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“ Summary of The Strong in Faith ”
The “strong in the faith” is the Christian who comfortably rests his conscience on the whole of doctrine. He is knowledgeable, discerning, stable, and not easily offended. He yields to Scripture and changes his views with humility when he needs to. But he risks treating weaker brethren with contempt.
Naturally, he is invested with responsibility to them: he must receive them and not despise them, avoid cold refutation and offer patience and a loving example, never tempt them to violate their sensitivities (however, PrS emphasized here that we are to never indulge their legalism), and bring peace and edification to their faith. But he must be careful to not throw himself into sin bondage.
When Christians differ, we must understand that love, not uniformity, is the vital ingredient for unity, that each of us is on our own stage of growth in grace, that our differences are not absolute, that there are differences between doctrines and matters of indifference, and that we only need to agree on essential doctrine for fellowship.
We must not handle our differences with silence, rehashing, shaming, misrepresentation, or intimidation. Instead, we must remember that matters of indifference should not bar church membership, that all of us are imperfect and are in the family of God. |
