Low and Clear Fences

Yesterday I taught the equipping hour lesson at my church on 2 Peter 1:5-8, specifically on the qualities listed there. I also wrote a blog post on it awhile back, and you can read it below.

There’s one quality in the verse that I dwelled on for a bit, and that’s brotherly affection. It made me think of a wonderful quote from Mark Dever on how we handle denominational differences among biblical Christians: “Keep clear fences, but keep them low, and shake hands over them often.”

I think this statement is a wonderful picture of how we ought to treat Christians from different denominations. It’s far too easy to see a different church and automatically point out its errors or things you think they should or shouldn’t do. To be sure, this doesn’t mean we can’t ever biblically criticize or point out obvious error, but we are far too critical at times. We roll our eyes at the differences but forget that, for the most part, it’s compromised of Christians genuinely striving to follow Jesus.

We have to reorient our minds in this respect. We must renew our minds. Our gut reaction to the church down the street shouldn’t be one of disdain or irritation. (And believe me, I’ve been there!) It should be thankfulness for them preaching the gospel.

Of course, there’s a fine line here. There are plenty of churches that have many, many issues that need to be addressed. Issues like no church discipline, no meaningful church membership, a lack of biblical preaching. Those things aren’t just erroneous, but spiritually dangerous. There’s a reason the Bible calls for such things. Additionally, this is also not a conversation about churches that fall outside the lines of biblical orthodoxy. We must use God-given wisdom to determine which churches they are; usually their statement of faith tells you as much, or perhaps you know from word-of-mouth.

But back to the main point. We need to have brotherly affection for Christians in other churches.

We can have brotherly affection for Presbyterians even if we disagree with them on baptism (speaking as Reformed Baptist) and other things because we appreciate their ardent stance for God’s Word.

We can have brotherly affection for Pentecostals even if we disagree on spiritual gifts and other minor things; we can appreciate their passion for the Lord and emphasis on holiness.

We can have brotherly affection for non-denominational churches even if we disagree with what appears to be a lack of reverence at times and a very pragmatic atmosphere; we can appreciate their zeal for Jesus in brining people into the church.

We can even have brotherly affection for Southern Baptists even if we disagree with polity issues like altar calls; we can appreciate their desire to reach the lost and see people come to know Jesus.

And even for me, as a Reformed Baptist, you can disagree with me on the doctrines of grace or something else but still appreciate our desire to know the Lord and stand on what the Bible says.

Denominations get a lot of flak sometimes, but they’re important. Yes they divide us over non-essential doctrines like baptism, spiritual gifts, and the like, but they don’t divide us over the gospel itself, and that is the foundation of our brotherly affection.