Unity Among the Mature

My exploration of what are commonly referred to as the miraculous spiritual gifts has reminded me of an often neglected passage of Scripture. It reads:

“Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained” (Philippians 3:15-16).

1.  The “mature” in the church (our age does not necessarily match our maturity level!), should be able to unite in what we believe, and how we work through disagreements. We should not be surprised that immature believers will struggle with doctrinal things, although we may be surprised by how many immature people are in our churches. Paul’s concern was to get the mature on the same page because they are the ones who can then break things down and teach them to the immature.

2.  There is a “this way” that all the mature should “think”. Paul saw plenty of division in the church even in the first century, but he sought to correct this by teaching what everyone in the church ought to think about everything God breathed-out in his own words. Everything we are given in the New Testament has the same expectation that “those of us who are mature” should “think this way”.

3.  However, “if in anything you think otherwise,” addresses a very real possibility. The likelihood of everyone in the church agreeing with what is taught in the New Testament seems quite rare. There must be a plan for handling situations where people “think otherwise,” either thinking differently than what Paul taught, or differently from what other believers think Paul taught. God has such a plan.

4.  God’s solution to our “otherwise” thinking is just that, God’s solution! Paul says, “God will reveal that also to you.” Seems clear. We have “otherwise” thinking going on in the church, disagreements with what the apostles wrote (both Cessationists and Charismaniacs disagree with apostolic instructions on spiritual gifts), and disagreements with each other on how we interpret what is written. God’s solution is, come together and seek God to “reveal” the truth that would unite us once again. Of course, I mean this just as Paul meant it (insert smiley face here).

5.  The “only” gives us another characteristic of the unity-plan by insisting that there is something else we must do while waiting for God to reveal the unifying solution to our “otherwise” thinking. Here it is, almost with the longing of, “if only” churches would do this!

6.  While waiting for God to reveal our otherwises into unity, we are to “hold true to what we have attained.” Instead of letting the disagreement drive us to head off and start our own new denominations to idolize our distinctive understanding of what is written, what God’s word tells us to do is “hold true” to what we have already attained.

This holding “true” to present attainments would include what we have attained in our unified understanding of Scripture, and what we have attained in the personal experience of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In other words, don’t separate over what you disagree about when you have already attained so much agreement on other things. And, don’t separate from the level of fellowship we had prior to the disagreement when we need to maintain that level of fellowship in order to stay together and see how God reveals the unifying truth about the issue at hand.

I have often wondered what would have happened in so many situations where people started raising questions about the miraculous gifts and, instead of separating into the denominations that already held the divergent viewpoints, they stayed together and asked God to reveal his unifying solution.

Actually, I guess I’m secretly (or not) hoping that raising questions about the miraculous spiritual gifts in our Cyberspace Fellowships will give us opportunity to maintain the level of agreement in doctrine and fellowship that already exists, and humbly ask God to bring us together to all see things his way.

Yes, even though we all have stories of this working negatively in the past, with some people arrogantly demanding that their way is God’s way, I still think God can handle even such situations as this so we are able to mature in our fellowship, and come to greater agreement in what God’s breathed-out words want us mature Christians to think together.

The same things. All at the same time. Sounds kinda weird in a rather refreshing and hopeful way.

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)