From Creed to Core
Since the earliest days of the church – nearly 2000 years ago – Christians have been wrestling with a big question: what truths do we all need to agree on?
To answer that, the church began writing creeds; short, clear statements of belief. These creeds mostly arose due to issues of heresy that threatened to distort the gospel.
Examples include:
- The Old Roman Creed (2nd century) – addressed the false belief that by acquiring knowledge you are saved, rather than being saved by faith in Christ.
- The Athanasian Creed (5th-6th century) – focussed on a detailed explanation of the Trinity.
- The Nicene Creed (325 AD, revised again in 381 AD) – perhaps the most famous – clarified that Jesus is fully God and fully man, countering the claim that he was merely a created being.
We, as a church, have a ‘statement of faith’ based on this very creed, which has stood as a shared foundation across most denominations.
Blood, Pen & Pencil
One way to think about Christian beliefs is to picture them in three categories:
- Blood issues — truths so central to the faith that removing them would destroy Christianity itself.
- Pen issues — important matters worth writing down, but not worth dividing the family of God over.
- Pencil issues — beliefs that may be held lightly, where details can be reworked without damaging fellowship e.g. preference of style of worship.
You might already have some ideas of what you’d put in each category: inerrancy of Scripture, same-sex marriage, women in leadership, baptism, predestination, environmental stewardship, prosperity, the role of the Church in politics, divorce, whether kids should go to public or private school, and assisted suicide- to name but a few!
Many Christians (myself included) instinctively place the above issues in the ‘blood’ category. I want to suggest that, historically, most belong somewhere between pen and pencil.
The Blood Issues – Summed Up
So, what might some non-negotiables blood issues be? The Nicene Creed gives us perhaps the clearest historical summary of the core truths that unite Christians (not an exhaustive list!):
- Belief in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
- Belief in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father; through Him all things were made.
- That Jesus came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, became human, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried, rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ascended into heaven, and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
- Belief in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
- Belief in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
When Pen Becomes Blood
If we confuse secondary issues with the gospel itself, we’ll naturally begin treating people as though agreement on every issue is the entrance requirement for belonging to our church. Beyond the above proposed essential blood issues list, I think there is room for sincere disagreement. It’s how we handle these disagreements that matters deeply. We are all passionate about different things and this is a good thing! So, what do we do if we disagree?
As I get older, and more mature(?) in the faith, I have realised that the things I think are most important for someone to address in their life are rarely the things God thinks are the most important things for that person to address.
Often the things I think people should address are simply fruit behaviours of root issues.
Here’s where we can run into trouble: when we treat pen or pencil issues as blood issues, we risk becoming bouncers to God’s grace. We stand at the door, deciding who gets in to our family based on the things we deem they must fix. The danger with this? We might keep people from encountering Jesus because of issues we think He may not be dealing with quick enough – or that may not be issues at all!
Am I ever guilty of being a bouncer to God’s grace? Of course. I often need to remind myself that I need to let people spend time around Jesus (if we have Christ in us, the hope of glory, then that’s us!) and then God will bring conviction where conviction is needed.
Please don’t hear what I’m not saying: we should not be afraid to address sin in people’s lives, in a loving, Spirit-led, relational way. I’m a big believer in ‘grace until you know’. We shouldn’t plot to sin in our hearts and when we know better, we should not go on repeating the sin which God by His Spirit in us or a friend has pointed out to us.
I’m just saying, sometimes, we are quick to judge rather than allowing God to move in someone’s life. There’s an example of this in 2 Kings 5; Naaman, a powerful Syrian army commander with leprosy, is directed by a captive Israelite servant girl to seek healing from the prophet Elisha in Israel. After humbling himself to wash seven times in the muddy Jordan River as instructed, Naaman’s flesh is miraculously healed by God. At the end of the story, Naaman says to Elisha:
“please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord. But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.”
At this point, you might expect Elisha to say something like “don’t be so ridiculous Naaman, has your healing taught you nothing? You don’t need to take mud with you to worship the God of all creation, He is everywhere! As for bowing down in the temple of Rimmon, you obviously cannot do that anymore!” However, what does Elisha say instead?
“Go in peace” – 2 Kings 5:19
This isn’t an endorsement of idolatry. Elisha knew bowing to idols is wrong. Why doesn’t he challenge Naaman? I don’t know, ultimately, but Elisha appears willing to trust that God would continue to work in Naaman’s life instead of attempting to resolve every theological and ethical question immediately.
A final example of this is from my own life. I grew up in a totally non-Christian household, but it was spiritual. When I joined the Oaks, I remember asking Richard, “what do I need to get rid of, now I’m a Christian?”. He, very wisely, didn’t provide me with a concrete list of things. Instead, he told me to go into my room, hold an object and ask Holy Spirit to reveal to me whether I should keep it or not. And that’s what I did. I’m so blessed to have been discipled by Richard (and other mature Christians), for his grace and patience for me when I was a young Christian (and beyond!).
We are not to ‘fix’ everything in people’s lives. We are to be Spirit-led and share the gospel with humility and in love.
In our disagreements, I think it’s good to ask ourselves:
- Are we are becoming more Christ-like?
- Are we becoming more loving?
- Are we removing stumbling blocks to faith, or adding them?
To sum up: Truth is very important. Christians have debated what constitutes as truth for the last 2000 years. God is in the business of transformation. His grace changes lives. Sometimes the most Christ-like thing we can do is make space for people to be with Him, trusting that He will address the root issues in our lives, in His timing.
Want to Go Deeper?
Read:
- Exodus 20:1-17
- Deuteronomy 5:6-21
- Micah 6:8
- Matthew 5:1-7:29
- Luke 6:20-49
- Romans 5-8
- Galatians 5:16-26
