Looking For Unity – 14

Out-of-Balance or Out-of-Bounds – 04 

Some churches, ministries, and individuals are to be marked and avoided (Rom 16:17): the demonstrably False, the mere Formalists, and the Frozen. They are out-of-bounds.  Others are out-of-balance. They too are to be noted, but as the relatively week and for the sake of loving ministry and careful handling.

The quest for unity requires the ability to make distinctions between Essential and Non-Essential issues. Jonathan Edwards expresses this need with the following words:

“We have shown how the godly differ from the ungodly. They differ specifically and essentially.  [But] even the godly themselves [are not] without their differences one from another, but it is only a gradual difference. They all agree in essentials and are all exceedingly and essentially distinguished from the ungodly. They differ from the ungodly as the living differ from the dead. They differ one from another as the living differ among themselves in degrees of health and strength and stature.”  Edwards, J. (1728–1729). Profitable Hearers of the Word. In W. H. Kimnach (Ed.), Jonathan Edwards Sermons (Mt 13:23). New Haven, CT: The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University.