WHAT IF WE DISAGREE?
LIBERTY AND LOVE #88
“Accept those who are still struggling to trust in God, and don’t get into arguments over personal opinions. One person may believe they can eat anything, while another whose trust is weak only eats vegetables. Those who eat anything must not look down on those who won’t, and those who won’t eat must not criticize those who do—for God has accepted them both. What right do you have to judge someone else’s servant? It’s their own master who decides whether they are right or wrong. With the Lord’s help they will be able to stand. Some people consider some days more important than others, while others consider each day the same. Everyone should be completely convinced in their own minds. Those who respect a special day do so for the Lord; and those who eat without worrying do so for the Lord since they give thanks to God; while those who avoid eating certain things do so for the Lord, and they also give thanks to God. If we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord—so whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. This was the reason Christ died and came back to life—so that he could be the Lord of both the dead and the living. So why do you criticize your fellow-believer? Why do you despise your fellow-believer? For all of us will stand before God’s throne of judgment. For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I am alive,’ the Lord says, ‘Every knee shall bow before me, and every tongue will declare that I am God.’” So every one of us will have to give account of ourselves to God. Therefore let’s not judge each other anymore, but decide to do this instead—we won’t put obstacles in the way of fellow-believers, or cause them to fall” (Romans 14:1-12)
One thing believers in Jesus have had extreme trouble practicing since the days of the apostles when the church first began, all the way down to the present, is tolerance when we disagree. Every denomination exists because men split from one another when they disagreed over some point of doctrine or, even worse, personalities, power and pride.
There are principles in the New Testament given to guide us when it comes to matters where we do not interpret the Bible exactly alike. And we have a very simple choice to make. We can either obey the Bible’s instructions about how to deal with one another when we disagree, or we can continue to follow the devil of denominations and divide and argue among ourselves and cause an unbelieving world to be more and more confused.
From Paul’s letter to the Romans, we find that the house churches of the first century had very different views about important doctrinal matters. These included what you could scripturally eat—which to us today sounds like a non-controversial matter, but it was a very big deal to them when it came to vegetarianism versus meat or meat from animals that had been offered to idols. These were matters of personal practice, how to follow one’s faith individually on a daily basis. There are many such disagreements among believers now that would be the equivalent to that first century problem.
But they also disagreed about things like observing special days. Some believers today think that they should still observe the Sabbath, although no one observes the Sabbath strictly according to the Levitical law because it is no longer in effect. Others believe that Sunday is some sort of special day now based on inferences that they make from the Bible, not from any direct statements from God. Others believe that every day is the same as any other day. That you can worship or assemble just as much on Monday or Thursday as you can on Sunday. There is nothing in the Bible that requires Sunday to be a special day of worship, although there is nothing wrong with that either.
What is fascinating is that Paul refuses to take sides and say who is right. In some cases there was a right side and a wrong side. For example, the Sabbath law, he clearly teaches in other places, is no longer binding (Col. 2:16-17). So keeping the Sabbath law is wrong if it is done in a ritually religious and binding way. There is nothing special now about the Sabbath. There is also nothing wrong with eating whatever you want to eat. He told Timothy that it is permissible to eat anything now (1 Tim. 4:3-5) which is completely opposite of what the Levitical system taught.
But Paul will not take sides when believers disagree as long as they don’t bind their views on others. People are always telling controversial preachers to take sides. But Paul would not do that because there was a principle that was far more important to him than who was right or wrong about doctrinal issues. And that was the unity of believers and the love that they were to show one another.
Paul always put the emphasis on Jesus Christ. And when Christ is our focus, that settles matters when we disagree. Jesus died for us. That means that we are not saved by being right. We are saved because we have a Savior. If we could be right enough, we would not need him. So all who are in Christ, all believers in the Christian family, are on even ground whether they are “right” or “wrong.” And all of us are right about some things and wrong about others. No one has perfect knowledge. So, Paul says that Jesus is able to save all of us in spite of the fact that we are wrong about things.
Secondly Jesus was raised from the dead. Paul preached the resurrection which means that Jesus is our Lord. He died for us to be our Savior but was raised from the dead to prove that he had all authority in heaven and on earth and therefore he is the one to whom we answer (Matt. 28:18). The Lord is the one to whom we give account, not to each other. “Who are you to judge another man’s servant?” Paul asks. “To his own master he stands or falls.”
Which points out a third thing. Jesus ascended into heaven, which means that he will come again and he is the only judge. Therefore we are not to judge one another. “Who are you to judge” another believer? He or she answers to the Lord.
These are principles that must be remembered for true Christianity to be practiced. They will never be embraced by man-made, human denominations or organized religion as a whole. But they can be embraced individually by Christians. You and I can decide that we will follow Christ and treat one another the way the Bible teaches us to treat one another.
The good news is that Paul says “God is able to make us stand.” In other words, God will save us in spite of any doctrines we may be wrong about if we are trusting in him. No one knows all truth. In fact, no one even knows all the truth on any one subject. Any system—and most denominations teach some form of this, and I would say all of them actually do—that teaches we are saved in any way by our own understanding or achievements, be they physical or mental, is a false gospel system and must be rejected.
Dewayne Dunaway
