The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at New Georgia

Tim Johnson, editor

February 3, 2008

 
In This Issue:
Baptists Divide to Show they can Work Together
by Steve Klein

 

 

BACK TO INDEX

Baptists Divide to Show they can Work Together

   I almost had to chuckle as I read the following from an Associated Press news article this past week:

       "More than 10,000 moderate and liberal Baptists are expected for three days starting Wednesday in Atlanta for the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.  Organizers aren't forming a new denomination, but want to develop common ministries that would have a big impact."

      "Former President Jimmy Carter is leading the effort."

      "We're not going to delve into past divisions," Carter told The Associated Press. "We're going to try to show we can work in harmony."

  The group meeting in Atlanta has split off from the Southern Baptist Convention. The AP article explains that, "A leading organizer of the event is the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an association for Southern Baptists who distanced themselves or broke with their national denomination after conservatives took control. Carter severed ties in 2000 with the convention because of what he called its 'increasingly rigid' beliefs."

  So there you have it.  One religious group separates from another and organizes its own convention in order to show, as President Carter put it, that "we can work in harmony."  It would be laughable if it weren't for the fact that the same absurd reasoning has been used to justify so many other religious divisions, including several among churches of Christ.

  Division does not demonstrate the ability to work in harmony.  It demonstrates the inability or the unwillingness to work in harmony. 

  Anytime people work together in an organization, there will be at least occasional disagreements and friction concerning how to proceed with the organization's work.  If that digresses into division and results in separate organizations being formed, the organization's members have shown that they cannot work together in harmony.  Now maybe that's the fault of all the parties concerned and maybe it's not.  It takes two parties willing to work together to have unity, but it only takes one of those parties being unwilling to work with the other in doing right to have division.  The latter is what Paul is describing in 1 Corinthians 11:19 when he states that, "there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you." 

  Harmony among people is hard to maintain.  That's obvious.  But that does not excuse division or allow us to redefine division as harmony. 

  In Ephesians 4:1-3, the apostle Paul tells us what is necessary to do the challenging work of maintaining true unity among God's people.  He says, "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."  From this passage, notice what is involved in keeping unity:

  • Recognizing the worthiness of our cause.  "The calling with which you were called" is surely the highest calling there is.  We have been called to be followers of Christ and to encourage others to do the same.  There is no more vital mission than the one we have been called to perform.  Unity is critical to its success.  To walk worthy of our calling we must walk in unity.  Jesus prayed that believers "all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me" (John 17:21).

  • "Lowliness."  This word is translated from a compound Greek word that literally means "humiliation of mind."  We cannot have unity when brethren think "more highly" of themselves than they ought to think (cf. Romans 12:3).  To have unity, each person must "esteem others better than himself" (Philippians 2:3).

  • "Gentleness."  Do we know the difference between handling something gently and handling it roughly or harshly?  If a laundry tag instructs us to wash an article of clothing "gently," would we use abrasive cleansers and a washboard?  Surely not!  Not if we expect the article of clothing to remain in one piece.  Even so, we cannot speak abrasively to brethren about our differences and expect unity to result.  

  • "Longsuffering."  The person who says, "I'm not going to put up with that anymore" or "this is more than I can bear" is not longsuffering.  Longsuffering is when you have reached the point that you can't stand it anymore, but you bear it anyway.  It's what keeps a young mother getting up at night every time her sick baby cries.  As Paul says, it is "bearing with one another in love."

  • "Endeavoring."  Maintaining unity requires sustained effort.  It will not happen easily or by accident.  We must endeavor to keep it.  If we don't have it, we must work to get it.  That is quite the opposite of dividing and starting our own group with those who are already likeminded.

  "Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (1 Corinthians 1:10).

  -- Steve Klein