Division and the Gospel

Sven continues looking at Galations and, in particular, the question of the “other Gospel” that Paul warns about. Sven’s particularly concerned with how these verses are used by some Christians to condemn other Christians – casting all differences from “my” Gospel as Paul’s “other Gospel”. By contrast, Sven shows that the “other Gospel” Paul writes about to the Galations isn’t about any doctrinal difference. Rather it’s about division – splitting the Body of Christ up, even declaring that others are outside the Body.

Having believed the message about Christ, the false Gospel denies Christ and harms the Church by reopening the divisions and disunity that Christ abolished (hence the climax of the letter in 3:28). The “other Gospel” is concerned not with how the church relates to the world, or how the church helps get the world into heaven, but how the church relates within itself. It is an ecumenical issue, not primarily one to do with mission and evangelism…This is what the “other Gospel” looks like in practice: if anything except Christ is made the central unifying point of the church, then division arises. The sin of the “other Gospel” is that it makes central what should really be peripheral, and thus the church is divided and broken up into factions.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 7:14pm on 22 April 2006
Category: Faith, Links

Thanks for the link John. Not sure why you can’t trackback, but now you mention it I haven’t received a trackback for about four months so something must be wrong. I’ll do some investigating…

Steven Harris () (URL)
11:17pm on 22 April 2006