Fussin' in the Family

Are Christians really called to be involved in feudin’ and fussin’ over doctrine? Surely, that can’t be right. Surely the reason that we have such fundamental disputes is because some of the people in the Church aren’t really believers, right?

Well, that’s what a lot of Presbyterians believe. And while it is of course possible that many Presbyterians could in fact be deceiving themselves about whether they are in fact saved, it remains the case that genuine, Spirit-filled, Jesus-following Christians always have disagreed, even over critically important issues.

Think again about the question of whether or not Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to join the church. This question was, as Paul rightly points out in his letter to the Galatians, central to the gospel. But with whom did Paul say he disagreed about this? In Galatians 2:11-13 Paul tells us that, at least for a time, the apostle Peter disagreed with him. One Scripture-writing apostle was disagreeing with another one. Surely the problem wasn’t that one or the other of them wasn’t saved.

And at the first General Assembly itself, described in Acts 15, verse 5 makes it plain that those who argued for the necessity of circumcision were not Pharisees who rejected the authority of Christ – they were Pharisees who believed. In short, this was an intramural disagreement. This dispute took place among believers.

So, how did these Christians who disagreed manage to come to a conclusion? Verse 6 reminds us that it was only after much dispute. And so if Spirit-filled folks like the apostles had to do some fussin’ before making a decision, why should we modern Presbyterians think we are any different?