What Is Essential

What is Essential I have heard professing Christians say about the division of the body, ”We just need to agree on the essentials”. What are the essentials? Well they say that they are the Virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the Trinity, etc….. We need to agree on those things, but the rest is up for debate or “interpretation”. But how do we interpret?

If we truly believe that the Bible is the Word of God…can there really be so many interpretations….can we, by one Spirit, come to so many different conclusions?

By saying we need to agree only on the essentials, we make the things outside “the list” non essentials.

Let’s cut to the chase. The real reason we agree to disagree is that we unable to come to an agreement. We are unable to come to agreement, for the most part, because we are coming from different camps, which have differing viewpoints. These are called denominations. By leaving the interpretation to the leaders of a denomination, or to our own ability to understand we are saying that we have been left a book, but we are on our own to try and understand what it means. We are trusting in our own ability to understand, that’s why we say things like ‘I see it this way’, or “I think.

Jesus said that when He went to the Father, He would send the Spirit of Truth who would guide us into all truth. That is who we need to bring us into agreement. If we are truly trusting God …I said God not

man, to bring us into a knowledge of the truth. If we cry aloud for understanding. If we search for it as hidden treasure, then God will teach us by His Spirit through the scriptures.

The Spirit of God is not divided. This means that he will not give me one interpretation and you another. You see the impossibility of all believers agreeing is about the same as the possibility of a virgin birth. I see beyond the phrase “We just need to agree on the essentials”, to the spirit behind it, and that spirit is one of unbelief and discord. James 3:15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

The average professing Christian will agree that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. When they heard the world saying, “There are many ways to God” , or “ All roads lead to God”, they will promptly disagree. There is one way, one truth, one life. Jesus is the way … yes and the truth. But how is He the truth? John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.

This tells us that Jesus is the Word, the Word is truth and that the Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth. If the Spirit of Truth will not

speak of himself…what business do men have speaking their opinions?

Will the Spirit of Truth tell me one thing about the Word of Truth and you another? Let’s pick a subject for example, salvation. Will the Spirit of Truth tell me that I can lose my salvation and then tell you that you cannot? Jesus said that the Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth, so it stands to reason that there is a truth about salvation… yes?

Well, you may say, there is so much confusion…who can know for sure. You can and should know the scriptures…for sure! We have been given the Word and the Spirit. The two work together to weld the truth into your being. This is where we get confidence from. This is how we can speak with authority.

The big problem is that not many believers think about the scriptures at all. Try being successful in anything by devoting little or no time to it. Try getting to know a person by spending little or no time with them. Better yet…try getting to know someone by just letting someone else tell their viewpoint of that person to you. It won’t happen.

We need the Word of truth joined with the Spirit of truth and buried in the soil of a prepared heart in order to see truth. I say that because you will not get what I am saying about “just the essentials” unless you are committed to God’s truth. You will simply run it through the filter of “Your truth” and accept or reject it on that basis, or you will nod your head in agreement , but it won’t change the course of your life.

Let me make a statement that is true from the scriptures and yet foreign to most believers:

“The body of Christ, all those that call themselves Christians, should be of one heart, one mind and one purpose. There should be no division between us at all. This doctrine of “agreeing on the essentials” is placating and has it’s origin in darkness. Christ cannot work through a divided body any more than a paralyzed person can walk. There must be communication between the body parts before the body can move. That’s the reason we don’t have impact today!

Now I will qualify the statement through scripture. I will give you the whole thing in context…you read it for yourself…. John 17:16-26. I am going to pick out the more glaring parts.

John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: Even as…the same as Jesus is praying for you and me to have the same kind of unity that he and the Father have.

John 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Are you getting this? Can you see the damage that denominations do to the testimony of Jesus?

“That the world may know” has a condition attached to it. That condition is: That we may be made perfect in one. Let these and the other verses get into your being. This is central to the church being the force God has called us to be in the earth. We cannot be the church until we get a hold of this. This is why the witness is not there. This is why the power is NOT THERE.

“Oh God!”, you may say, “When will you move through our church and make us a force in the community? There are untold lost and confused people out there and we just want to reach them for you!”

“Here’s when” says the Lord. “When you stop thinking of that building as your church. When you stop thinking of your brothers and sisters, who are not signed in there, as lesser relatives. When you hold my Word in highest esteem and stop caring about the opinions of men, that‘s when”!

We say “Why won’t they believe in Jesus”? God says “Why won’t you believe my Word”. They are after all one in the same, Jesus and the Word. We cannot expect God’s results with man’s agenda. We have to submit ourselves to God and let Him lead us in HIS plan:

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Jesus has to be head of the church. The body has to be one. We have to be led by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. Division is unacceptable. I tried to look up “denomination” in the Strong’s Concordance. The closest I got was “denounce”. I think that is more the word we need. Denounce everything that divides .We can no longer say, “We will agree on the essentials”, because there are no non-essentials in the Word.

I will include most of the scriptures I found that deal with the body being one in heart, mind and purpose. Please be a faithful student of the Word and look them up and let God have His way in you.

God Bless, Sandy

Scriptures on Unity:

John 17:16-26 Romans 15:5-6 Php 1:27 1Pet 3:8 Acts 2:46 1 Cor 10:17 Php 2:2 1Pet 5:5 Acts 4:3 1 Cor 12:12-14 Col 3:15 Romans 12:4-5 &16

Eph 4:4-6 Heb 2:11