Level 3
STATEMENTS FOR UNITY HERE IS CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE
Unity And Morality Are Required By Scripture
Unity among Christians is clearly an extremely high biblical priority, shown by the words of Christ Himself in John 17. The Bible also teaches that morality is an extremely high priority, shown by the words of Paul in I Corinthians 5 and in many other passages.
Biblical truths often come in pairs, like the love of God and the justice He requires. If the church focuses all its attention on one of two paired truths it will likely go in circles and get nowhere, like a person paddling a canoe on only one side.
If a church focuses all its time and attention on unity and does not properly address what unites us in Christ, then that church may grow in numbers but have problems growing in the Spirit. It does not take much imagination to see that for a church to grow in numbers, but not have internal disagreements, there would be problems standing firm on specific teachings. Any specific teaching that challenges a person’s beliefs or lifestyle could certainly be a problem for any number of people. Think of your own congregation. If several people began to say that Christ was not truly divine, but only a good human being you would almost certainly not change your statement of faith to please those people. Not all topics are as clear-cut as the deity of Christ. That is why it is essential for the church to have a good, solid understanding concerning which positions are necessary to hold in order to have Christian unity and which positions are open to disagreement. The CRC Agenda for Synod 2000 produced helpful distinctions to categorize theological issues. The four categories are confessional, moral, wisdom and adiaphora (matters of indifference) which are addressed further here.
So far the statements for unity on these webpages written by Dr. Peabody provide:
1) reasons unity is very important (John 17),
2) an instance of when unity was legitimately the highest priority (Acts 15) and
3) a claim that the Bible is not sufficiently clear with respect to same-sex marriage (the claim that there are plausible interpretations in favor of same-sex marriage).
So far this claim that there are plausible interpretations in favor of same-sex marriage, when critiqued, does not appear to hold up in a point by point comparison. It is not convincing that the correct biblical course for Christians to take when there are differing opinions such as these about same-sex marriage is to remain united anyway, agreeing to disagree.
When considering our brothers and sisters who deal with same-sex attraction, the stakes are very high. The church has historically understood the Bible to teach that all same-sex erotic acts prevent a person from being in fellowship with God, even from entering heaven (I Corinthians 6:9). If that is in fact true, it would be a serious error for the church to approve anyone engaging in such acts. On the other hand, if loving, monogamous same-sex relationships are acceptable to God, it would be a serious error for the church to stand in the way of those who would enter such relationships. Therefore, it is mandatory that the church exercise due diligence in studying the Word of God and determine what is God’s will in this matter.
What should we consider when it comes to Christian unity in same-sex relationships? These questions are a good start.
- Is same-sex marriage a moral matter or perhaps a wisdom matter?
- Is the nature of the immoral man covered in I Corinthians 5 categorically different than the matter of same-sex marriage?
- Are there other interpretations of the relevant biblical passages that are plausible?
We welcome any thoughts and discussion on any of these options.
As this content currently stands it does not seem that a sufficient case has been made for the position that Christians need to remain united with those who believe differently with respect to same-sex marriage. The Bible teaches that the correct understanding of marriage is a matter of sexual morality. In the absence of a plausible interpretation supporting same-sex marriage, it appears that the Bible requires marriage to be between one man and one woman.
Introductory Page: Does Unity Require Christians to Agree to Disagree?