If you only go with people you agree with. What is it? Even the bad guys do. The miracle of the Christian community is when you willingly submit to each other in love and go together, regardless of your differences. Paul wants this church to remain united. He does not want a separation on this issue. It does not even recommend formal discipline in this case. On the contrary, he wants unity in love, despite differences of opinion. He insists on two things: first, do not despise and second, do not judge. The strong must not despise the weak, he must not despise him.
We know what it is. A Reformed Christian believes he can drink wine; A Christian of fundamentalist origin thinks that he must give up alcoholic beverages altogether. The reformed man despises the fundamentalist and calls him a name. You are ignorant, stupid. I am demanding. I went to Westminster Seminary; I know Greek. All of this may be true, but there is no love here, in the way the Reformed believer speaks to his fundamentalist brother. And what is the Church without love? Jesus said, “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” Love is the mark of the Church. And Paul says in 1. Corinthians 13: Even if you can understand all the secrets and knowledge and have no love, you are nothing. First, let`s look at this passage: “Can two go together if they agree?” Do you know where that came from? This comes from the prophecy of Amos, 3:3. Part of the problem is translation.
The NIV is better here, I think. It says, “Will two go together unless they agree to do so?” You see, that doesn`t mean that two people who go together have to agree on everything. Rather, he says that two people who go together must have agreed to go together. It says the obvious. This verse is part of a group of seven things that are obvious: Now I don`t want you to misunderstand me. Of course, we cannot treat all disagreements in this way. There are disagreements that really prevent us from working together. When some Jewish Christians tried to teach Galatian Christians that they had to become Jews before they could become Christians, Paul spoke to them very strongly. What Jewish Christians say is a “different gospel.” And “If anyone preaches to you a gospel other than what you have accepted, he will be condemned eternally” (Gal 1:10).
There can be no communion between those who believe in salvation by grace and those who believe in salvation by keeping the law. After 1. Nor can there be communion between Corinthians 5 and those who claim to be Christians but live in unrepentant immorality. When a member of the Corinthian church committed incest and did not repent, Paul said to the church with the utmost insistence, repeating to himself four or five times, “Take this man out of the church.” Here Paul follows our Lord`s teaching in Matthew 18. There are differences of opinion that are so serious: so serious that we should release the offenders of the Church; Or, if they dominate, we have to go. What is the key to unity? No written confession in addition to Scripture. It`s fine to have confession, I think, but Scripture never tells us to write it down or make it normative. What is the key to unity? Love. Love lives with a certain degree of disagreement. And when the disagreement becomes too serious to live, love treats it (Gal 6:1) in a gentle spirit and with appropriate witnesses (Mt 18) and with sadness and sadness. The rule in many churches is that we mostly say good things about our church or denomination, and we usually say bad things about other churches or denominations, especially those from other traditions.
Now I know that sometimes, in order to glorify another Christian, you have to correct him. Finally, in order to glorify the Reformed Episcopal Church, we will need to draw their attention to the principles of biblical Church government. But how do we try to do that? By depositing? By caustic and evil criticism, severe ridicule, urgent condemnation? Or do we first try to understand where our brethren come from, recognize what is good in their ministry, and correct them so that they glorify God`s work in their service? To correct them so that they look good to the observant world? Let us glorify one another. .
