It's interesting that Jesus spends so much time praying for unity among His followers; perhaps He knew that Christians would tend to magnify their differences rather than their similarities. After all, how did we get so many different denominations in the modern Church? People saw things differently and broke off to start a new group. Certainly there are good reasons for separating at times – especially if one group is refusing to accept the authority of the Bible, but many of the differences that become divisive are secondary to the most important, foundational beliefs of the faith. For instance, I'm willing to split a church over the following things:
- Deity of Christ
- Doctrine of the Trinity
- Inerrancy of the Bible
- Virgin Birth
- Salvation through grace
- Forgiveness of sins through Christ's death
- Resurrection of the dead
Here are some things I'm not willing to split a church over:
- Calvinism vs. Arminianism
- Seven literal days of creation vs. seven periods of creation
- Pre-tribulation vs. Post-tribulation
- Hymns vs. Praise songs
- Expository preaching through books vs. Topical expository preaching
- Etc.
We need to be careful about the things we allow to create division among God's people; we need to major on the majors and minor on the minors. I appreciate a phrase that John Wesley used to determine the weight of matters and whether or not they should become divisive:
In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.
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