When to shut up


I was involved a little while back in an online discussion I should have avoided. I was applying basic Christian apologetics in a discussion that did not merit them. My interlocutors were stridently opposed to the gospel no matter what I said, or what anyone I could quote from said, and no matter how humbly I presented my case, they were self-superior and insulting.

There is a time to shake the dust off your sandals and move on, and that has application, too, in the quest for Christian unity. There are some churches, and some groups within some churches, who are so self-sufficiently superior that no consideration of the ideas and experiences of lesser Christians is worthwhile to them.

Such a group thinks that if the rest of Christendom wishes to unify with them they can become just like them in all aspects of belief and practice, an approach to unity that I am pretty sure can never succeed among fallen human beings. Such churches or groups will have to be left behind as we move toward unity. But is it really unity if not everyone participates? Well, yes it is. Christian unity is for Christians and Christians are humble. The arrogant need not apply.







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