Are Divisions in the Church Necessary?

00:00:00.000 | The church is fractured. We've seen that over the past couple of years. We've experienced

00:00:10.560 | a lot of division among Christians at the levels of networks and denominations, but

00:00:16.500 | also inside local churches and among friends, too. So is all this division a good thing?

00:00:24.580 | Is it only a bad thing? Will division work for the church's greater purity and final

00:00:29.040 | good or will division work to the church's final detriment and the lessening of her testimony

00:00:34.940 | in the world today? It's a relevant question. It's an important one and it comes to us from

00:00:39.120 | a listener named Connor. "Hello Pastor John and thank you for this encouraging podcast.

00:00:42.780 | I have heard a lot from fellow Christians recently about the sadness of the church being

00:00:46.540 | so divided with all its disagreements, splitting local churches and denominations and even

00:00:50.980 | old friends. Division is everywhere." While there's much to be sad about in much of this,

00:00:57.540 | especially given Jesus' emphasis on his desire that his disciples be unified in love, I have

00:01:03.380 | been wondering whether some of the divisions in the church today are good, even necessary

00:01:07.740 | as a means to distinguish the sheep from the wolves, something Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians

00:01:12.980 | 11 19. But can we distinguish healthy from unhealthy divisions in the church? Some big

00:01:20.100 | issue divisions seem obvious and good, but other divisions seem petty and insignificant.

00:01:26.340 | What do you think of the disagreements in the church today?

00:01:29.540 | Well, there's so many ways to come at this. Let me come at it like this. The point that

00:01:37.140 | I would like to emphasize about the divisions in the church is this. Don't make light of

00:01:47.540 | it and don't make death of it. It is tragic, but it is ordained. It is possible to speak

00:02:00.420 | about disunity and division as though they were a small thing, which would be a mistake.

00:02:08.220 | Making light of it is a mistake. Just listen. John 13 34, "A new commitment I give to you,

00:02:16.900 | that you love one another, just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another.

00:02:22.980 | By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

00:02:30.340 | That's a very convicting text. Lovelessness among Christians is not a light thing. John

00:02:39.700 | 17 21, Jesus prays, "I pray, Father, that they may be one, just as you, Father, are

00:02:48.500 | in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that

00:02:54.700 | you have sent me." Ephesians 4, "I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling

00:03:02.180 | to which you've been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with

00:03:07.020 | one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

00:03:15.860 | One more, 1 Corinthians 1 10, "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord

00:03:22.740 | Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that

00:03:31.300 | you be united in the same mind and in the same judgment."

00:03:37.860 | So just a few texts. There are so many more. We simply must not make light of our divisions,

00:03:47.460 | especially those that are unnecessary for the sake of truth or that are maintained with

00:03:55.380 | unloving attitudes and actions. Three things stand out from those passages of Scripture.

00:04:03.220 | One is that the deepest unity among God's elect is a given. It's a given. We don't

00:04:11.660 | create unity. Man doesn't make it happen. When we come to Christ, we are grafted in

00:04:20.420 | by the Spirit to one body, Jesus Christ, and members one of another, so that the command

00:04:28.820 | in Ephesians 4 is, "Maintain the unity. Don't create it. Show it to the world."

00:04:37.060 | A second thing that stands out from those passages I just read is that the public effectiveness

00:04:44.540 | of our unity is not at the level of institutional oneness or collaboration, as though the absence

00:04:53.780 | of denominations would be a compelling witness to the world. Rather, the public effectiveness

00:05:02.460 | of our unity is when unbelievers see on-the-ground attitudes and acts of love among believers.

00:05:13.440 | This is where the energy for unity should be mainly expended, I think. Let all bitterness

00:05:18.960 | and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

00:05:25.760 | Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

00:05:33.240 | That's the level at which the miracle happens. That's the level at which the unbeliever

00:05:38.700 | sees and says, "I'd like to be part of that kind of community."

00:05:44.600 | The third thing that all these texts either say or assume is that the only kind of unity

00:05:51.560 | that glorifies God is unity in the truth. He's a God of truth. "You shall know the

00:05:58.140 | truth and the truth will make you free. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth." Paul

00:06:03.780 | says in Ephesians 4.15, "Speak the truth in love to one another." For Christ and

00:06:10.000 | his apostles, it was inconceivable that one could love another person by throwing away

00:06:19.900 | truth for the sake of peace. Listen to Jeremiah. "They have healed the wound of my people

00:06:27.260 | lightly saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace." The only peace that

00:06:33.380 | matters is truth-based peace. So when I pray for unity in the church, which I do regularly—little

00:06:42.300 | church, big church—I pray, "Oh God, grant us unity in the truth."

00:06:49.940 | So Francis Schaeffer at the end of his life said that what the world needs to see is not

00:06:56.360 | the Christian church tearing down every fence that was built for the sake of truth, protecting

00:07:03.660 | truth, declaring truth. Rather, what we should do is stop throwing hate bombs over the fences.

00:07:13.940 | So I thought that was a very effective way. And instead, love each other across genuine

00:07:21.380 | disagreements, genuine fences. The world, I don't think, stumbles mainly over doctrinal

00:07:28.780 | disagreements among Christians. It stumbles mainly over the way we treat each other in

00:07:36.500 | the light of those disagreements. So all of that to say that we should not make light

00:07:44.940 | of the contentions and divisions in the church. But now let me say, we should not make death

00:07:53.460 | of these divisions either. Don't make light of them, don't make death of them. That

00:07:57.820 | is, we should not have an unbiblical, Pollyanna view of what Jesus and his apostles said would

00:08:06.180 | actually come to pass as time goes by in the church. It's not a rosy picture.

00:08:12.780 | Now, to be sure, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world

00:08:18.740 | as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come, Matthew 24, 14. There will

00:08:24.820 | be a completion of the Great Commission, and God will gather his elect from the peoples

00:08:32.060 | of the world. That is the triumph of this age before Christ comes. But the conditions

00:08:41.580 | of the church and of the world in which the church finds itself while that mission is

00:08:50.540 | happening successfully is not a pretty picture. One of the texts that Connor mentioned when

00:08:57.020 | he asked his question is 1 Corinthians 11, 19. "I hear that there are divisions among

00:09:03.580 | you," Paul said, "and I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you

00:09:10.540 | in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized." Now, that is a

00:09:15.540 | startling statement. It assumes that there is underlying disunity in the church that

00:09:23.020 | needs to be exposed. He just seems to assume it. Why would Paul assume such a thing? I

00:09:30.940 | think that assumption goes back to Jesus. Jesus did not paint a rosy picture of the

00:09:38.100 | climax of history. In God's strange providence, Jesus stated a principle like this, "Woe

00:09:46.900 | to the world for temptations to sin, for it is necessary that temptations come, but woe

00:09:57.220 | to the one by whom the temptation, the stumbling, the traps, the deceptions come," Matthew

00:10:04.740 | 13, 7. That's amazing. This is divine necessity. When he says, "It is necessary," he's

00:10:14.260 | talking about the way God has ordained for the world to come to its climax. God has willed

00:10:20.620 | these kinds of troubles. Jesus pictured this kind of inevitable trouble in the parables

00:10:27.060 | of the fishing net and the parable of the wheat and the weeds, Matthew 13, 47. Again,

00:10:34.860 | the kingdom of heaven is like a net. The kingdom of heaven, the rule of God, the saving rule

00:10:40.700 | of God is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When

00:10:49.500 | it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, but they

00:10:56.660 | threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come out and separate

00:11:03.420 | evil from the righteous. So the kingdom, the visible church draws into itself unconverted

00:11:12.880 | people that the angels will separate out in the day of Christ's second coming. Same

00:11:18.900 | thing in the parable of the wheat and the weeds. The workers, they wonder if they should

00:11:24.060 | go out and pull up the weeds that are growing among the wheat. False brothers! Jesus says,

00:11:31.420 | "No, let them grow together until the end," Matthew 13, 30. In other words, Jesus predicted

00:11:40.180 | that disunity and conflict would be built into the church from the beginning. It is

00:11:47.780 | necessary that such temptations come. These weeds are not going to keep their mouths shut.

00:11:57.180 | They're not going to keep their opinions and attitudes to themselves as time goes by.

00:12:03.540 | And then in Matthew 24, when the disciples ask Jesus about the signs of the end, Jesus

00:12:13.380 | says over and over in that chapter how torn the church is going to be with betrayals and

00:12:24.460 | apostasy. Listen to these words. I'll start reading at verse 4 of Matthew 24. Jesus answered

00:12:31.300 | them, "See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name." These are

00:12:38.940 | people in the church, in the name of Jesus. People will come in my name saying, "I am

00:12:45.820 | the Christ." They will lead many astray. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation

00:12:52.380 | and put you to death. These are Christians putting Christians to death. "And you will

00:12:57.740 | be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one

00:13:05.620 | another." This is not just trouble from outside the church. Betray one another. Hate

00:13:12.500 | one another. That's verse 10. Here's verse 11. "And many false prophets will arise

00:13:19.540 | and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow

00:13:30.620 | cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved." So we're talking about

00:13:38.420 | Christians' love growing cold and not enduring to the end. Now that's a horrible description

00:13:45.500 | of the condition of the church. This is what the church will do to each other. Incredible.

00:13:53.700 | And the apostle Paul joins this bleak description of the condition of the church in the last

00:13:59.500 | days. And remember, the last days began in the first century, 1 Timothy 4.1. Now the

00:14:06.380 | Spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting

00:14:16.020 | themselves to deceitful spirits. So it's part of prophetic wisdom in the first century

00:14:24.620 | that things are not going to end well on the earth. It's going to be bleak. The mission

00:14:30.420 | will be done. There will be white-hot Christians to the end, risking their lives and laying

00:14:35.460 | down their lives to get the gospel to the ends. So I conclude, don't make light of

00:14:43.300 | divisions and don't make death—that is, the death of the church—of divisions. They

00:14:49.780 | are tragic. We should give our lives for the sake of the unity of the church. They are

00:14:55.180 | tragic and they are predicted. It is necessary that stumbling blocks come, but woe to those

00:15:05.180 | by whom they come.

00:15:07.780 | Don't make light of them and don't make death of them. That's a good word on divisions.

00:15:11.460 | Thank you, Pastor John. And Connor, thank you for the great and timely question, nicely

00:15:15.140 | worded and framed for the podcast, too. And thanks for joining us today. You can ask a

00:15:18.820 | question of your own, search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast, all at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:15:22.940 | I am your host, Tony Reinke. We are going to take a short break for the weekend and

00:15:30.140 | return on Monday with Pastor John. We'll see you then.

00:15:32.900 | [END]

00:15:33.900 | 1

00:15:33.900 | Pastor John's Question of the Week #1 — "How many of us have been saved?"—Pastor John,

00:15:34.900 | Washington, D.C.

00:15:35.900 | "How many of us have been saved?"—Pastor John, Washington, D.C.

00:15:36.900 | "How many of us have been saved?"—Pastor John, Washington, D.C.

00:15:37.900 | "How many of us have been saved?"—Pastor John, Washington, D.C.

00:15:38.900 | "How many of us have been saved?"—Pastor John, Washington, D.C.

00:15:39.900 | "How many of us have been saved?"—Pastor John, Washington, D.C.

00:15:40.900 | "How many of us have been saved?"—Pastor John, Washington, D.C.

00:15:41.900 | "How many of us have been saved?"—Pastor John, Washington, D.C.

Are Divisions in the Church Necessary?

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