There are a few reasons for division in the Church today. I’m going to address the following two reasons in a two-part article series:
1. People who try to keep the peace by not calling out sin - yes, they are actually creating division because they are frustrating those who are being sinned against by not standing up for the oppressed - they are peace-fakers and peace-keepers but not peace-makers
2. People who call others out for things that are not sin (e.g. differing theological views on debatable topics)
This article will address the first one.
Why do people avoid calling out sin?
The first reason I will address about why there is division in the church today is when people are quiet about sin so as not to create division.
Some people don’t want to have anything happen that feels like conflict:
If someone offends someone else, they want the offended person to simply forgive and move on.
If someone does something that someone else disagrees with, they want the person to stay quiet about their disagreement so as not to bring division.
If someone sins, they’d like to just leave it up to God and not call it out.
And they’d prefer not to use words like “abuse” because using that word feels harsh and could lead someone to think that they have biblical grounds for divorce when conflict-avoiders would prefer to avoid that (that word muddies the waters of their legalistic thinking, making behavior that they judge to be “not that bad” perhaps bad enough to warrant something that they want to avoid because they think God hates it).
They assume that conflict equals division, so they try to avoid conflict.
Granted, conflict doesn’t feel good. It can leak outside the church and look distasteful to unbelievers. And it can create division. But faking peace doesn’t resolve any of those things. In fact it can make them all worse.
Avoiding conflict can breed resentment (the people who are being told to stay quiet can begin to feel like no one cares).
Faking peace can lead to a sense of insincerity for those on the outside looking in.
And the division can be even more severe when people leave the church because their concerns are being avoided or dismissed instead of addressed.
Not only that, but the avoidance of conflict brings about a false sense of unity that is far from biblical. In fact there are times that division is more biblical than others’ attempts at unity. Here are some examples:
In the book of 1John 1:6,7 God emphasizes the division between those who walk in the light and those who don’t: “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” Walking in the light requires that we speak the truth, even if, as it says in Galatians, we make enemies by doing so. Because we are not to “be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
In the Corinthian church Paul does not remain silent or brush sin under the rug but, rather, calls it out, shaming the sinner and saying he should be turned over to Satan. 1 Corinthians 5 says “I have already passed judgment on the one who has been doing this. Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” And in his first letter to Timothy, he says that there are people who have not held onto the faith and a good conscience “whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.”
The OT prophets were also constantly saying things that people didn’t want to hear, talking about the consequences of wrong behavior, calling out sin, correcting people, rebuking people, and talking about what people were doing that they shouldn’t be doing. The people didn’t like to hear it, and it created division, and often led to the prophet being shunned or even killed, but it was the kind of division that separates those who are confident of where they stand with God from those who aren’t. 1Corinthians 11:19 says “No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.”
Even Jesus did not refrain from speaking badly about people in an effort to prevent division but, rather, was harsh with those who were behaving unbiblically (and they were the religious leaders!):
Luke 12:1 “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
Matthew 23:15 “Hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.”
Matthew 23:29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets’ but you complete what your ancestors started.”
If someone of influence or authority in the church is sharing opinions, giving advice, or making decisions that other strong, fruit-bearing believers don’t agree with, and they try to call that person out, and that person of influence dismisses their concerns (perhaps with statements like “God doesn’t need your help” or “God has given me the spiritual authority to know what is best” or other spiritual-sounding statements), that person isn’t being spiritual, they are shutting down the Truth and the conviction that should come with it, and they are refusing godly counsel because they don’t want to be confronted for their wrong thinking or wrong behavior.
If someone of influence or authority is accusing those who confront sin of causing division, that person isn’t trying to keep unity, they are trying to keep control. And control doesn’t create unity - it creates victims - and it leads to severe division within the church. Victimizing someone (by telling a fruit-bearing brother or sister who confronted someone of influence for their wrong behavior that they are wrong) and then accusing the victim of being the villain (for creating division or for not cooperating with spiritual authority) while the real villain (the one being confronted for their wrong behavior) claims to be the good guy is abuse, not unity.
Shutting people down who say or do things that cause conflict is not the way to achieve unity and peace. Peace and unity are also not achieved through nice words, weak convictions, and fear of conflict. Peace and unity are achieved through truth and boundaries.
Colossians 3:15-16 says “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another “
And it’s appropriate for a person who calls out wrongdoing to defend themselves against false charges if they are being accused of causing division. In Acts 24:13 when Paul was charged, he defended himself, saying “they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me.” And he defends himself to other believers when he says, in Act 28:17, “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.”
What Creates and Maintains Church Unity?
So what is it that creates and maintains church unity? It isn’t grace. It isn’t everyone saying only positive things. It isn’t everyone agreeing about everything. It isn’t refraining from speaking badly about someone. It’s TRUTH. Truth is what maintains church unity. When Jesus was praying that all believers would be one, he said “protect them by your truth - your Word is truth.”
Romans 16:17 says “I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.” They are causing division by not abiding in the truth. Rather, they are only watching out for themselves.
Staying consistent with what is true is what prevents division. When Scripture references not having any division among you, it’s in reference to ensuring that the message of the gospel is the same - that everyone is of one heart and mind when it comes to the message of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 1:10 demonstrates the division when that doesn’t happen: “I appeal to you that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. Some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’” Rather than hearing the message of the gospel that each of these people preached, they aligned with the person themselves, creating divisions that were as unique as the individuals who preached the message.
This is the same thing that is happening in the church today. True believers are not divided over the message of the gospel - they are divided over the uniqueness of the individuals preaching it. They are getting hung up on what the Word calls “disputable matters.” Acts 14:1 says that we are to “accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.” And yet we condemn each other for thinking differently than we do, presuming that we are not of those whose faith is weak.
And yet, to be frank, quarreling over disputable matters is exactly what identifies someone as having weak faith. It means that, rather than trusting that God is working all things out according to his good and sovereign plan, those who believe that their faith and knowledge is strong must be sure to make clear to everyone else that they are wrong. And yet Scripture says “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things [that none of us have yet taken a hold of everything there is to know about Christ]. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.”
Mature faith leaves other people’s journey toward the full knowledge of Christ up to God. And those who think they have arrived are actually just revealing their immaturity.
Division in the Church
Because of people whose faith cannot handle those who think differently, we have divisions all over the place on the topics of (just to name a few):
Predestination, election, limited atonement, and irresistible grace - Do people have free will to choose salvation or does God solely choose for them?
Eschatology - Is Jesus coming back? Is there going to be a rapture (a “snatching away” of believers before his coming)? Is there a literal 7-year period of tribulation before his return (or is 3 1/2 years or not literal at all)? Will there be a literal 1,000 year “millennial” reign of Christ or is it just figurative?
Replacement theology - Has the church replaced Israel?
The “sign gifts” (speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, healing)
Creation vs. Evolution - or something in between?
Preaching - The right way to preach: expository, topical, textual, narrative?
How to discern false teachers - Are some preachers who are genuinely born again being called out as false teachers?
Worship music - What music is “God-honoring” in church and what isn’t?
Lifestyle practices - is it OK to drink alcohol, get tattoos, or even use cuss words?
But why are we arguing about all of those things? Those things are not what truly matters. They may be interesting topics for friendly debate and consideration of other perspectives, but they are not to be dogmatic positions that cause division. God wants his church united. And we can unite around one, certain, and immutable doctrine: that God sent his Son Jesus to die in our place and purchase our redemption, paying the penalty for our sins, declaring victory over death by his resurrection from the dead, and ascending into heaven to restore his kingdom on earth.
The Solution To Division
Our solution to the division caused by disputable matter should be the same as Paul’s solution to the divisions in the early community of believers: A return to the message of the gospel: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…. we preach Christ crucified.”
If we could simply submit ourselves to the truth of the gospel every day - that we are sinners saved by grace - then we would be a united church. There would no longer be the arrogance of thinking that one has the truth or the “right” way over the other. There would no longer be the slander and condemnation of those who think they know better. Rather, there would be a celebration of all the ways that God is reaching people through the variety of preaching styles, biblical interpretations, worship styles, and eschatological views. Rather than those being a point of contention, those different views would bring a humble realization that truly none of us has arrived - only let us live up to what we have already attained. And give others the grace to do the same - even if it means that they think differently than you do.
Because hope isn’t found in our situation changing; it’s found in our situation….
If you are experiencing division, schedule a Breakthrough Session and get the clarity and direction you need to move forward.
