The Human Factor

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     The problem of division in the ranks of the believers is one of the major problems of our day. Men tend to react in different ways when confronted with such a problem. Some close their eyes and try to ignore it. Others attempt to minimize its importance and make it appear that the solution lies in the emphasis of something else. Still others seek to isolate and insulate themselves from reality by erecting a wall around themselves and the party with which they are allied. Such tactics are actually forms of escapism. They stem from fear and frustration. They are the resort of immature minds.

     The problem must be faced for God has laid upon us a solemn responsibility to do something about it. He has committed those whom he designates his sons to the task of making peace. This entails more than simply being inclined toward peace or being on the side of peace as opposed to division. It involves more than thinking about peace or desiring peace and praying for it. One may do all of these and still do little to really create peace. The peacemaker must analyze the problem of division, endeavor to understand the motivations of the past which have caused it, and he must direct his energy and talent in creativity to bring about a state of unity.

     I say he must do this because any responsibility enjoined by God has to be met, either in this life or in the one to come. We cannot finally evade an answer to the problem for we must either arrive at an answer here, or we shall arrive at the place where we must answer for our failure. To be a peacemaker means more than reading a journal which advocates peace or endorsing the work of another who labors for it. It means a personal commitment to a task with the expenditure of time, effort and energy required to achieve it. It requires a persistent and consistent attempt to lessen every area of tension. He who would be called a child of God must be a peacemaker!

     This is an age of conformity, postponement and substitution. No one wants to be regarded as different. No one desires to be designated a radical. There is a conspiracy of timid souls to maintain the status quo. The problems of life are put off until another day, or something else more in keeping with the wishes and desires of the people is substituted in the hope that it will provide an opiate to drug the senses and quiet the throbbing conscience. But the world is in a topsy-turvy state. The same holds true for the church. The present condition is opposed to the divine plan and purpose. We cannot attain unto God's will by perpetuating our status. We must change it. There is a sacred imperative to do something that will bring us to a state more in harmony with the divine will.

     Unfortunately reformers are always deterred by the threat of being labeled as traitors and radicals. We must come to realize, however, that one who is loyal to a party may betray the cause of Christ. The party spirit is a work of the flesh. The real traitor is the one who claims to be faithful to the ideals of Jesus while motivated by narrow partisanship. As for being a radical, perhaps that is what we need most of all. The word is from the Latin radix, a root. It is from this we get our word radish. A radical is one who gets to the root of things. He is not satisfied to meander through life dealing only with superficial matters. Jesus was a real radical. His teaching was a little too radical for some of the people in his day on earth; it is still too radical for many in the church.

     When we get to the root of the question of division among the believers it will be seen that our problem is one of human relationships. In this connection J. B. Phillips writes: "The deep fundamental problems of human life are really neither intellectual nor technical; they are always in the last resort problems of human relationship." The case can be summarized in a few brief sentences. Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross to remove walls of partition and to make men one

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in him. He prayed for the oneness of all who believe in him on the testimony or the apostles. Those who believe in him are rent and torn. Schism and division are rife in our world.

     Thus our present state is opposed to the purpose of the cross. It is a contradiction of the prayer of Jesus. Why is the religious world in this condition? Perhaps there is no simple answer. No doubt many complex forces and factors contribute to it. One thing is obvious, we are just what our thinking has made us. We have not thought as God thinks or we would be united. We have developed a philosophy which is counter to God's purpose. In pursuing it we have fractured ourselves into numerous segments and factions.

     It is a common assumption that all divisions are caused by deviations from a divine pattern, either by adding something God has not commanded or by deliberately omitting something he has demanded. This generalization like so many others is not true. Many of those things which are credited with creating division did not create it at all. The alienation of heart already existed and the first thing that was presented which could be magnified into a rallying standard was seized upon and emphasized until the open rupture came. The real cause was the clash of temperaments, the selfish desire to dominate and domineer. It was not so much a matter of principles in many cases as of personalities.

     A frequent source of difficulty is the tendency of man to legislate his opinions into law. He then seeks to bind these opinions upon others and those who refuse to be bound are driven forth. When modes and methods are hallowed by traditional practice, it is easy for partisans to believe that the early saints practiced a procedure because the party practices it. "The pattern" is not much bound upon us by the early church as it is bound upon the early church by our practice. The interpretations of certain fathers of the party become the norm and constitute the criteria by which everyone is to be measured including the new covenant writers. The holy word has been utilized to prove about anything and everything that men want to do.

     J. B. Phillips again writes: "Although in the heated atmosphere of the revival meeting the phrase 'the Bible says' may carry fervent conviction, the intelligent man who has read the Bible knows perfectly well it can be made to say a lot of things, and that, as a matter of sober history, witch-hunting, slave-owning, and the inhuman practice of apartheid have all been justified by reference to the same Bible."

     It is doubtful that we can eliminate the human factor from our divisions, These generally result not so much from cool rational discussion in love, but from heated emotional argument in hate. Men cannot learn to live together until they first learn how to live. Our rifts will be healed and our barriers removed when each member of the body learns what it means to say "To live is Christ." It may be true that many of our parties have originated from a desire to be faithful or loyal but it is a misplaced loyalty. No man can prove his loyalty to Jesus by separating from his brethren because Jesus positively forbids it through the teaching of the apostles. To be loyal to Jesus one must continue to love all of the brethren, not just those who see everything as he does.

     Our divisions are monuments to our tragic failure. Their very existence bears mute testimony to our spiritual immaturity. They proclaim to all the world that we are still babes, that we are carnal and walk as men. So long as these divisions continue we all rest under the stigma created by our own selfishness and littleness, "for while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men?" It is useless to boast of our progress and gains in the spiritual realm so long as strife exists, for while it exists we are of the flesh. We are not extraordinary men, we are merely ordinary men! The only hope of clearing ourselves is by cleaning up the condition.

     Our schisms are witness to our lack of

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real regard for Jesus. Nothing can be elevated as a basis or test of fellowship without first reducing Jesus to a position that is inferior and secondary. When the apostle was dealing with the schismatic state of the Corinthian congregation he declared, "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." He did not mean that no one could emphasize anything else for men were doing just that. He did mean that no one could lay any other foundation of unity and fellowship. The very existence of the parties among us shows that those who have proclaimed the loudest their loyalty to Jesus have been building on other foundations.

     Our first major task is to recapture the sense of commitment to Jesus. When our life is "bid with Christ in God" the love of God will be shed abroad in our hearts. Brethren will become of greater importance to us than opinions, ideas or methods. We shall no longer be so much concerned as to whether men are conformed to us as that they are transformed by him. We shall cease to make laws and bind them upon others, but we will be bound to them by the one word which fulfills the whole law love! We need not love Jesus the less because we love more of the brethren.

     We hear much about following "the pattern" but God has not given us a pattern of separation, segregation and division. When primitive saints became disunited they were not blessed but condemned. When schisms arose the apostle did not select one party as "the faithful church" for no party is the church. Those who would follow the pattern must walk in love toward the brethren. The pattern is one of cohesion not of division. Those who demand a scripture for what they do should cite the scripture upon which they acted in dividing from their brethren. It is not to be found. God is not double-tongued. He does not command unity among brethren in one verse and urge division among them in the next. Here is what the pattern says, "Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you."