to destroy the barriers. The cross obliterates them. The cross says, all guilty, all sins forgiven by grace, for those who believe.

The church doesn’t ignore the reality of differences of race or status. It delights in them. It cherishes them. We are not united because we are all the same kinds of people. We are united because we are all sinners in need of the same Savior.

This is what heaven will be like. Revelation 5:9-10. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Revelation 7:9-10 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Now I want to say two things. It’s an application of what we’ve been thinking about.

1st: Unity is our birthright. Jesus prayed for it. The gospel secured it. The Spirit enables it. Barriers are obliterated. Dividing walls come crashing down. We are all humbled before a holy God, equally in need of his sovereign grace, and are given a perfect righteousness in Christ.

So any ideology that tries to use these labels as adequate reasons to create division within the church is working against the gospel. If we reconstruct barriers, and make claims that the different races cannot be united in the church until something happens, we are saying that the gospel isn’t enough. Everything needed for true, real, deep unity has been accomplished.

However, if we think that since unity has been objectively purchased for us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ we don’t need to work for unity in the church, we’re wrong.

2nd: Unity must be maintained. Do you know why Paul has to teach this? In Colossians? Galatians? And Ephesians? And 1 Corinthians? And nearly every letter he writes?

Because as much as unity is purchased at the cross, it must be worked for! Unity is our birthright as God’s children. It’s something we’ve been given. It’s not something we generate. God has done that. But it is something we must seek to maintain. Ephesians 4:3 says we ought to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Eager.

Hebrew 12:14 “Strive for peace with everyone.” Peace and unity are gifts, and yet they are fragile gifts that must be maintained and striven for.

In other words, it is work for Greeks and Jews to maintain unity. It is work for slaves and masters to maintain unity. It is work. It is heart work. It’s working to continually humble yourself in the gospel. It’s work to remember what you deserve. It’s work to remember salvation is all of grace. It’s work to actively love people who are different from you.

This unity is much more difficult to preserve than doctrine. Doctrine is in a book, it's clear, it's understandable. When it contradicts, it’s obvious. Centuries of church history have helped us to discover sound doctrine. We have a great doctrinal statement that has been passed down to us. But this UNITY must always be cultivated, and must be maintained.

Turn to Galatians 2. John Stott has called this "one of the most tense and dramatic episodes in the New Testament."

[11] But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. [12] For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. [13] And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

See what’s happening here? Peter was eating with Gentiles. And then, men from James came - circumcised Jews. And When Peter saw them coming, he separated himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of what the Jews would think!

He didn’t preach a false gospel. He didn’t introduce heresy. He didn’t tamper with the word. What was it? What made Paul get so aggressive?

Something so simple as fear.

Do you see how subtle this is? Think of all the ways fear can destroy a gospel unity. We say, “Ah, it’s no big deal that I didn’t greet that person. It’s no big deal that I never associate with that group. It’s no big deal that I ignore that family. After all, I am fellowshipping with these other people. They’re easier to get along with! They’re more like me!” But could it be that fear— fear of others, fear of awkwardness, fear of being known, fear of reaching out—could it be the acid that destroys unity?

Listen - differences of background and experience and opinion have always existed: and in Christ we are united, but we must pursue that unity, maintain that unity.

Fear that inhibits me from engaging with someone who is different from me, may not be simply a flaw in my personality, more likely a failure to apply the gospel.

Why was Paul so aggressive to confront Peter to his face? Because he knew that once the gospel unity is compromised, the gospel message is undermined. No one wants to work out with an obese trainer; no one trusts a carpenter who can’t use a hammer. And the church that announces the gospel without being united in it is dangerous. 

In my office, I have many books about Christianity. Hundreds of books. All of them together make tens of thousands of pages. And my unbeliever neighbors will probably not read any of them. But he might read me. And he will read us when he brings his family to church. And he will learn something about God, himself, and salvation. What will he learn from the way we live with each other? What will he learn from our unity?

If you go to First Baptist Church of Colossae, and a group of Scythians show up, and you’ve heard about how violent they are. And they become Christians, what do you do?

You say, “In Christ there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all, and in all.” In other words, you recognize the objection unity that is yours because of the shed blood of Christ.

And then you say, “Alright. If I had any prejudices, any fears, any favorites - I must put them away. And I must get to work pursuing, building, and maintaining the unity I have with them.”

Listen. Issues that have come up in the world right now have created a perfect storm. It’s a devilish concoction. Shut down corporate worship, lock people in their homes for three months, frighten them with all manner of terrifying news, turn up the heat, and the light a powderkeg confusing, highly emotional, highly important issues. I guarantee you something: Churches are splitting as we speak. Which churches will be left at the end of all this? Who will be standing?

It is the church that clings to the unity bought by the blood of Christ. And it is the church that works, maintains, pursues that unity.

I remember hearing about a sociologist who had written much on groups - why people get connected, stay connected, etc. His theories was essentially that there are commonalities that bind them together - same backgrounds, same politics, same life stages. He began attending a diverse church - multi-generational, multi-ethnic - to see if his thesis would hold.

He was confused by the unity of the church. His theory was blown out of the water. These people were all kinds of different, and yet were genuinely friends, loving and caring for one another. When he began speaking to the leadership, they told him the gospel. And he was converted.

Friends, we have strong unity now. Praise God for it. But in the midst of global upheaval, we need to work for it. Believe the gospel and cross barriers.