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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Home Page After I read Jesus'
prayer for Christian unity in John 17, I think He must be saddened to see
our denominational schisms. Is
it really our doctrinal differences that split us or is it something else?
Read Jeremiah 17:9. "The heart is
deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9 states
that we are so instinctively sinful that we have no clue to know how
sinful we are, and furthermore, there is no human cure for this inherent
deformity. Clearly, we are the
problem as we push our views with little consideration of other views.
We fail to do the needed research, yet we act like experts.
Our poor communication skills result in misunderstanding.
Our "I'm right, you're wrong" mentality is ecclesiastically
debilitating. Don't get me
wrong. I believe Biblical knowledge is important.
Read Hosea 4:5 and 6. "You stumble day
and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your
mother—my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. "Because you
have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have
ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children." I take Hosea's words
seriously. I refuse to be
Biblically ignorant. I don't
want my life as a Christian to crumble away in some crusty old
ecclesiastical corner. I will
use whatever intellectual capabilities I have to imbed God's Word into my
life. That being said, due to
the depraved person that Jeremiah 17:9 says I am, my intellectual
capacities are compromised and my understanding is finite.
I'm fallible and I can be wrong.
It's reasonable, then, for me to demonstrate an intellectual
humility, a quiet doctrinal confidence, as I share my doctrinal
distinctives that I've struggled to formulate for decades.
If I can succeed in this endeavour, others may be willing to hear
me out without exploding into a Jeremiah 17:9 irrationally emotionalized
doctrinal dispute that destroys Christian unity, as Hosea wrote. The apostle Paul
understood Hosea 4:5 and 6. I
believe he was the most intellectually capable, yet humble, man recorded
in the Bible. He could
effectively debate the masters of philosophy (Acts 17:18).
He was educated by Judaism's best (Acts 22:3).
His treatise to the Romans is such a brilliant defence of a cause
that law schools often refer to it as a masterpiece in how to win a legal
case. Paul, more than any
other Biblical personality, has defined Biblical theology for us.
Here's what he wrote concerning humility in Ephesians 4:2. "Be completely humble
and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." I realize that a forceful defense of Biblical truth is sometimes needed to combat heresy. Nevertheless, as we attempt to create a corporate Biblical consensus, intellectual humility is essential.
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