The Causes of Division
A new disease comes into a community.
Doctors and scientists come to look for
the cause or source of the disease. Once
they understand the origin, they can
combat it and prevent it. Likewise when
we understand where division comes
from, we are more able to heal it and to
prevent it. According to scripture, causes
of division include:
enjoys that kind of strife, but Paul says it
eats away at the church like gangrene.
1. Rejection of
fundamental beliefs and
commandments in the
Bible
Though the doctrine of unity is among the
major, foundational doctrines of our faith,
it has often been the neglected orphan
child in doctrinal study. We need to
deeply understand such passages as
Ephesians 4:1-6; Romans 14:1-15:7;
16:18; 1 Corinthians 1-3; Galatians
5:19-23. Biblical unity is not just
“everybody agreeing with me.” We will
never agree on everything, but we can
have the unity the Bible talks about.
Paul listed basic fundamentals of the faith
on which unity depends – Ephesians 4:46; 1 Corinthians 15:3,4. If a person
rejects even one of those essentials, we
cannot remain one with him. John wrote
that Christians should not receive into
their houses teachers who said Christ did
not come in the flesh – 1 John 2:22,23;
4:1-3; 2 John 7-11; compare 1
Corinthians 13:3; Ephesians 4:4-6; 1
Corinthians 15:3,4; 5:1-13. God does not
condemn us for separating ourselves
from this kind of false teachers. We are
required to be separate from them.
2. Our sinful nature, “the
flesh”
Paul and John described the actions of
the sinful nature – Galatians 5:19-21; 3
John 9,10. We justify our divisions by
saying they are about scriptural beliefs,
but often the underlying cause is a
struggle over power, or perhaps
resentment and unforgiveness, or pride in
our superior righteousness (Paul said the
Corinthians must have factions among
them in order show who has God’s
approval – 1 Corinthians 11:19). Our
superior “identity” becomes more
important than Christ’s wider body and
the welfare of the church.
4. Not understanding the
Bible’s teaching about
unity or the nature of
Biblical unity
5. Making other things
bigger than Christ and
the cross
See 1 Corinthians 1:10-4:1. The
Corinthians divided because they
followed different preachers more than
they followed Christ. We might glory in
an eloquent preacher, a wise teacher, a
name, a building, a pet doctrine, a
tradition. All of these could divide
Christians. Anything (even a valid
doctrine) that replaces Christ at the center
of our attention becomes an idol. All the
other teachings in scripture get their
meaning from the central truth of the
cross and the Lordship of Jesus. On
Pentecost baptism took its meaning from
the central truth of the Lordship of Jesus.
Paul refused to center his teaching on
anything but the crucified Christ – 1
Corinthians 2:2. A message centered
anywhere else becomes a distorted,
deceptive gospel. And there can be as
many divided sects as there are doctrines
to emphasize.
3. A love of quarreling
over foolish and vain
questions
6. Legalism, the belief
that we are saved by our
correctness rather than
by the grace of the cross
Paul said some religious discussions are
not only profitless but engender strife and
division - 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 4:7; 6:35,20,21; 2 Timothy 2:15-17,23-26; 4:3,4;
Titus 1:10-15; 3:9-11. Our fallen nature
In our flesh we like to feel righter than
others and that we have made it by
ourselves. It is hard to admit our failure
and our total dependence on the Lord.
So our fallen, fleshly nature always wants
to take the gospel system of grace and
turn it into a mere legal code, a system of
law-salvation. We appear to accomplish
salvation by our own effort rather than by
depending on the cross. This happened
with some in the early church (see Acts
15 and the letter to the Galatians) and it
has happened often in the church since
the apostles. People who fight to
preserve a legalistic system often
mistakenly believe they are contending
for the gospel and for the Christian faith.
– see Romans 10:2,3.
The New Testament teaches that no one
can be saved by the law-correctness,
because no one keeps all of the law
perfectly. We have all sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God but we are
counted righteous because Jesus paid for
our sins by his blood on the cross –
Romans 3:20-28.
A Comparison of Justification by Law and
Justification by Grace :
Righteousness by
Law
Righteousness by
Grace
Our own doing
God's doing
Depends on perfect
works – Galatians
3:10; James 2:10
Depends on what
Christ has done
Our own
righteousness
Righteousness from
God
Boasts of own
performance
Glorifies God
Earns salvation “God owes us”
Salvation an
undeserved gift
Bondage
Freedom
Concern mainly for the Concern for the spirit
letter
and intent
Through deeds, works
Through faith
alone
A feeling of superiority A feeling of humility
Do right because we
have to
Do right freely
because our new
nature wants to
Do just enough to “get Do all the good we
by”
can
All have failed
All may receive
But we still tend to think we will be saved
by keeping the commands of God
perfectly. And division naturally grows
out of legalism. If we think we are free of
error, we feel that we must separate
ourselves from those who believe and
practice error. Since legalism focuses on
a few selected commandments or
interpretations (while neglecting many
other teachings and inward concerns), it
is easy to feel that we are measuring up
pretty well. Thus the large number of
divisive sects, each walling itself off from
other believers and considering itself the
only faithful church (based on its
correctness on some particular issue).
This is deadly. Not only does it
needlessly rend and tear the body of
Christ and repel outsiders who might
have accepted the gospel, but at its
extreme it removes a person from the
grace of God. “You who are trying to be
justified by law have been alienated from
Christ; you have fallen away from grace”
– Galatians 5:4. Our “righteousness” by
rule-keeping is an illusion; none of us
understands or obeys all the Bible
teaches. Also our focus on externals
hinders our developing an inward,
personal relationship with the Lord. “The
letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” – 2
Corinthians 3:6b. Like the Pharisees we
may strain out gnats but swallow camels.
Thus the prayer of Jesus for unity is
fulfilled.
---B. Shelburne, originally published in
the Servant newsletter of South Houston
Bible Institute and now available under
Bible Lessons at www.shbi.org
© by G.B. Shelburne, III (except for any graphics
and scripture quotations). May be reproduced for
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provided document content is not altered and this
copyright notice is included in full. Format may be
altered. South Houston Bible Institute, 12450-A
Highway 3, Webster, TX 77598-1510, U.S.A.,
telephone 281-990-8899, email <shbi@shbi.org>,
web site <www.shbi.org>. Scriptures, unless
otherwise noted, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE:
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION © 1978 and
1984 by the New York International Bible Society,
used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
Because salvation depends on our
perfect obedience, we make sure by
adding several extra fences of rules
beyond what the Bible actually teaches.
We see rules and patterns beyond what
God ever intended. This gives us more
and more to divide over.
Some of Paul’s readers at Rome were
afraid of Paul’s teaching about grace
because they thought it meant a license
to be careless and disobedient. Paul’s
response was emphatic: Whoever would
say such a thing had misunderstood
grace completely, as well as who we are
as Christians. Today we may still
misunderstand grace, thinking it means
accepting a lesser standard. In fact grace
sets a much higher standard for personal
obedience – Titus 2:11,12.
Legalism actually produces less
obedience to God because it overlooks so
many of God's commands and narrows to
a few, and because it neglects inward
matters of obedience in favor of the
outward. Under grace, the believer is
much more motivated to obey God
because the believer is responding to the
love of the cross, a relationship with his or
her Lord. The believer loves God
personally and is concerned about all
God's commands, not just some. But
since the child of grace knows his/her
own imperfection and dependence on the
cross, he/she is more ready to accept
other imperfect people just as God does.
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