An Obvious Sin, Discord

Divisive people are sinners. They will not enter the Kingdom of God. As it says in Titus, they are self-condemned.

Warn a divisive person… such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned (Titus 3:10-11).

This term self-condemned means that divisive people condemn themselves by what they do. Their actions accumulate judgment for them. They divide brothers, sisters, friends, and families. They "put asunder" what God has joined together. Because of that, they can expect to be judged by God.

Outward sins are different from hidden sins. The outward ones make it evident who is unprepared for God’s judgment. The public doesn't know anything about hidden sins because they're secret, but the Great Day will come--the day when God will make all sins known to the whole World, both public and private sins. On that day, we’ll all know who the secret sinners were.

Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. Likewise, the good works of some are clearly evident, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden (1 Timothy 5.24-25; NKJV).

Factions are outward sins. We can all see factions when they occur. They're in the public eye and newsworthy. But they're no joke. The Bible tells us that factitious people will incur condemnation. Factions are a work of the flesh. They fall into the same category as discord and dissentions. Notice how they rank on Paul's famous list of 'the deeds of the flesh.'

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

Do you know anyone who has formed a faction or who is forming one now? Warn them to stop. Tell them to repent. Warn them that they won’t get into the Kingdom of God unless they turn from their way. They need to get on the narrow path.

Virtues that Support Unity

Either we destroy division in the Church or division will destroy the Church. Will you join us in fighting it? Will you strive for unity? It is one of the most rigorous battles God's Church will ever wage, the battle for unity--but we have spiritual weapons at our disposal. We have humility, gentleness, patience, love, and peace. With these five virtues, we can successfully maintain unity.

… with all humility and gentleness, with patience, putting up with one another in love, being eager to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace; one Body… Spirit… Hope… Lord… Faith… Baptism… God… (Ephesians 4:2-6; LEB)

So there’s a way to keep the unit of the spirit. There’s a style—a method! We keep unity through humility, gentleness, patience, and love, in the bond of peace. The Seven Truths [One Body, Spirit, Hope, Lord, Faith, Baptism, and God] are presented to us in a package, and packaging matters!

Imagine someone who enforces the unity of the spirit with arrogance, brutality, impatience, and hate, with tension. Those attitudes obviously won’t contribute to unity. But the virtues of humility, gentleness, patience, love, and peace do work to maintain the unity of the spirit.

Keeping Unity, Not Producing It

With the verb keep, the matter of unity gets touchy. If we’re supposed to keep unity (not create it, impose it, or invent it), we have to ask ourselves: With whom do we have unity to start with? Keeping it means that it's already ours, right?

If we don’t have any unity to maintain, then the command of Ephesians 4 doesn’t apply. So, in those situations where there’s no unity in the first place, we have to be brave and make it known that unity is nonexistent. We have to face the sad reality that our friends who calle themselves Christians are not our family in Christ simply by calling themselves Christians.

We have fellowship in the doctrine of the Apostles. But that's not the way other congregations work. Undoubtedly, very few congregations would agree with us about:

• the one Body--since we believe it’s all the believers who have received gifts

• the one Hope--since we believe it’s the coming government of Jesus

• the one Faith--we believe it’s the Fundamentals of Hebrews 6:1-2

• the one Baptism--we believe it’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit

• the One God--we believe he’s the Father of our Lord Jesus

Here’s an example from the list above: Let’s say that we are dealing with another congregation, and it’s Trinitarian (as about 90% of Evangelical congregations are). That means that they define the One God as “three Persons in one Being.” For them, the Trinity is a fundamental doctrine of Christianity and it determines with whom they fellowship. We would like to visit them and share a teaching on Sunday morning, but they respond that they cannot allow it because we believe that the One God is the Father. In fact, we’re heretics in their eyes.

You can see a typical Evangelical statement of faith below. You can easily find similar statements of faith on church websites or in pamphlets in a church lobby. Point 2 is their statement concerning who the One God is. Could you affirm it? I couldn't.

Strategy of Laying Foundations

We obviously share no unity of the spirit with a congregation that considers us to be heretics. So, if there’s no unity to begin with, what unity is there to maintain? The only thing we can hope to accomplish with a congregation like that is to persuade them of the Truth of One God, the Father. That would take some Scriptural argumentation. It would take plenty of time, patience, and love. Nobody expects it to happen automatically.

The question arises: What's the best strategy then for obtaining unity with other believers? Is it a proper investment of our time to convince people from another congregation that the One God is the Father? Should we invest our energy in making sure that they have the Hope of the Kingdom? We could, but the job of resetting the foundations of a building is very time consuming and it’s not cost effective.

I aspired to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation (Romans 15:20; NASB).

Why would we build upon another man’s foundation, especially if that foundation is poorly set? How can we correct a foundation that's been improperly laid? It's possible (as per the illustration above), but very costly and difficult.

That’s why the right approach is to establish the grounds of unity from the start, during evangelism. Our goal, like Paul’s, should be to work with new believers and to give them firm foundations from the beginning.

Why is this the best approach? Well, we aspire to be fruitful--not just quantitatively, but quantitatively. The reason? We want to produce fruit that will last for the glory of God. We want there to be a new generation of believers established in the

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples… I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last (John 15:8, 16).