Do You Belong To Paul, Cephas, Or Jesus?
[image error]Denominations…I’m not for them or against them…but I refuse to identify myself by one. This is a very strong conviction…often an antichrist spirit draws attention to that…
If they receive you, they receive me…if they don’t, shake off the dust. If you want Jesus he will come to you…but don’t reject him when he does!
Conversation about doctrine…I said “there isn’t a place that would receive me if unity depends on doctrine…” (Maybe in the US but not in my city here in Brazil.) Presbyterian, charismatic…he explained we can be united in Christ but we cannot be united in edifying the church. So what do I do?
If I’m going to teach, then I can’t talk about certain topics. Can’t talk about eschatology. Can’t share what I believe about it? So if we can’t talk openly about scriptures when we meet as the body of Christ and be sincere about how we view them, then everything follows a certain narrative and the plurality of elders means little. If the ruler “pastor” is wrong about something, there is no way of testing it. What’s the point of the scriptural command that a prophet sit down, let two or three others speak, and the believers test what they say, if nobody is allowed to share a viewpoint that disagrees with the church’s non-essential theology? (I saw non-essential because we must all agree on Jesus’s incarnation, death, and resurrection in order to rightfully be called Christians, but there are multiple issues on which real Christians have held a wide variety of views throughout history.)
I have observed that many people raised in a certain Christian tradition tend to treat certain non-essential topics as essentials. They may not realize that some of their historical Christian heroes believed the same thing they consider “nearly heresy,” or that some of their theology is relatively new in the scheme of church history! Neither do they understand why some leading theologians take a certain interpretation of a scripture passage.
This young guy has been a Christian for a few years and is attending the church’s seminary. It seems to me that he is being taught what to believe rather than being given information to consider which may help him to better understand scripture. He isn’t even aware of some of the alternative viewpoints to what his seminary is teaching, and could not tell you why some Christians think differently. He seems to be strongly convinced about certain statements he makes, but is unable to explain why or how he came to those conclusions from scripture.
This isn’t healthy! He believes he has to hold to the party line in order to be a leader in the church, and if he disagrees with anything, he can’t talk about it. That sounds to me like “Some say “I follow Paul,” others “I follow Apollos,” and others “I follow Christ.” Did anybody notice how similar it sounds to say “I’m Wesleyan” or “Lutheran,” or even any other church?
Now I appreciate Wesley so much and I’m not saying if you’re Wesleyan or anything else you should leave your church or denomination. But don’t be defined by a denomination. Did anybody notice that in the New Testament, there may have been various congregations but there was one “church” in the city?
1st Corinthians 3:1-9, 21-23 (NRSV) And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.…So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NRSV) Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.
2 Corinthians 10:17 (NRSV) “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Cor. 3…I have a high value for scholarship…so not against theological education…but don’t boast in your seminary education but in knowing the Lord…the scholars of Jesus’s day missed him…
Boasting in knowing God, because if that’s our aim the result is unity. A lot of division comes from boasting in other things…Do you gather around doctrine or knowing Jesus…there was nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
There are things in scripture that I’ll say “I don’t fully understand this,” or “I’m not sure if I understand this correctly.” There are others I am quite convinced of. Many of the people I have received so much from, both from their teaching and from their lives, have certain views I strongly disagree with. But I honor Jesus and when I see the Spirit of Jesus manifest through these people’s lives to any extent, I honor him.
Where we have seen revival and renewal, denominational lines matter less and less. As a teen and young adult I went to prayer meetings at an Episcopal church until 3 am. I have good friends who are in the Brethren in Christ denomination. I attended a Baptist church in Rio de Janeiro, and I spoke at meetings with many very traditional Assemblies of God believers. In Lancaster PA we have friends from among the Amish who were touched by the Holy Spirit and began ministering healing and fellowshipping with other denominations. (Some were excommunicated for it, but they continue dressing and acting like Amish in so many ways!) We fellowshipped with Mennonites among us. What matters to me is that I honor the Spirit of Christ and I want to have the humility to receive him when he comes humble and riding on a donkey!
Last year when I shared my views on eschatology, I also shared the book of a friend, Will Riddle, whose view contrasts with mine. (But he still makes some good points that we agree on.) It’s not that theology doesn’t matter to me. It’s very important. But it’s not a threat for me to allow people to be exposed to different views, and it doesn’t mean we can’t work together to edify the church. I recently heard our friend Reinhard Hirtler say “You don’t have to agree with me. It’s all right if you think differently.” I agree! But this contrasts so sharply with the attitude that we can’t walk together to edify the church if we don’t have the same views on non-essential issues. Where is the church where two or three people speak and the others test what they hear?
What I look for is not people who have all the same theology as me, but those who have sincere love, who have encountered Christ and boast not in having all the perfect doctrine or anything else, but in knowing him. I have known believers from many countries, groups, and denominations. There have been some who were incredibly divisive and boasted in their doctrine, “We’re right and you’re wrong so we can’t walk together,” and there have been others who recognized and honored the Spirit of Christ even when there were differences of perspective among us.
As important as doctrine is to me, if we boast in doctrine rather than in knowing Christ the result is division. But if we boast in knowing the Lord, the one result is unity and the manifestation of the Spirit of Christ. And the one thing we must agree on is Christ, because it is only through him and his incarnation, death, and resurrection that we can know God!
…not holding fast to the head, that is Christ…
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