Some time back I had been to my friends’ church and noticed a few doctrines they follow which I didn’t feel was right. I felt how wrong they were and how good and right my church was. That was till the pastor stood up to give the message. He spoke with such passion and conviction, that I knew here was a man whose passion was God. Somehow the doctrines didn’t seem to matter anymore.
I was reading an article by Zac Poonen some time back titled “The true gospel and the false”. I’ve copied a part of his article here:
Our Lord did not come primarily to give people a doctrine, or a church-pattern or to make them speak in tongues or even to give them an experience!
He came to "save us from sin". He came to lay the axe to the root of the tree. And the root of sin is : Being centered in ourselves, seeking our own and doing our own will. If we do not permit the Lord to axe and uproot this "root" from our lives, we will be Christians only superficially. Satan may however deceive us into imagining that we belong to a higher class than other Christians, because of our doctrine or our experience or our church-pattern!
Satan doesn't care even if we have the right doctrine, experience and church-pattern, so long as we continue to "live for ourselves" (This, by the way, is just another phrase for "living in sin"!!). Christendom today is filled with Christians who seek their own and live for themselves, who are yet convinced that God views them as superior to other Christians, merely because of doctrinal differences or church-pattern or "experiences". This shows what a great work Satan has succeeded in doing in Christendom.
The article was an eye opener.
Whenever I felt my church was better than other churches, I had allowed satan to do his work in me.
Whenever I felt my doctrine was better than others, I had allowed satan to do his work in me.
Whenever I felt I was superior (or better) to (or than) others who belonged to a different church or followed a different doctrine, I had allowed satan to do his work in me.
What actually matters is loving God with all our heart and our soul and loving our neighbours as ourselves. God doesn’t look at the doctrines or the churches. All that matters to God is our hearts. As long as our hearts are right before God and bent on pleasing him and walking with him everyday and drawing closer and closer to him, God would be pleased and happy.
Well, this is not about putting up with wrong doctrines but about not letting them come in the way of our relationship with God. Its almost like choosing whose work we want on our lives – God’s or satan’s.
1 Corinthians 1:10 - I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
1 Corinthians 12:25 - so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other
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