We are one body…one body. Not at the expense of truth and not at the expense of iniquity, we do not unite around confusion, we unite around the truth. It is a unity built on truth. It is the unity of the faith…the unity of the faith, as well as the unity of the Spirit. It is that unity which belongs to us because we possess the same life of God…the same living Christ…the same Spirit of Christ, as Paul identifies Him in Romans 8. It is the unity of a common understanding of Scripture and the Word of God.
There is a drive today in evangelicalism…and what a bland term that has become. But there is a drive in evangelicalism for an ecumenism that ignores sound doctrine, that overlooks error and accepts even what we would deem as heresy. There is a kind of evangelical ecumenism that says we’re all one and we need to enjoy one another without regard for any of our doctrinal differences. That is a false and unbiblical and displeasing unity, if indeed it is unity at all in the sense that it dishonors and displeases the Lord.
There is another kind of striving for unity that wants to disregard iniquity and embrace everybody no matter whether they are walking in obedience to the Word of God or not, overlooking their sin and their iniquity.
But quite the contrary. The Scripture says if there is someone in your midst, according to Titus chapter 3, teaching error, if there is a heretic there, admonish him once, admonish him twice and then put him out. He’s forfeited a right to lay any claim to acceptance within that unity. And if there is a brother or sister in iniquity, you go to him or her and you go through a process calling them to repentance. And if they do not repent, you put them out. And the Apostle Paul reminds the Thessalonians of what that’s like. He says this in 2 Thessalonians 3:6, “We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you stay apart, or keep aloof, from every brother who leads an unruly life, not according to the tradition which you’ve received from us.” That tradition not being some rabbinic tradition, but that tradition established by the revelation from God.
If you have someone in your church who is teaching error, you cannot have unity with that individual. If you have someone who is leading an unruly or sinful life, you cannot have fellowship with that individual. So what we’re talking about here is the pursuit of the true unity of the Spirit that belongs to those who surround the truth and affirm it and who live godly lives.
– John MacArthur
From his sermon entitled “Fundamental Christian Attitudes: Unity”
Pilgrim
thejunglemissionary
Bill
abidingthroughgrace
I commented on a similar type post over at Absolute Dominion. What I see happening today is that the line between true and false teaching is becoming harder and harder for ‘Joe Average’ Christian to discern.
Today, more and more, we have just a little grain of false teaching mixed in with the truth. Most Christians never pick up on the heresy or false doctrine, but keep on looking straight ahead wondering, ever so slightly, what was that bump we just hit.
This is due to the average Christian not spending enough time in the Word and relying on the pastor to do it for him.
My Sunday school teacher a few weeks ago made a statement in class that no one challenged (except me). He said that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Gulp…I’m sure I looked like a deer in the headlights! What was next I thought? Is he going to say that Mary and Jesus were married?
I waited until everyone left the class and asked him where he got his information that MM was a prostitute. He told me that he didn’t have any and had always assumed that the Bible said so. I gently told him the Bible never speaks of MM as being a prostitute. I told him that the Bible tells us that seven demons were cast out from her in the Gospel of Luke, she was at the crucifixion and she was at the resurrection, but never does it say she was a prostitute. He told me that he would spend some time in the Bible this week looking for everywhere she is mentioned and then he thanked me.
The next week he apologized to the class for the error about MM. Here’s my main point though; most of the class didn’t remember him actually saying it and the rest just thought it was true because they had heard that before too.
We have to stay in the Word and read it daily.
“There is a kind of evangelical ecumenism that says we’re all one and we need to enjoy one another without regard for any of our doctrinal differences. That is a false and unbiblical and displeasing unity, if indeed it is unity at all in the sense that it dishonors and displeases the Lord.”
Dr. MacArthur has preached a number of great sermons denouncing Roman Catholicism. I thought it strange when I heard he had spoken at conferences featuring Roman Catholic speakers. I wonder if he denounced them at the time. Maybe he did. But if not, wouldn’t that be regarded as being “evangelically ecumenical?” Should he be held to the same standard as Comfort (prosperity heresy conference), Piper (Driscoll), and Zacharias (mormans)?
*Should he be held to the same standard as Comfort (prosperity heresy conference), Piper (Driscoll), and Zacharias (mormans)?*
I think we would have to know what he (MacArthur) was there to speak about before we could/should proclaim that tital on him.
Actually, I don’t think Comfort should be included in that group at all. Comfort went there to boldly present the Gospel in a way that maybe few of those attending had ever heard before.