God could have regenerated every Christian and simultaneously given us perfect theology, perfect exegesis, and identical conclusions about every disputed question. The moment we received the Holy Spirit, we could have received a complete theological upload. No denominations, no church splits, no controversies, and no endless debates over matters Christians have argued about for centuries. It would seemingly have made the Great Commission simpler, humanly speaking. This obvious fact deserves more consideration than we usually give it.

The Church is composed of people with different backgrounds, cultures, temperaments, experiences, abilities, levels of maturity, and degrees of understanding. Yet every true Christian possesses the same Spirit and belongs to the same Body. Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 12 is not that our differences are an unfortunate problem we must eventually eliminate. The Body is a unity composed of different members.

Unity, therefore, cannot mean uniformity.

Perfect uniformity would eliminate much of the moral significance of Christian unity. If everyone understood everything alike and reached identical conclusions, there would be little need for patience, forbearance, humility, gentleness, or forgiveness. Love would be considerably easier because there would be less in our relationships requiring us to deny ourselves.

Families are messy. Brothers and sisters mature at different rates. They misunderstand one another, quarrel, offend, learn, repent, forgive, and grow. The Father does not solve the problem by making all His children identical. He teaches them to love one another.

Human beings do not simply receive information and incorporate it objectively. New information enters an existing framework of beliefs, relationships, loyalties, fears, assumptions, and experiences. That is one reason two sincere Christians can examine the same passage of Scripture and reach different conclusions. The explanation is not always that one has studied and the other has not, or that one loves truth while the other does not. One man’s cardinal doctrine may be another man’s adiaphora. The difference cannot always be explained by intelligence, sincerity, or faithfulness.

This does not mean there is no objective truth or that every theological conclusion is equally valid. Scripture commands us to contend for the faith, correct error, refute false teachers, and grow in knowledge. Some doctrines are essential, some errors are destructive, and some disagreements require separation.

But not all of them do.

Romans 14 is particularly instructive. Paul addresses Christians who disagreed about matters they considered important. He did not deny objective truth or suggest doctrine was irrelevant. His principal concern was how Christians treated one another while they disagreed. They were commanded to receive one another, not despise one another, and pursue peace and mutual edification.

Perhaps we have underestimated the role disagreement plays in our sanctification.

Patience cannot develop where patience is never required. Forbearance has no meaning unless there is something to bear. Forgiveness cannot exist without offense. Humility remains theoretical until we encounter someone who sees things differently and forces us to consider the possibility that we may not understand everything as clearly as we imagine.

Much of the fruit of the Spirit is relational. It can only be produced and demonstrated in community, and community inevitably produces friction.

Perhaps God did not give the Church instantaneous intellectual unanimity because He is accomplishing something greater than intellectual unanimity.

He is forming Christ in us.

The question, therefore, is not merely whether I possess the correct doctrine. The question is what kind of man I am becoming as I pursue it.

Can I hold strong convictions without becoming arrogant? Can I listen without surrendering discernment? Can I admit an error without feeling that my identity has been threatened? Can I remain in fellowship with a brother who has heard my arguments and remains unconvinced?

Paul tells the Ephesians to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Christians do not create this unity. The Spirit creates it. But we are responsible for maintaining it.

Christian unity is not automatic agreement. It is the Spirit-created reality that people who differ have been reconciled to God and to one another in Christ and must now learn to live accordingly.

The goal is not to care less about truth. It is to become the kind of people who can pursue truth without devouring one another.

God is not merely gathering people who possess the same information. He is forming a family whose members must learn to listen, correct, forgive, bear with, and receive one another while their minds are still being renewed.

We will see some things before our brothers see them. They will see some things before we do. Sometimes we will correct them. Sometimes they will correct us.

God could have made us all agree.

He did not.

Instead, He gave us His Word, His Spirit, and one another.

And then He commanded us to love, not automatically, but out of a willful conscious decision to obey Him.

Article posted with permission from Bill Evans