What living at peace with each other in a church family assumes that there should only be a very, very few non-negotiables in the church family. Non-negotiables? Let me explain what I mean by that.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things love.”? There are three levels in that quote, and I encourage you to view it like a pyramid. At very top, the point of the pyramid, you have the smallest level. Those are essentials. Essentials are nonnegotiable Christian doctrine. What are those essentials?
Jesus is Christ the Lord who is 100% God and 100% man. Jesus rose again in the body. God is Father, Spirit, Son. God the Spirit fills all true followers of Jesus so together they can usher in Jesus’ Kingdom of righteousness and justice in the world.
Certainly, there are going to be differences of opinion even about what should be in that essential level. But I believe what I’ve written in the paragraph above is sufficient.
We have peace with each other in a church family, in unity, by saying there are a few, just a very few, essentials, and thus we can work together.
Notice, then, what I didn’t include in that top essential level. Think about how much can divide us. Catholic vs Protestant vs Orthodox. Does God choose us for salvation or do we choose him? What about baptism and the Lord’s supper? What about LGBTQ? What about the role of men and women in the church?
What so often happens is that these issues lead to division. People disagree and then they form a new denomination or church. It can be difficult to be in relationship with people who think differently from us, who choose differently from us. But that is a church family! We live at peace with each other, even though we might disagree.
I believe that all those doctrinal issues that divide us should go in the next level, the Non-essentials. The quote suggests that in the non-essentials we have liberty. Liberty means we allows others, including others in our same church family, freedom of will to decide what to believe, even if it differs from us. Freedom means we do not have permission to discard the Fruit of the Spirit and act terribly toward those we disagree with. Instead, we agree to disagree in love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control.
I bring this up because in 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 14 and 15, Paul writes, “Warn those who are idle and disruptive.” Idle means lazy, and I talked about that a few weeks ago here. So let’s focus on the word “disruptive.” If there are people in the church who are being disruptive, Paul says, we are to warn them. Living at peace with each other, therefore, means that we Christians in a church family are not disruptive.
Again, there will be opinions about what is disruptive or not. One person might say “I wasn’t being disruptive, I was just speaking the truth.” They might even say that they were speaking the truth in love. And the truth sometimes hurts. Even communicated lovingly, sometimes the truth hurts. “So,” they might say, “I wasn’t being disruptive, you just didn’t like the truth that I was speaking.”
That gets messy, though, doesn’t it? Just because one person thinks they have the corner on the truth does not mean that they actually have the corner on the truth. Remember how vital it is for disciples of Jesus to demonstrate humility and teachability. We do much better to be quick to say, “Here is my opinion, but I realize it is just my opinion, and I could be wrong. So can we discuss it together?” Invite a conversation, a true conversation, one that doesn’t assume authority or correctness, but is willing to second-guess oneself.
There have been times in the life of the church when those with very strong opinions, those who are not afraid to boldly proclaim their opinions, do so as if their opinion is not an opinion but it is the one certain way, as if everyone else is wrong. That utter confidence is disruptive and has no place in the life of the church family. Even if they are convinced that they are just speaking the truth in love, they are not humble and teachable, they are being disruptive, and they should be warned.
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Engaging Scripture 