"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." John 17:20
There is a saying that has become common in the modern era that says 'Doctrine divides but Christ unifies.' In practice it has become commonplace to avoid teaching doctrine in the interest of unity. We want to avoid arguing at all costs in order to create a large umbrella under which the majority can comfortably fit. But is that really what Jesus intended? Why did the apostle Paul tell Titus to "teach what is in accord with sound doctrine"(Titus 2:1) if it was only going to cause divisions. Jesus himself in the 'Great Commision' told his disciples to teach those who would believe "everything he had commanded them" if doctrine wasn't important. The fact is, doctrine unites us.
This very principle is what unites people. In the Old Testament, God gave Moses the law which governed the people of Israel and in so doing, united them. The Old Covenant law was their 'doctrine.' This same principle applies for all nations. We have a constitution and system of laws which governs us as a nation. While there may be similarities with laws of other nations, our system is unique to us and unifies us.
The same is with the church. Our identity is in Christ, but you cannot separate true doctrine from the person of Christ. And some things are true about the Christian gospel and some things are false. That is why doctrine is vital. Jesus said in John 14:15:
"If you love me you will obey what I command."
Yes, we are saved by grace alone. But those of us who are being saved are in the process of being conformed into the perfect image of Christ. The life of the Christian is a life charactorized by 'surrendered obedience.' But in order to be obedient we need to understand what Jesus and his disciples taught so we know what obedience looks like. Therefore we need to study and learn sound doctrine.
The biggest reason for disunity is because we have failed to teach sound doctrine. I find it interesting that so much of the New Testament writing is devoted to correcting false doctrines that have slipped in even while there were still eyewitnesses living. Do we really have any idea how far we've fallen in the nearly two millenia since then? Especially when we don't devote ourselves to the apostles teaching. One of the consequences of neglecting sound doctrine is we find ourselves in the situation of attempting to unify 'sheep and goats.'
It has gotten to the point that many churches seem more concerned about trying to reach out to the 'goats' than they are about caring for the sheep. Charles Spurgeon predicted such a time as we now find ourselves living:
"A time will come when instead of sheperds feeding sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats."
Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:3:
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit there own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
Notice that Paul said a 'great number of teachers'; not just a few here and there sporadically. Jesus said in Matthew 24:11 that there would be many false prophets who would deceive many. He didn't say just a few. He said MANY. And in verse 24 Jesus said they would even perform signs and miracles in order to deceive. Jude refers to these teachers as 'blemishes at your love feasts, shepherds who feed only themselves, etc.' In verse 19 he said, "These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit."
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." (Prov. 14:12)
These false teachers are giving people exactly what they want and it IS NOT GOD!
In a large number of cases today (possibly the majority) we are trying to find common ground between those who are truly the followers of Christ, and those who claim to be followers of Christ but demonstrate by what they believe and the way they choose to live that they are really following their own fleshly desires. Why are we trying to unify two groups of people that Jesus intends to separate? Not that we need to be specifically trying to make the separation now but we need to be learning and teaching sound, solid doctrine. Sound doctrine will inevitably separate the sheep from the goats. As the apostle John said in 1 John 2: 19:
"They went out from among us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us."
So yes, it is true. Doctrine does divide. It divides the sheep from the goats. And it is supposed to divide the true followers of Christ from those who don't truly follow Him. But then pure, solid doctrine unites those who truly are followers of the Good Sheperd who hear His voice.
1 Corinthians 1:18:
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
Beware of any teaching that would be appealing to someone who is not being saved.
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