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written 2006

Truth Or Unity – Which Is More Important?

If I were to ask you if unity among Christians is important, I am sure that you would say "yes", and you would be right. One problem in the church today is a lack of unity resulting in a very bad witness to the world. Yet on the other hand we have something else to consider when thinking about unity.

We need to understand the importance of the truth. We want to be united. We want to be loyal, yet this unity and loyalty should not be at the expense of truth. Now I am talking about clearly stated Biblical truth. I am not talking about obscure interpretations of certain Biblical passages. I’m not talking about one’s understanding of end times for example. I am speaking about things clearly stated in Scripture; things like salvation, and moral conduct.

I have seen in families and churches a loyalty at the expense of truth. A person might lie for his brother because he is loyal to him. He’d rather lie instead of implicating his brother in a wrong doing. This is loyalty at the expense of truth. If the brother is in the wrong, you stand on the side of truth, not on the side of your brother. You don’t lie to cover things over in the name of loyalty, no matter who it is.

This is happening to often in the church today, or so I think. We should pursue unity the best we can, but never at the expense of truth. We first stand on the side of truth, not loyalty to our brother. We should promote unity based on the understanding that unity without truth is not really unity. Unity based on truth at no cost is true unity. Only this unity will stand the pressures of tests and time.

 

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