State College, PA
October 29, 2017
In the Fall of 1986, Annie and I moved into Philadelphia so I could begin my studies at Westminster Theological Seminary. At the time, I was thinking that we would go back overseas after I finished my program, and I really didn't have much interest in pastoral ministry. But I applied for financial aid from our denomination, because we had a strong connection there, and because I was interested in working with their mission organization. In the end, I didn't receive any aid, mainly because of a shortage of funds and because the money was primarily intended for those preparing to become pastors. But in the letter I received, explaining the situation, I found this note: "It would be good to note also that if funds were available the selection of seminary would be problematic to the church. At least there would need to be discussion about the focus of a Reformed seminary (I should say a seminary with a reformed theology) and how that can fit with the Brethren in Christ."
We're living in a divided Church, a Church where we're often more aware of the things that divide us than those things that bind us together in Christ. It's not just that the Brethren in Christ are uncomfortable with Reformed theology (the system of theology associated with John Calvin and his followers); reformed churches are very critical of churches like the Brethren in Christ. When I was worshiping in a Presbyterian church, I used to hear things like, "Arminians believe they can save themselves" (Arminians are those who disagree with the main theological distinctives of Reformed theology). It's not true, of course, but making that kind of statement helped Presbyterians feel more secure about their theological system. The tendency to tell lies about each other is so strong that the only safe place to find out what any particular group of Christians believes is in their own writings.
Divisiveness is nothing new in the Church, and it goes back much further than the 16th century. The church at Corinth seems to have had a particularly strong bent in this direction. Paul probably wrote this letter in the mid-50's, and he's received reports about their divisions: "each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,' or ‘I belong to Apollos,' or ‘I belong to Cephas,' or ‘I belong to Christ'" (v. 12). But the problem didn't end there. Near the end of the same century, Clement of Rome wrote to the Corinthians: "Why is there strife and angry outbursts and dissension and schisms and conflict among you? Do we not have one God and one Christ and one Spirit of grace which was poured out upon us? And is there not one calling in Christ? Why do we tear and rip apart the members of Christ, and rebel against our own body, and reach such a level of insanity that we forget that we are members of one another.... Your schism has perverted many; it has brought many to despair, plunged many into doubt, and caused all of us to sorrow. And yet your rebellion still continues!" (46:7, 9). The tensions and divisiveness were still there in Corinth, 40 years or so after Paul wrote this letter.
Divisiveness in the Church is not new, but it is a serious problem. It's not the sort of thing we should get used to, just because it's been around for a long time. I sometimes hear people say things like: "you know, I think denominations are a good thing; they provide outlets for different personalities." I've heard people go so far as to suggest that denominations are God's way of providing churches for all different kinds of people. When we talk like this, we've become too comfortable with our divisions. We've forgotten Jesus' desire for the Church expressed in His prayer in John 17: "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (vv. 20-21). Since Jesus' desire is for the Church to be one, we have no business justifying our divisions.
That's why Paul speaks so firmly to the Corinthians. That's why Clement rebukes them 40 years later with such strong words. Division in the Church is a scandal. It's not something we should try to justify. We should be praying for the healing of our divisions, because, as Paul makes clear in these verses, when the Church is divided our witness is crippled. We can't bear witness to the oneness of Christ, because we're no longer one. The condition of the Church contradicts our message. Because we're divided, we can't bear consistent witness to the truth of Jesus Christ, even though in other areas there may be unmistakable signs of grace in our lives. As Clement said to the Corinthians: "Your schism has perverted many; it has brought many to despair, plunged many into doubt, and caused all of us to sorrow."
Notice, first, that God is at work in the church at Corinth. Paul begins by affirming the evidence of God's grace among them. These are not nominal Christians (people who are Christian in name only). Listen to verses 4-9 in The Message: "Every time I think of you – and I think of you often! – I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus. There's no end to what has happened to you – it's beyond speech, beyond knowledge. The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives. Just think – you don't need a thing, you've got it all! All God's gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that." This is a church with serious, persistent problems, but it's also a church of which Paul can say, "the evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives."
It's easier when we can write people off, when we can say, "oh, look at that; obviously these people are not genuine believers." Sometimes it's true, a person's life is so much in conflict with the message of the gospel that we legitimately doubt whether the person has faith at all. But Eugene Peterson wisely says, in his introduction to 1 Corinthians in The Message: "Conversion to Christ and his ways doesn't automatically furnish a person with impeccable manners and suitable morals." I'm currently reading the "Sword of Honor" trilogy by the Catholic novelist Evelyn Waugh. By all accounts he was a very difficult person to be around. Once, at a party, a woman asked him how he, a well-known Catholic convert, could be so rude. She was saying, "you're not much of a witness." He replied: "Madame, were it not for the Faith, I should scarcely be human" (quoted by George Weigel, in Letters to a Young Catholic, p. 102). He wasn't being flippant. He was saying, "you're right, but I'd be a lot worse if I weren't a Christian." He said almost the same thing in a letter to a friend: "I always think to myself: ‘I know I am awful. But how much more awful I should be without the Faith'" (p. 103). For some people, for a variety of reasons, the journey to "impeccable manners and suitable morals" is an especially long one. We can't know how far they've traveled unless we know where they began.
Corinth was a notorious place in the ancient world, and the "people of Corinth had a reputation... as an unruly, hard-drinking, sexually promiscuous bunch of people" (Peterson, The Message). All these tendencies didn't just go away when they turned to Christ (as becomes clear in reading through this letter). This is a church with very serious problems, problems which had the potential to tear the church apart at the seams. And yet, Paul says to them, "the evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives."
The second thing to notice is that their disunity is connected, in some sense, to their desire to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Their disunity is a spiritual defect, but it's not an indication of spiritual indifference. They've gotten things mixed up, but these are not people who are lukewarm about the Church. These aren't people who say, "I don't care about all that theological stuff; I don't care about the details, all that matters to me is that my needs are met." Self-centered indifference can lead to disunity, but that's not the problem at Corinth. These people care deeply about what is happening in the church. Not only that, they care deeply about being faithful to Jesus Christ; they're people who "eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed."
It's those who care about following Jesus Christ who are more likely to be led astray in one way or another. I remember being startled when I first heard this from A.W. Tozer: "Strange as it may seem, the danger today is greater for the fervent Christian than for the lukewarm and the self-satisfied. The seeker after God's best things is eager to hear anyone who offers a way by which he can obtain them. He longs for some new experience, some elevated view of truth, some operation of the Spirit that will raise him above the dead level of religious mediocrity that he sees all around him, and for this reason he is ready to give a sympathetic ear to the new and the wonderful in religion, particularly if it is presented by someone with an attractive personality and a reputation for superior godliness" (Man: the Dwelling Place of God, p. 119). Those who are lukewarm and self-satisfied can't be bothered with such things. It's those who are hungry for more of God who are in danger. The danger is that we become attached to one particular teacher, or movement, in a way that cuts us off from others in the Church. That's what was happening in Corinth: "‘I'm on Paul's side,' or ‘I'm for Apollos,' or ‘Peter is my man,' or ‘I'm in the Messiah group.'"
The third thing is that, despite the work of God that is going on among them, and despite their concern about faithfulness to Jesus Christ, their divisions are undermining their witness to the truth. Here's The Message again: "I ask you, ‘Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul's name?'" Their factions are obscuring the truth that Christ is not divided. Their divisions are contradicting the message of the gospel.
Remember what Jesus said in His prayer. He prayed for the Church to be one, "so that the world may believe that you have sent me." Our witness is tied to our unity. Our calling is not only to speak about the truth, but to bear witness to the truth in our lives, not only in our personal lives, but in the life of the Church body. That's why our divisions are such a scandal. That's what Clement was talking about when he wrote to the Corinthian church: "Your schism has perverted many; it has brought many to despair, plunged many into doubt, and caused all of us to sorrow."
Division, alienation from others who belong to Jesus Christ, is just the opposite of what God is doing in Christ. His purpose is "to gather up all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). It's Satan who promotes division. One of the best illustrations of this is C.S. Lewis' description of Hell (in The Great Divorce) as a sprawling, dingy town, where people are constantly squabbling: "As soon as anyone arrives he settles in some street. Before he's been there twenty-four hours he quarrels with his neighbour. Before the week is over he's quarreled so badly that he decides to move....' ‘And what about the earlier arrivals? I mean – there must be people who came from earth to your town even longer ago.' ‘That's right. There are. They've been moving on and on. Getting further apart. They're so far off by now that they could never think of coming to the bus stop at all. Astronomical distances. There's a bit of rising ground near where I live and a chap has a telescope. You can see the lights of the inhabited houses, where those olds ones live, millions of miles away. Millions of miles from us and from one another. Every now and then they move further still. That's one of the disappointments. I thought you'd meet interesting historical characters. But you don't: they're too far away'" (pp. 18-20). Alienation from God alienates us from one another. His purpose in redemption is "to gather up all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth." Our divisions are a scandal to the world and they're displeasing to God; they're in conflict with our prayers when we say, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." God's will is to bring healing in Christ, and the Church is to be a model of unity and healing in this fragmented world.
But the truth is that we live in a divided Church. The Eastern and Western Churches have been in schism for nearly 1,000 years, and the Western Churches have been divided for 500 years. A lot has happened over the centuries to drive us further apart, and within Protestantism new schisms have developed at a truly alarming rate. A few years ago I talked with a friend who'd left his denomination and had joined a group of people he'd discovered on the Internet. These people, he said, were really serious about the faith.
We live in a divided Church, and it's beyond our power to restore unity. But that doesn't mean we should just accept the way things are. Before I close, here are some things that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, can do to promote unity. 1) Speak the truth about each other. Many of our denominational conflicts are complicated by the false things we say about one another. If we don't want to take the trouble to find out what people in other churches really believe, we shouldn't presume to talk about it. We all have some mixture of truth and error in our theological understanding, and in those areas where God's people have had centuries of disagreement, we need to allow people the freedom to think differently than we do. The temptation is to present their ideas in the worst possible light and then to think, "how could anyone believe such things?" We don't achieve anything by telling lies about each other, and we dishonor the name of Christ.
2) Related to the first point, seek to learn from the best people in other denominations. Most of us are unbalanced in some ways, and we can be genuinely helped by people who look at things differently. I first learned how to pray the Scriptures from a Lutheran (who was taught by Benedictine monks). Over the past twenty years, I've received much help from writers on Catholic spirituality. I use the Liturgy of the Hours in my personal devotions, and I listen often to the music of John Michael Talbot, a Franciscan. I once spent a week at his monastery in Arkansas. I've also been helped immensely by Reformed writers. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, more than any one person, formed my idea about what preaching ought to be. J.I. Packer convinced me that theology could help me learn to worship, and Jonathan Edwards has helped me think about how to distinguish between true and false experiences. And some of the most godly people I've met have been Pentecostals. I became a Christian in an Assembly of God church and one of my favorite Bible professors in college was a Pentecostal. The main commentary that I've used in 1 Corinthians is by Gordon Fee, a Pentecostal. Recognizing that we all have strengths and weaknesses, and being willing to learn from one another, can be a great help in our spiritual lives, and it has the added benefit of promoting unity. We're not going to speak harshly against those who've helped us grow closer to Jesus.
3) Remind yourself often that all who follow Jesus Christ will one day be together in His presence. That's one of the things Jesus mentions in His prayer in John 17: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory" (v. 24). I don't want to act and speak in ways that I'll be ashamed of on that day. When we are there in His presence, all our denominational differences will be irrelevant. Even if it doesn't happen here on earth, in eternity there will be no more denominations. This should help put our differences into perspective.
Together with all God's people scattered throughout the earth in various kinds of churches, we look forward to this time described near the end of the book of Revelation: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with people, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away'" (Revelation 21:1-4). Since we will all be gathered together in God's presence for eternity, let's begin now cultivating a sense of our oneness in Christ. Let's be praying for the healing of our divisions, so that the Church can bear witness, in both word and action, to God's work of gathering up all things in Christ. I don't know about you, but on this 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, this is what I want to celebrate.
In the Fall of 1986, Annie and I moved into Philadelphia so I could begin my studies at Westminster Theological Seminary. At the time, I was thinking that we would go back overseas after I finished my program, and I really didn't have much interest in pastoral ministry. But I applied for financial aid from our denomination, because we had a strong connection there, and because I was interested in working with their mission organization. In the end, I didn't receive any aid, mainly because of a shortage of funds and because the money was primarily intended for those preparing to become pastors. But in the letter I received, explaining the situation, I found this note: "It would be good to note also that if funds were available the selection of seminary would be problematic to the church. At least there would need to be discussion about the focus of a Reformed seminary (I should say a seminary with a reformed theology) and how that can fit with the Brethren in Christ."
We're living in a divided Church, a Church where we're often more aware of the things that divide us than those things that bind us together in Christ. It's not just that the Brethren in Christ are uncomfortable with Reformed theology (the system of theology associated with John Calvin and his followers); reformed churches are very critical of churches like the Brethren in Christ. When I was worshiping in a Presbyterian church, I used to hear things like, "Arminians believe they can save themselves" (Arminians are those who disagree with the main theological distinctives of Reformed theology). It's not true, of course, but making that kind of statement helped Presbyterians feel more secure about their theological system. The tendency to tell lies about each other is so strong that the only safe place to find out what any particular group of Christians believes is in their own writings.
Divisiveness is nothing new in the Church, and it goes back much further than the 16th century. The church at Corinth seems to have had a particularly strong bent in this direction. Paul probably wrote this letter in the mid-50's, and he's received reports about their divisions: "each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,' or ‘I belong to Apollos,' or ‘I belong to Cephas,' or ‘I belong to Christ'" (v. 12). But the problem didn't end there. Near the end of the same century, Clement of Rome wrote to the Corinthians: "Why is there strife and angry outbursts and dissension and schisms and conflict among you? Do we not have one God and one Christ and one Spirit of grace which was poured out upon us? And is there not one calling in Christ? Why do we tear and rip apart the members of Christ, and rebel against our own body, and reach such a level of insanity that we forget that we are members of one another.... Your schism has perverted many; it has brought many to despair, plunged many into doubt, and caused all of us to sorrow. And yet your rebellion still continues!" (46:7, 9). The tensions and divisiveness were still there in Corinth, 40 years or so after Paul wrote this letter.
Divisiveness in the Church is not new, but it is a serious problem. It's not the sort of thing we should get used to, just because it's been around for a long time. I sometimes hear people say things like: "you know, I think denominations are a good thing; they provide outlets for different personalities." I've heard people go so far as to suggest that denominations are God's way of providing churches for all different kinds of people. When we talk like this, we've become too comfortable with our divisions. We've forgotten Jesus' desire for the Church expressed in His prayer in John 17: "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (vv. 20-21). Since Jesus' desire is for the Church to be one, we have no business justifying our divisions.
That's why Paul speaks so firmly to the Corinthians. That's why Clement rebukes them 40 years later with such strong words. Division in the Church is a scandal. It's not something we should try to justify. We should be praying for the healing of our divisions, because, as Paul makes clear in these verses, when the Church is divided our witness is crippled. We can't bear witness to the oneness of Christ, because we're no longer one. The condition of the Church contradicts our message. Because we're divided, we can't bear consistent witness to the truth of Jesus Christ, even though in other areas there may be unmistakable signs of grace in our lives. As Clement said to the Corinthians: "Your schism has perverted many; it has brought many to despair, plunged many into doubt, and caused all of us to sorrow."
Notice, first, that God is at work in the church at Corinth. Paul begins by affirming the evidence of God's grace among them. These are not nominal Christians (people who are Christian in name only). Listen to verses 4-9 in The Message: "Every time I think of you – and I think of you often! – I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus. There's no end to what has happened to you – it's beyond speech, beyond knowledge. The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives. Just think – you don't need a thing, you've got it all! All God's gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that." This is a church with serious, persistent problems, but it's also a church of which Paul can say, "the evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives."
It's easier when we can write people off, when we can say, "oh, look at that; obviously these people are not genuine believers." Sometimes it's true, a person's life is so much in conflict with the message of the gospel that we legitimately doubt whether the person has faith at all. But Eugene Peterson wisely says, in his introduction to 1 Corinthians in The Message: "Conversion to Christ and his ways doesn't automatically furnish a person with impeccable manners and suitable morals." I'm currently reading the "Sword of Honor" trilogy by the Catholic novelist Evelyn Waugh. By all accounts he was a very difficult person to be around. Once, at a party, a woman asked him how he, a well-known Catholic convert, could be so rude. She was saying, "you're not much of a witness." He replied: "Madame, were it not for the Faith, I should scarcely be human" (quoted by George Weigel, in Letters to a Young Catholic, p. 102). He wasn't being flippant. He was saying, "you're right, but I'd be a lot worse if I weren't a Christian." He said almost the same thing in a letter to a friend: "I always think to myself: ‘I know I am awful. But how much more awful I should be without the Faith'" (p. 103). For some people, for a variety of reasons, the journey to "impeccable manners and suitable morals" is an especially long one. We can't know how far they've traveled unless we know where they began.
Corinth was a notorious place in the ancient world, and the "people of Corinth had a reputation... as an unruly, hard-drinking, sexually promiscuous bunch of people" (Peterson, The Message). All these tendencies didn't just go away when they turned to Christ (as becomes clear in reading through this letter). This is a church with very serious problems, problems which had the potential to tear the church apart at the seams. And yet, Paul says to them, "the evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives."
The second thing to notice is that their disunity is connected, in some sense, to their desire to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Their disunity is a spiritual defect, but it's not an indication of spiritual indifference. They've gotten things mixed up, but these are not people who are lukewarm about the Church. These aren't people who say, "I don't care about all that theological stuff; I don't care about the details, all that matters to me is that my needs are met." Self-centered indifference can lead to disunity, but that's not the problem at Corinth. These people care deeply about what is happening in the church. Not only that, they care deeply about being faithful to Jesus Christ; they're people who "eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed."
It's those who care about following Jesus Christ who are more likely to be led astray in one way or another. I remember being startled when I first heard this from A.W. Tozer: "Strange as it may seem, the danger today is greater for the fervent Christian than for the lukewarm and the self-satisfied. The seeker after God's best things is eager to hear anyone who offers a way by which he can obtain them. He longs for some new experience, some elevated view of truth, some operation of the Spirit that will raise him above the dead level of religious mediocrity that he sees all around him, and for this reason he is ready to give a sympathetic ear to the new and the wonderful in religion, particularly if it is presented by someone with an attractive personality and a reputation for superior godliness" (Man: the Dwelling Place of God, p. 119). Those who are lukewarm and self-satisfied can't be bothered with such things. It's those who are hungry for more of God who are in danger. The danger is that we become attached to one particular teacher, or movement, in a way that cuts us off from others in the Church. That's what was happening in Corinth: "‘I'm on Paul's side,' or ‘I'm for Apollos,' or ‘Peter is my man,' or ‘I'm in the Messiah group.'"
The third thing is that, despite the work of God that is going on among them, and despite their concern about faithfulness to Jesus Christ, their divisions are undermining their witness to the truth. Here's The Message again: "I ask you, ‘Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul's name?'" Their factions are obscuring the truth that Christ is not divided. Their divisions are contradicting the message of the gospel.
Remember what Jesus said in His prayer. He prayed for the Church to be one, "so that the world may believe that you have sent me." Our witness is tied to our unity. Our calling is not only to speak about the truth, but to bear witness to the truth in our lives, not only in our personal lives, but in the life of the Church body. That's why our divisions are such a scandal. That's what Clement was talking about when he wrote to the Corinthian church: "Your schism has perverted many; it has brought many to despair, plunged many into doubt, and caused all of us to sorrow."
Division, alienation from others who belong to Jesus Christ, is just the opposite of what God is doing in Christ. His purpose is "to gather up all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). It's Satan who promotes division. One of the best illustrations of this is C.S. Lewis' description of Hell (in The Great Divorce) as a sprawling, dingy town, where people are constantly squabbling: "As soon as anyone arrives he settles in some street. Before he's been there twenty-four hours he quarrels with his neighbour. Before the week is over he's quarreled so badly that he decides to move....' ‘And what about the earlier arrivals? I mean – there must be people who came from earth to your town even longer ago.' ‘That's right. There are. They've been moving on and on. Getting further apart. They're so far off by now that they could never think of coming to the bus stop at all. Astronomical distances. There's a bit of rising ground near where I live and a chap has a telescope. You can see the lights of the inhabited houses, where those olds ones live, millions of miles away. Millions of miles from us and from one another. Every now and then they move further still. That's one of the disappointments. I thought you'd meet interesting historical characters. But you don't: they're too far away'" (pp. 18-20). Alienation from God alienates us from one another. His purpose in redemption is "to gather up all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth." Our divisions are a scandal to the world and they're displeasing to God; they're in conflict with our prayers when we say, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." God's will is to bring healing in Christ, and the Church is to be a model of unity and healing in this fragmented world.
But the truth is that we live in a divided Church. The Eastern and Western Churches have been in schism for nearly 1,000 years, and the Western Churches have been divided for 500 years. A lot has happened over the centuries to drive us further apart, and within Protestantism new schisms have developed at a truly alarming rate. A few years ago I talked with a friend who'd left his denomination and had joined a group of people he'd discovered on the Internet. These people, he said, were really serious about the faith.
We live in a divided Church, and it's beyond our power to restore unity. But that doesn't mean we should just accept the way things are. Before I close, here are some things that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, can do to promote unity. 1) Speak the truth about each other. Many of our denominational conflicts are complicated by the false things we say about one another. If we don't want to take the trouble to find out what people in other churches really believe, we shouldn't presume to talk about it. We all have some mixture of truth and error in our theological understanding, and in those areas where God's people have had centuries of disagreement, we need to allow people the freedom to think differently than we do. The temptation is to present their ideas in the worst possible light and then to think, "how could anyone believe such things?" We don't achieve anything by telling lies about each other, and we dishonor the name of Christ.
2) Related to the first point, seek to learn from the best people in other denominations. Most of us are unbalanced in some ways, and we can be genuinely helped by people who look at things differently. I first learned how to pray the Scriptures from a Lutheran (who was taught by Benedictine monks). Over the past twenty years, I've received much help from writers on Catholic spirituality. I use the Liturgy of the Hours in my personal devotions, and I listen often to the music of John Michael Talbot, a Franciscan. I once spent a week at his monastery in Arkansas. I've also been helped immensely by Reformed writers. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, more than any one person, formed my idea about what preaching ought to be. J.I. Packer convinced me that theology could help me learn to worship, and Jonathan Edwards has helped me think about how to distinguish between true and false experiences. And some of the most godly people I've met have been Pentecostals. I became a Christian in an Assembly of God church and one of my favorite Bible professors in college was a Pentecostal. The main commentary that I've used in 1 Corinthians is by Gordon Fee, a Pentecostal. Recognizing that we all have strengths and weaknesses, and being willing to learn from one another, can be a great help in our spiritual lives, and it has the added benefit of promoting unity. We're not going to speak harshly against those who've helped us grow closer to Jesus.
3) Remind yourself often that all who follow Jesus Christ will one day be together in His presence. That's one of the things Jesus mentions in His prayer in John 17: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory" (v. 24). I don't want to act and speak in ways that I'll be ashamed of on that day. When we are there in His presence, all our denominational differences will be irrelevant. Even if it doesn't happen here on earth, in eternity there will be no more denominations. This should help put our differences into perspective.
Together with all God's people scattered throughout the earth in various kinds of churches, we look forward to this time described near the end of the book of Revelation: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with people, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away'" (Revelation 21:1-4). Since we will all be gathered together in God's presence for eternity, let's begin now cultivating a sense of our oneness in Christ. Let's be praying for the healing of our divisions, so that the Church can bear witness, in both word and action, to God's work of gathering up all things in Christ. I don't know about you, but on this 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, this is what I want to celebrate.
