Unity, Liberty and Charity – by Greg Albrecht
IT’S FAR FROM BREAKING NEWS! Our world is hopelessly divided, embroiled in continuing controversy. With soul-depressing regularity it seems entire news networks and organizations here in the United States spew out one and only one polarizing political perspective, demonizing all who disagree. Then there is the religious world, where “devout” people whose holy books tell them to love their neighbors are instead terrorizing and persecuting and even killing those who disagree.
Politics divides us and Christ-less religion separates us.
You may remember the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) – what began as a war between Catholics and Protestants became one of the longest and most deadly religious wars in history to that point – something like eight million lives were lost.
Starting with disagreements about doctrine and dogma, the strife escalated to strong-arming, authoritarian attempts to enforce doctrinal agreement and compliance. Massive devastation resulted, with suffering and bloodshed caused by violence, war, famine and disease.
Some credit Augustine (354-430) with coining the catch phrase In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity. Others believe this maxim of peace and understanding arose as a wise perception of the hatred and carnage caused by the Thirty Years’ War, attributing its original source to either an anonymous author or to the Lutheran educator/theologian Rupertus Meldenius. Philip Schaff, a 19th century historian, called In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity “the watchword of Christian peacemakers.”
Paul reminds us, Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master [that is, Jesus, our Master] servants stand or fall (Romans 14:4).
Within Christendom, denominations and churches and congregations disagree, quarrel and fight about a huge list of teachings and practices they see as absolute “essentials” – most of which are “non-essential” differences (I started to create a list, but there isn’t enough room in this brief letter to enumerate the non-essential topics that cause Christians to argue and bicker!).
When it comes to “essentials” and “non-essentials,” many churches and denominations allow little room for differences, barely acknowledging “non-essentials” while their list of “essentials” is long, tedious and overbearing.
The gospel of Jesus Christ dictates “essential” issues, all centered on and around who God is and how he loves us and relates to us. Jesus did not leave us with vast doctrinal lists of dogmas and acceptable and unacceptable behaviors – rather, detailed enumerations and catalogs of right and wrong are the products of human religious organizations that pervert and twist the gospel.
As Christ-followers we may, as Paul says in Romans 14, disagree on “non-essential” issues without becoming disagreeable.
Christ-less religion produces division and condemnation of others whereas Jesus unites and brings peace.
Christ-less religion has fabricated a long laundry list of necessities and requirements, so that its members might be assured of their own righteousness and in order that outsiders might be readily identified as heretics (of course, the most common religious definition of a heretic is someone who is not a member of one’s own church!).
Many religious authorities are drawing unwarranted lines in the sand, insisting “it’s our way or the highway” regarding peripheral, “non-essential” issues. They have no Christ-given direction or permission to make these bold pronouncements, so we must ask: upon whose authority are they condemning those who do not agree with them on “non-essential” teachings and practices? Why are people causing division and sowing discord and strife in the name of Jesus?
Sincere, but misguided Christians come to believe that God judges their faith by their commitment and belief in dogmatic beliefs and practices. They misunderstand God, perceiving him as an intolerant, regimented god of the rulebook.
Because their pastor, congregation or denomination demands complete compliance to procedures and practices, they perceive God as a stern and harsh judge who insists all must conform and march in exact lock step.
According to this legalistic mindset, there are no “nonessential” beliefs and practices upon which Christ-followers may differ – faith in such a blind and oppressive system is defined by an “all or nothing” package deal of accepting the rules and stipulations of their leadership, lock, stock and barrel. No questions allowed – no diversity tolerated!
But the reality is that the universal body of Christ has many differences, even though many churches and denominations insist that they are the only or at least the best Christians, and that those who are not members and who do not attend their buildings are not Christians at all.
In Whistling in the Dark, Frederick Buechner compared the universal body of Christ to the animals onboard Noah’s ark:
They are all piled in together helter-skelter, the predators and the prey, the wild and the tame, the sleek and beautiful ones and the ones that are ugly as sin. There are sly young foxes and impossible old cows. There are the catty and the piggish and the peacock-proud. There are hawks and there are doves.
Some are wise as owls, some silly as geese; some meek as lambs and others fire-breathing dragons…There’s backbiting just like everywhere else…There’s growling and grousing, bitching and whining…It’s a regular menagerie in there, and sometimes it smells to High Heaven like one.
But even at its worst, there’s at least one thing that makes it bearable within, and that is the storm without – the wild winds and the terrible waves…at its best there is, if never clear sailing, shelter from the blast…a beacon in the dark, the hope of finding safe harbor at last.”
In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, IN ALL THINGS CHARITY.
CHARITY: Translated from New Testament Greek into late Old English, the word charity appears in the Authorized King James Translation, perhaps best known in Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 13:13: And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
CHARITY: Within popular usage in the 21st century, charity normally defines generous and benevolent individual giving (as in “charitable giving”). Charity is also used as a noun to define a non-profit institution as a “charity” – charity is widely used in the United Kingdom in that context. Charity also speaks of “lenient judgment of others – an act of love giving others the benefit of the doubt.”
CHARITY: The most serious void in our world at large, within all religion everywhere and within Christianity in particular, is love/charity.
Closely related to the abysmal lack of love and concern for all people, of all cultures, races, religions and ethnicities is the massive misunderstanding of the nature of God. God IS LOVE. But the vast majority of religion begs to differ, giving lip service to God as defined as love, but in faith and practice it believes God to be a monster – a tyrant who delights in punishment and suffering.
God’s love for you and me and the entire world means that his judgment is lenient and that he delights in giving all his children the benefit of the doubt! Forgive me if you have heard/read me say this before: God knows all there is to know about you and me and he still loves us anyway!
We, the imperfect, are the recipients of God’s supreme and perfect love. With Robert Louis Stevenson, we all describe our pitiful efforts to be righteous as one who meant well, tried a little, failed much.
But the incredible, overwhelmingly GREAT NEWS is that by God’s grace Jesus lives in us as our risen Lord and produces his charitable love within us – therefore we give the benefit of the doubt to others.
My dear friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, proclaiming the love/charity/grace and mercy of God and the true nature of God is our sacred mission, our divine objective, our high calling and our wonderful privilege. Thank you for your tireless dedication and heart-felt commitment to this ongoing work that we share together!
Because of the supreme love of God, and his charity manifested in his grace,
Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from October 2018
We hope that our articles and resources bring comfort, hope, encouragement, and healing to our readers. If you’re experiencing that, please subscribe freely, share freely, and, if you’re able, please consider donating freely toward paying it forward by clicking the blue giving at the top of your screen.
Plain Truth Ministries | Box 300 | Pasadena, CA 91129-0300
