Watch out for those who cause divisions
Sunday 19th February
I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.
Romans 16:17-18 (NIV)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
You may have heard some of the Church of England bishops speak of ‘walking together’ despite our disagreements over the Bible’s teaching on sex and marriage. Certainly, Christians value unity highly, and we should want to walk together with other believers. After all, the apostle Paul urges us to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Unity is good, and Christians prize unity highly.
But we cannot walk together with everyone! So with whom are we to walk together? First of all, of course, we are to walk together with Jesus (who himself promises to walk with his people). And then we’re to walk together with others who walk with him. That’s the unity we’re to fight for!
However, I can see no requirement to walk together with those who are walking away from Jesus, walking away from the Scriptures, walking away from the historic teaching of the Christian church, and walking away from the great majority of Christian believers around the world today (not least almost all the Anglican Communion).
Indeed, far from there being no requirement to walk with such people, and especially those who teach such things, there is a requirement to “keep away from them.” Interestingly, it is they, and not we, who are “caus[ing] divisions” by supporting what is “contrary to the teaching you have learned.”
And that is what is happening as sex is effectively decoupled from the marriage between a man and woman. We’re being led to believe that what we once thought the Bible says is sinful may not be sinful after all. And it seems that the reason for this shift is that our culture has changed. But since when has the culture been a safe guide for what pleases God? Jesus wasn’t crucified because he agreed with his culture!
Once again the Church of England Evangelical Council has been so good in leading the way in helping us to understand what’s going on and what it means, and their latest video ‘We Love the Church of England’ can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO3nsDInDiQ
It speaks of how the House of Bishops’ proposals are encouraging the church to walk away from what the Bible say about sex and marriage, and of the need to reorder the structures of the Church of England to enable biblical teaching and witness to flourish. You can find the previous five videos here, all excellent:
https://ceec.info/resources/gods-beautiful-story/
Lord, give us grace, wisdom and courage, both to keep the unity of the Spirit and to keep away from those who teach what is contrary to what we have learned from you. Amen.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)