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Divisive Truth and the Need to Stand Firm

When a divisive truth is raised at church, it tests the congregation. Is the church fragile, easily offended and quick to break relationships, like a teenager coping with hormones?

I think most people assume their church is uncomfortable with divisive topics which are therefore left untouched. Culturally sensitive sins are taboo. Entire books of the bible are quietly discarded from the preaching calendar.

Is this how God’s Word should be handled? Is this really how the Kingdom of God should be?

Here are three reasons why we should not shy away from a divisive truth.

1. If We Abandon Divisive Truths, We Will Abandon All Truth.

As the world turns further against common sense truths, every truth is coming under threat. Soon, even the core gospel content will be condemned, as it is currently in so many countries. If we don’t have the maturity to discuss contested items inside the church with our brothers and sisters, how can we ever have the courage to speak up in the world amongst wolves?

Often, we Christians are condemned for raising a divisive truth inside the church for fear it will create disunity. Approaching this topic, Romans 14 surely springs to your mind: As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions (Romans 14:1).

Paul is so clear that matters of conscience and opinion must not divide the body. But here I am talking about truth, not opinion or matters of conscience. Truth is true. Need that be said? Yes, because many say that truth depends on your point of view, on your past experiences, on your biases, etc. People, therefore, say it’s inevitable and excusable to disagree about pretty much everything, which makes things very messy!

Fortunately, for Christians, truth doesn’t depend on anything to do with us; rather, truth is a person, Jesus, and what he says goes, no matter who we are or what we think of it: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

Christians are all for Christ, therefore we should be all for truth.

“Hold up”, some say, “we are all for Christ, but the Bible is unclear on many truths; therefore, calm down and stop saying you are right and that the other brother is wrong”. Well, yes, some may need to calm down and learn some love (point 3 of this article). But we cannot ever say that God’s Word is unclear. God is God. He knows how to communicate. We are the ones who have the hard hearts, the ears that need to learn to hear, and who need to stop accumulating teachers to suit our own passions (2 Tim 4:3).

This encouragement is sorely needed. It’s rare to find Bible studies that cover issues of gender, race or politics. How many have you been in? How many churches facilitate debates? Again, if we cannot debate amongst our family, how can we debate with hostile strangers, as Jesus and every prophet and apostle did?

Often, saying you have your mind made up on a divisive truth will get you slapped with labels such as “narrow-minded” or “intolerant”, but these can be actually good things. Amid a world that shoves countless sins and pitfalls in our faces, we need a very, very narrow tolerance to be the sanctified people whom God desires.

Speaking of sanctification…

2. Divisive Truths Matter for Our Growth.

A common response is that we should only focus on “core” issues. Why divide the church over a “secondary” issue? How many times do labels win the debate? It happens all the time in the media. One example is calling abortion “women’s healthcare”. Labels that do appear in Scripture are “milk” and “solid food”.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity (Hebrews 5:12 – 6:1).

So, while most churches teach the gospel and nothing else, seemingly admirable in their devotion to the essentials, actually, this is like malnourishing a growing child. The fullness of God’s Word must be taught. Otherwise, righteousness, maturity, discernment and all further blessings cannot be grown. How can we expect such spiritual growth if we refuse to unsheathe the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph 6:17)? Too many churches refuse to unsheathe anything but the most commonly agreed, milk truths.

Rather, let us joyfully learn the deep things of God! Let the doctrine of election assure your anxious soul of your salvation, let complementarianism bring clarity and peace to your tense marriage, let eschatology and doctrines of hell invigorate you to reach the lost! Psalm 19 testifies that every piece of doctrine is like a piece of honeycomb, bright, golden, sweet and delightful to the soul.

3. Divisive Truth Matters for Love.

If we wish to have a good impact, we must speak divisive truth with the right manner. And this isn’t a hindrance or a burden; actually, this is our greatest advantage.

And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (John 3:19).

Counterintuitively, here Jesus sets the foundation for great hope. People don’t agree, or disagree, with truth (here symbolised as light) merely based on the intellect. Rather, they agree or disagree based on the state of their heart. Belief is a matter of passions and love, not just intellect. As the atheistic philosopher David Hume once remarked: “Reason is the slave of the passions and can pretend to be no other.”

Therefore, addressing the heart, by our manner, has a huge impact!

Our manner of discussion, filled with the fruit of the Spirit, speaks to the heart, not just the mind. The soul hears our manner while the mind hears the words. In an age where the world’s voices smother everyone 24/7, what hope can our voices have if this was merely a battle of the mind? Thank the Lord that truth is intrinsically connected to the inner person. Even if we are not experts and can’t speak with elegance and finesse, our manner of love and grace speaks louder and with power to change their minds by first warming their hearts and souls.

Maybe you sometimes feel like me, that I just wasn’t to stay silent when a disagreement arises. Isn’t it loving to just let it go? Sometimes that is needful, but often what we are actually doing is loving peace and calm, for our own comfort. We selfishly would rather enjoy our own peace, rather than bring glory to God by obeying his great commission by “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mat 28:20).

Many of us find ourselves amid church-goers whom Paul prophesies “will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Tim 4:3). Paul does not simply advise Timothy to stay silent, to avoid secondary issues, and to limit his conversation for fear of dividing the body. Rather, he says: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim 4:2).

Thanks to sitcoms and dramas, we tend to think of rebukes as passive aggressive, or as involving a lot of shouting, gesturing and huffing. Actually, Paul just said rebukes are supposed to be done “with complete patience and teaching”.  That denotes ongoing, patient, week by week effort, with gentleness.

Gosh, week by week? I don’t know if I have that in me. Well, let us be fuelled for the ordeal by God’s promises that this will work. Shying away won’t work, but patient teaching will. Why? Because God promises that every Christian in the congregation is to progress from the good work God began, all the way to completion (Phi 1:6).

Let us, as believers, not shy away from divisive truths. So, let us pray that the Holy Spirit would give us the faith we need to speak.

– Rory O’Shea