Jeffrey C. Long

Many parts of this sermon were freely edited from the article “IN ESSENTIALS UNITY PRE-HISTORY AND HISTORY OF A RESTORATION MOVEMENT SLOGAN” by Hans Rollmann at http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/unitas/essrev.html. It is a very worthwhile article.

A man was stranded on the proverbial deserted island in the Pacific for years. One day a boat came sailing into view, and the man frantically waved and got the skipper’s attention. The boat landed on the beach, and the skipper got out to greet the stranded man.

After a while the rescuing sailor asked the castaway, “What are those three huts you’ve built?”

The stranded man replied, “That first hut is my house.”

“What’s that next hut?” asked the sailor.

“I built that for my church.”

“What about the third hut?”

“Oh,” the castaway answered solemnly, “that’s where I used to go to church.”

Today we are reading from 1Corinthians 1:10-17.

Verse 11 says:

11 For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.”

Christians have been segregating themselves from each other since the first century.

That lists 4 groups. Those who follow Paul, those who follow Apollos. Those who follow Cephas, which means Peter, and those who follow Christ.

That list has been growing ever since.

Today, instead of saying I am of Paul, I am of Peter, we say I am of Menno, or I am of Calvin, or I am of Luther.

Today in America there are over 6000 protestant denominations. 32,000 denominations worldwide.

And the segregation is not just across denominational lines. Drive into some urban settings and you will find 4 Baptist churches across the street from each other at one intersection.

After the death of Martin Luther there was strife over what groups were the proper theological successor of Lutheranism.

Peter Meiderlin was a Lutheran theologian and pastor living in Augsburg during the early seventeenth century. He lived in a very troubled time, a time exposed to the ravages of the Thirty Years War and a time of great strife between Lutherans and Calvinists. But even worse, it was a time of internal fighting within Lutheranism itself. During this so-called “Confessional Age,” the Lutheran movement became a battleground for a bunch of doctrinal disputes. In the period after Luther’s death, there emerged intense competition as to who was the more authentic representative of the Lutheran theological heritage. One attempt to forge an authoritative doctrinal norm, binding for everyone, was the Formula of Concord in 1577. But it wound up resulting in more cantankerousness. It is thus not surprising that amidst external war and internal strife, theologians and church leaders would eventually plead with their church for that which Christ had promised his disciples according to the Gospel of John: Peace. Peter Meiderlin was one of those with a passion for peace.

Meiderlin’s argument for peace in the church starts began with a a dream he had. In it he sat at a table reading the Scriptures. All of a sudden Jesus appeared to him as the victor over death and devil and warned him of an impending danger and admonished him to be very vigilant. Then Jesus vanished and the Devil appeared in the form of a blinding moonlight claiming to have been sent on a mission from God. He stated that in this final age the Church needed to be protected from all heresy, and apostasy of any kind and God’s elect had the duty to safeguard and keep pure the doctrinal truths they inherited. The devil then alleged that God had authorized him to found a new order of these doctrinally pure. Those who joined would bind themselves to an oath of strictest observance to these doctrines. The devil then extended to Meiderlien the invitation to join this militant fellowship for his own eternal welfare. In the dream Meiderlien thought about what he had just heard and decided rather then sign up to bring it in prayer before God. The devil immediately vanished and Jesus reappeared and tenderly rose the trembling Christian up, comforted him most kindly, and before he departed admonished him to remain loyal only to the Word of God, in simplicity and humility of heart.

For Meiderlin this dream depicted in a powerful way the state of Lutheranism, theologians of his time, and even of his own church. Putting pen to paper he began work on a book to address these issues.

MEIDERLIN wrote “while agreement could strengthen weak things, discord demolishs great things.” The church had the opportunity to minister to the weak, to bind up the brokenhearted. To live out the gospel. If she were united she could strengthen weak things. But instead, by being in a constant state of disagreement they demolished the great things that they were capable of doing.

He quoted a famous Stoic philosopher named Seneca who warned of cramming the mind with unimportant things. “We are ignorant,” Seneca wrote, “of essentials because we deal in non-essentials.” The theologians of MEIDERLIN’s time had focused so much on the non-essentials of the faith, the insistence of belief in theological minutiae, that they were ignorant of the essentials of the faith. It was important, he felt, to get back to only those doctrinal statements that are necessary, that center on salvation, follow unmistakably Scripture, have been formulated in universal confessional statements, and are considered true by the great majority of believing theologians.

He then wrote what has since become a famous phrase among people trying to forge peace in the body of Christ.

In essentials unity

In nonessentials liberty

In all things charity

The essentials he believed were those things that had to do with salvation.

He was in agreement with Paul who wrote to the divided Corinthians in verse 17

For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.

On things that have to do with the gospel we should be in agreement.

The authority of the Word of God

Sin

The attempt to get to God through Works

The cross

The free gift of salvation by grace through faith.

Showing love to our church. To our family, our friends, our neighbors.

Showing grace to each other when people’s faults are apparent to us.

spend your time with people telling them about jesus instead of watching a movie”

These are the essentials that we should be focused on. We should be unified on them. Strengthening weak things by our unity.

So, In essentials, unity.

In nonessentials, liberty.

Paul was thankful that he hardly baptized anyone. Baptism is such a significant rite that it can take on a level of importance that is out of balance. For the Corinthians it came to identify them with the person that they wanted to follow. For some, the method of baptism, immersion, sprinkling, pouring can become as important as the act itself. Different methods of baptizing are nonessential and so we should extend liberty to those whose opinion is different from ours.

Debates over free will and predestination.

Whether or not the world was created in 6 24 hour days or over a period of millions or billions of years.

Whether or not Jesus will come before or after a millenial reign, or before or after a tribulation.

Whether or not the gift of tongues is still in use today.

Each of these are nonessentials. They aren’t part of the gospel. They aren’t part of the apostle’s creed or other doctrinal statements of the early church.

So, In essentials, unity.

In nonessentials, liberty.

We need to allow each other our disagreements on these issues and not allow them to detract from our unity. To not allow our disagreement on these matters destroy the great things that we could be doing in each others’ lives and in the community that we live.

It is so important to Paul that the Corinthians focus on the gospel and not get distracted by their allegiences with specific leaders that in verse 10 he says

“I beg you, brothers”

He pleads with them “through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ,”

“that you all speak the same thing and that

there be no divisions among you, but

that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment

In essentials unity.

In nonessentials liberty.

And finally

In all things, charity.

Let us be known by our love. Known by our committment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And by our willingness to disagree with each other.

But let us be known by our love.