General debate: unity or purity?
This morning I was at a men’s Bible study. We’re currently examining Colossians 2 and what the passage is referring to, and what we can draw out of it into our daily living.
The discussion this morning centered around Col 2:16-17. One person explained that this passage means we shouldn’t therefore judge other Christian’s differences in beliefs and traditions, and seek to promote unity between faith traditions. He gave the example of seeking unity with people who are in the Roman Catholic church.
However, another person in the group countered that purity was more important, and that this verse doesn’t absolve Christians of the responsibility to do things such as “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). He countered that to keep the purity of the church we should separate from other faith traditions that add regulations and rules to what Christ has done, such as the Roman Catholic church.
There were a host of other topics that came out of studying this text together: the sufficiency of Christ, legalism, the role of the Ten Commandments in our life today, Roman Catholics and what they believe, and so on. But we all had to leave and the main question seemed unresolved: what is more important for the Body of Christ, unity or purity? Also, does Colossians 2:16-17 refer to unity/purity or is it in a different context?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Truth and love, thanks!
Hi William,
Vs. 16-17 of Col. 2 is just a small part of a larger context. In the whole of chapter 2 (actually the whole book, but to focus on chapter 2) Paul is addressing the purity of the church. He is addressing various elements of false teaching that have crept into the church. He is not simply saying – pursue unity even when there is false teaching which may disqualify you. Rather just the opposite – don’t let others come in and teach you that you must add something to Christ, you must not and cannot, and cannot standby and allow the purity of the Gospel of Christ to become tainted and therefore disqualify yourselves for the sake of unity.
In fact that would be a misunderstanding of unity in the first place. Unity and purity are not at odds against each other. In order to have unity, you must be united around something. Paul will argue in many of his letters that we must be unified around the purity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Scriptures alone, to the Glory of God alone.
When someone adds to Christ (i.e. the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church) they have forsaken the Gospel of Christ, and therefore have lost the possibility of both purity and unity.
Martin Luther had this to say about the Catholics…
“We on our part confess that there is much that is Christian and good under the papacy; indeed everything that is Christian and good is to be found there and has come to us from this source.
For instance we confess that in the papal church there are the true holy Scriptures, true baptism, the true sacrament of the altar, the true keys to the forgiveness of sins, the true office of the ministry, the true catechism in the form of the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the articles of the creed.
Similarly the pope admits that we too, though condemned by him as heretics, and likewise all heretics, have the holy Scriptures, baptism, the keys, the catechism, etc. [...]
I contend that in the papacy there is true Christianity, even the right kind of Christianity and many great and devoted saints. Shall I cease to make this pretence?”
Hi Rhett,
Unfortunately that quote has taken on a bit of infamy online, but is almost always given out of context and with no reference to the purpose of the letter from which it is taken.
It is by far the most positive statement regarding Roman Catholicism you will find from the pen of Luther.
The 31st of this month mark the date in 1517 when Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the wall of the church in Wittenburg. It was in 1521 at the age of 37 that Luther stood before the Diet of Worms and gave his now famous “Here I Stand” speech and formally excommunicated from the Roman Catholic church and had a price on his head.
The letter this quote comes from was in defense of infant baptism written to argue against the Anabaptists. He is not arguing in this letter for the purity of the Pope or the Catholic church doctrine, just the issue of baptism.
Here are a series of quotes which more accurately reflect Luther’s view of the Roman Church:
Numbered excerpts are from Ewald M. Plass’s book of Luther citations, What Luther Says (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959; one-volume edition; tenth printing, 1994).
* * * * *
I ask the papists to note that I am doing them no injustice. They must certainly confess that their cause is not grounded in Scripture and that their faith and practice (Wesen) did not exist at the time of the apostles and martyrs — when the church was at its best — but was invented by men. My cause, however, is not contrary to Scripture, as they themselves must say, but is pure Scripture. . . . Let him who does not want Scripture stick to his own. We want Christ and not the pope. They, on the other hand, keep the pope and not Christ . . .
(#3766, pp. 1178-1179; preface to sermon on Luke 17:11-19 in 1521)
All the world . . . must confess that we have the Gospel just as genuinely and purely as the apostles had it and that it has completely attained its original purity.
(#2688, p. 861; address to the councilmen of Germany in 1524)
The papists themselves know and confess . . . that our teaching is not contrary to any article of faith or Holy Scripture . . . Therefore they have no right to dub us “heretics” . . .
(#2699, p. 864; advice to friends after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530)
We teach nothing new. We teach what is old and what the apostles and all godly teachers have taught, inculcated, and established before us.
(#2689, p. 861; exposition of Galatians 1:4 in 1531; citation also in LW, vol. 26, p. 39: “We are not teaching anything novel; we are repeating and confirming old doctrines”; in that source it is dated at 1535)
This message is not a novel invention of ours but the very ancient, approved teaching of the apostles brought to light again. Neither have we invented a new Baptism, Sacrament of the Altar, Lord’s Prayer, and Creed; nor do we desire to know or to have anything new in Christendom. We only contend for, and hold to, the ancient: that which Christ and the apostles have left behind them and have given to us. But this we did do. Since we found all of this obscured by the pope with human doctrine, aye, decked out in dust and spider webs and all sorts of vermin, and flung and trodden into the mud besides, we have by God’s grace brought it out again, have cleansed it of this mess (Geschmeiss), wiped off the dust, brushed it, and brought it to the light of day. Accordingly, it shines again in purity, and everybody may see what Gospel, Baptism, Sacrament of the Altar, keys, prayer, and everything that Christ has given us really is and how it should be used for our salvation.
(#3771, pp. 1180-1181; exposition of John 16:13 in 1537; citation also in LW, vol. 24, p. 368)
We have the true doctrine, we know that we do not err, and we refuse to be called schismatics in the sight of God because of our teaching; for the Word of God is beyond criticism (unstraflich). Although they are calling us heretics, God and our hearts know that they are doing us an injustice. Moreover, they themselves know that our teaching is that of Holy Scripture . . . But as long as God is gracious to us, let the devil with all his crew be angry.
(#2696, p. 864; sermon on John 3:25-27 on 28 June, 1539)
We bear a great load of hatred because it is said that we have fallen away from the ancient church . . . But we are falsely accused. For if we want to confess the truth, we must say that we fell away from the Word when we were still in their church. Now we have returned to the Word and have ceased to be apostates from the Word.
(#2690, p. 862; lectures on Genesis 7:16-24, c. 1539; citation also in LW, vol. 2, p. 102, along with the delightful statement on p. 101: “we are His church, but . . . the papists are the church of Satan.”)
This theology was not born with us, as those blasphemers, the papists, clamor. It was neither thought up nor invented by us. The holy Paul transmits it and cites Moses as a witness for it . . .
(#2687, p. 861; lectures on Genesis 15:6, c. 1539; citation also in LW, vol. 3, p. 26)
But what would you say if I were to prove that we stayed with the true, ancient church, nay, that we are the true, ancient church, but that you fell away from us, that is, from the ancient church, and established a new church, in opposition to the ancient one? . . .
Now the papists know that in all these points and in whatever other points there are we agree with the ancient church and may in truth be called the ancient church. For these points of doctrine are not new, nor have we invented them. One therefore wonders how they (our adversaries) can afford to belie and condemn us so shamelessly as people who have fallen away fro the church and have “started a new church.” After all, they can find nothing new about us, nothing that was not held in the ancient and true church at the time of the apostles.
(#2695, p. 863; Against Hans Wurst (Jack Sausage), 1541; written to Count Henry of Brunswick)
Is it not provoking that the Word of the Lord Christ, nay, of the holy prophets and fathers from the beginning of the world, should be called a “new faith” by those who call themselves Christians? For we certainly neither preach nor desire to preach anything that differs from what you yourself read in the writings of the prophets and the apostles . . . And this doctrine of the Gospel is to be called nothing but a novelty! Why? Because men neither knew it nor preached it twenty or thirty years ago. They do not want to know (what as teachers of Christendom they certainly should teach others) that this is the doctrine and the faith which for fifteen hundred years since the birth of Christ, nay, longer, for five thousand years from the beginning of the world, was preached by the fathers and the prophets and is clearly revealed in Holy Scripture.
(#2686, pp. 860-861; sermon on Luke 19:41-48 at Leipzig on 12 August 1545)
We can prove that our faith is not new and of unknown origin but that it is the oldest faith of all, which began and continued from the beginning of the world.
(#2685, p. 860; sermon on Matthew 8:23-27 on 31 January 1546)
Interesting quote Rhett – one guy in our mens group this morning quipped that Luther was “more Catholic than Catholics today”… I wasn’t quite sure what that meant though?
Thanks Joe, that’s really helpful! I think I’ll have to personally dig deeper and really try to understand Colossians. Any commentary/reference in particular that would be helpful?
I would start here: http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Sermons-By-Book/Colossians/ some excellent resources and free!