“Diligently Preserve” the Unity of the Spirit

Our unity is not doctrinal. Our unity is spiritual (Eph. 4:3). We are not commanded to diligently preserve the unity of the faith, but to “diligently preserve” the unity of the Spirit. Do you have a doctrinal controversy with someone with whom you are united in Spirit? If God accepts both of you, which is the only way you can be united in Spirit, but you are doctrinally divided, then at least one of you is sinning. Maybe you are even intellectually correct on your doctrine, but you are sinning because division is a bad enough sin to eject you from the body of Christ (Tit. 3:10).

“Sound doctrine” has to do with obeying God, not figuring out theological ideas (Titus 2). In 1 Timothy 1:5 we read that the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, a sincere faith, and a good conscience. Then Paul says that some, who have departed from that focus, have gone off into all sorts of wrong things. That is one of the greatest afflictions of the churches today.

If we could stay focused on laying aside sin and the weights that encumber us (Heb. 12), we would not have time for some of the doctrinal controversies we have.

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About Paul Pavao

I am married, the father of six, and currently the grandfather of five. I teach, and I am always trying to learn to disciple others better than I have before. I believe God has gifted me to restore proper theological foundations to the Christian faith. In order to ensure that I do not become a heretic, I read the early church fathers from the second and third centuries. They were around when all the churches founded by the apostles were in unity. My philosophy for Bible reading is to understand each verse for exactly what it says in its local context. Only after accepting the verse for what it says do I compare it with other verses to develop my theology. If other verses seem to contradict a verse I just read, I will wait to say anything about those verses until I have an explanation that allows me to accept all the verses for what they say. This takes time, sometimes years, but eventually I have always been able to find something that does not require explaining verses away. The early church fathers have helped a lot with this. I argue and discuss these foundational doctrines with others to make sure my teaching really lines up with Scripture. I am encouraged by the fact that the several missionaries and pastors that I know well and admire as holy men love the things I teach. I hope you will be encouraged too. I am indeed tearing up old foundations created by tradition in order to re-establish the foundations found in Scripture and lived on by the churches during their 300 years of unity.
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