If we all know the truth, why do we disagree?
1 John 2v20-21
26th June 2020
Last time, we looked at:
1 John 2v20-21
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it
and because no lie comes from the truth.
As I promised, we'll now address the reality that, although John tells us "all of you know the truth" Christians disagree about what Scripture teaches.
1 Corinthians 2:16 says "we have the mind of Christ". Gordon Fee in his excellent commentary says here "by 'mind' he probably means the thoughts of Christ as they are revealed by the Spirit". I'm sure that's right, but Christians are often mistaken, theologically as well as in other ways. How can this be?
We know Christians are often mistaken because we change our minds. If I change my mind, either I was wrong before, or I'm wrong now, or both. Also, Christians disagree with each other. When two people disagree, at least one of them is wrong.
Firstly, I'd like to point out that all of us know Jesus, and Jesus is the truth (John 14v6). Also, all of us know the Bible, and the Bible is the inerrant written word of God (2 Timothy 3v16). No lie comes from Jesus, and no lie comes from the Bible. They are the truth. But we don't know or understand Jesus perfectly, and none of us knows and understands the Bible perfectly. Knowing the Son of God, the One who is the Truth, is not the same as knowing everything He knows. Having a Bible on your bookshelf is not the same us understanding every word it contains.
I would say that true Christians don't disagree about the things that are of primary importance, such as the Holy Trinity, or the divinity of Christ, or the effectiveness of the cross, or the Resurrection, or the need for repentance and holy lives. However, Christians do disagree about secondary issues like infant baptism and spiritual gifts. I think the three main reasons for these disagreements are:
Firstly: Most Christians tend to believe what their pastors and teachers tell them. This is why James 3v1 urges us, "not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly". If a teacher teaches a falsehood, God will chastise him. It's a serious matter to lead God's people astray.
Secondly: Some teachers choose not to believe some Bible passages, or to deliberately distort them. This is great sin.
Thirdly: Some teachers and some denominations teach doctrines that are not in the Bible. That, too, is a serious error, and it can build up over hundreds of years, so error can compound.
So although all Christians know the truth, we can't say that all Christians are right about everything. I can't say that I'm right about everything. I can say that teachers should do their best to be faithful to what the Bible teaches, not what the world teaches, not what their denomination teaches, and not what their churches want to hear, just what the Bible teaches.
I'm also saying that all Christians can be "sort of rightish" about all the most important doctrines. And I'm saying that this depends on our anointing from the Holy Spirit, and our faith in the absolute perfection of Scripture. If we are truly born again, and if we refuse to ignore or distort Scripture, and if we refuse to teach things that we don't find in the Bible, then we will know a great deal of God's truth.
Be a member of a church that, however imperfectly, believes the Bible to be the infallible, inerrant word of God, true in every detail. Be a member of a church that teaches the Bible, all the Bible, and nothing but the Bible, so help them God, and does so as faithfully as they can.
I quoted this last time:
John 16:13a
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.
May we all, especially our pastors and teachers, actively seek the Holy Spirit's guidance into truth, not the world's guidance, or the denomination's guidance, but God's guidance.