The Underlying Cause of Division

The underlying cause of all of the divisions in the Church is "sin:" our determination to ignore God and the needs of others to have our own way. This leads to greed, anger, envy, jealousy, gossip, slander, strife, unforgiveness, bitterness and even war--all of which perpetuate division.

There is only a single underlying cause of all of the apparent division in the Church. That cause is inside each of us. It is our desire to have our own way, to have what we want, regardless of what God wants or our brothers and sisters need. That desire to have our own way is at war on the inside of each of us, as James wrote:

Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.

James 4:1-3 (WEB)

            It is our “pleasures” (hēdonē), our often mutually-contradictory desires for pleasure—warring inside us that lead us to fight with our brothers to please ourselves. Thus, the war on the outside is caused by war on the inside. However, the wars on the outside and on the inside are of somewhat different kinds. Conflicting desires for pleasure within our members make plans against us, forming strategies (strateuō, in the middle voice, this grammatical voice indicating this is not something that is done to us, but something we do to ourselves) to capture us, to make us do what each desire wants. Once a desire has captured us, however, it leads to outward action that escalates. In verse one the actions caused by our desires are arguments (polemoi) (translated “wars,” but also the root word for the English “polemics”) and fighting (maxai). In verse two, these actions have escalated to killing (phoneuō) (which can also be translated “war,” but a different word) and zealous pursuit of our own way (zēloō). Unfortunately, all of these effects of seeking our own desires have been happening in the visible church for centuries. They are the substance of the visible divisions among us, just as the desires for pleasure warring within us are the underlying cause.

            The desire to have our own way leads to various other outward manifestations that can in turn cause division. For example, the desire to have their own way leads some to attempt to make themselves the head of the church—as in the example of Diotrephes.¹ It leads others to arrogantly resist authority in the church.² Resistance to authority and the desire to be the Head are the most obvious outward causes of division, and will be discussed further in later posts. However, the underlying desire to have our own way leads to other outward manifestations that also more subtly cause division. These are discussed briefly below.

            The desire to have our own way clearly leads to greed (also translated “coveting” or “covetousness”)—the desire to possess and accumulate things. Paul told Timothy that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, that desiring wealth leads to temptation, to a snare and to other lusts which in turn lead to destruction. Many who have coveted after money have erred from the faith.³ Division often arises from greed. The Pharisees, Luke says, rejected and mocked Jesus because they were “lovers of money.”⁴ False teachers “make merchandise” of Christians, knowingly teaching attractive falsehoods because they are greedy for Christians’ money.^5a,5b,5c (I support this blog out of my own income. It will never have a donations button or ask for money). On the other hand, one of the required qualifications of church leaders, too often ignored, is that they must be “free from the love of money.”⁶ Greed is a manifestation of our desire to have our own way which leads to division, and which must be avoided by the Church.

            The desire to have our own way also leads to envying and strife. Envying and strife (KJV)–the NASB translates these words as “bitter jealousy” and “selfish ambition”– originate from the world, from our own sensuality, and ultimately from the devil.^7a,7b Where envying and strife exist “there is confusion and every evil work.”⁸ The divisive effect of envy, leading to strife, is demonstrated by several scriptural examples, which range from merely divisive to murderous. For example, in Luke’s version of the parable of the prodigal son, instead of rejoicing when his younger brother returned to the family, the older brother refused to join the celebration because he envied the party his father gave his repentant, prodigal brother.⁹ More pointedly, Cain offered God a sacrifice of his crops—the work of his own hands, a picture of the fruit of our efforts doing things our way—and his sacrifice was rejected.¹⁰ Abel offered a “more excellent sacrifice,” the life of an animal, a picture of what God was going to do for us, and his offering was accepted.^11a,11b Then Cain, moved by envy of his brother’s good works, murdered Abel.^12a,12b However, the ultimate bad example of envy was given by the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, who should have recognized the truth of his message, but instead envied his success in attracting a following and plotted his death.^13a,13b

            The desire to have our own way also manifests itself in our reckless and uncaring acts that offend the consciences of our brothers and sisters.^14a,14b,14c We have liberty in Christ. For Christians, all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.^15a,15b But if we recklessly, to please ourselves, abuse this liberty by doing things that offend other believers’ consciences, we injure or destroy them.¹⁶ This can actually occur in two ways. In one of them, our fellow believers observe us doing something they believe to be a sin, something which they associate with a sinful lifestyle of which they recently repented, and are encouraged by our apparent approval of the sin to return to a sinful lifestyle themselves. The example Paul gives of this is eating meat sacrificed to idols. An idol is nothing, so meat sacrificed to an idol is just meat. But if my brother or sister sees me eating meat sacrificed to idols, and understands that as permission to return to idolatry, I have destroyed my them.¹⁷ The other way this can happen is when I do something I know my brother or sister believes to be a sin–though it is not a sin, for me–and that person observes me doing it and judges me for it.^18a,18b In this scenario, I have put a stumbling block in their way. That person will judge me, and their judgmental attitude will place a barrier between them and Christ. By so doing, I have also created a division in the Body of Christ. Inevitably, this affects all of us.

            The desire to have our own way also manifests itself in a judgmental attitude, which outwardly produces gossip, slander and speaking evil of each other, as James wrote:

 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

James 4:11-12 (NIV)

This attitude starts with unwisely comparing ourselves to other people who, we think, make us look “good” by comparison, rather than comparing ourselves to Christ. .^19a,19b,19c It then progresses from faulty comparison, to judgment of those to whom we feel superior²⁰, to speaking evil against them, which in turn leads to strife. This mechanism causes both divisions between individuals and other individuals they believe are inferior, and divisions between whole groups of people in the Church based on wealth, race, social status, or other irrelevant group characteristics, as discussed in my previous post “About Racism.” Whether the division is one between individuals or between groups, evil speaking follows. Without evil speech, strife dies out, as Solomon said:

Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down.As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts.

Proverbs 26:20-22 (NIV)

Strife, and its partner envy, have already been discussed.

            The desire to have our own way also manifests itself in unresolved offenses, unforgiveness and bitterness. The writer to the Hebrews warns us that we should pursue peace with all men, and holiness—that is being set apart to God rather than our own desires—without which no one will see the Lord. One of the reasons we are to pursue peace with others and holiness is so that no “root of bitterness” will spring up among us and “defile” many.²¹. Paul instructs us to put away all bitterness, wrath (angry desire to avenge ourselves for wrongs done us) and anger, and instead to be compassionate and to forgive each other.²²

Jesus demonstrated how unforgiveness works in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35, as discussed at greater length in a previous post. The first servant was forgiven a huge debt. But he then would not forgive the small debt of the second servant. The result of this was that the servant who owed the small debt was imprisoned by the first servant’s unforgiveness (verse 30), and there is no record that the master of both servants released him. Only the unforgiving servant could release the other servant from his debt (he did not owe his small debt to the Master, but to the first servant). However, when the Master heard what the unforgiving servant had done, he had him turned over to the torturers, until he paid his whole debt of forgiveness to his fellow servant. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart²³.” Bondage to unforgiveness and bitterness toward each other naturally leads to strife and intractable division. “A brother wronged is more unyielding than a fortified city; disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel²⁴.”

All of these things, and more, are summarized in Galatians 5:16-24, which contrasts the “works of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit.” The passage starts with the assertion:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.  For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

Galatians 5:16-18 (NASB).

Paul then proceeds to give an illustrative partial list of some of the evil works of the flesh, a list which includes all of the evils we have already discussed, and, in addition–as the King James Version translates them–“hatred,” “variances,” “strife”, “seditions” and “heresies²⁵.” The NASB translates these same words “enmities,” “strife,” “disputes” “dissensions” and “factions.” The point here made is that all of these evil works arise from the same source, namely, our “flesh” or “sinful nature,” which is our desire to ignore the Spirit of God and do as we please. Further, the word the KJV translates as “heresies” and the NASB translates as “factions” really is the same word that is uniformly translated “heresies” in 2 Peter 2:1—haireseis.

Thus, contrary to what is commonly believed, divisions in the Church are not caused by “heresies.” Instead, on the authority of Galatians 5:16-24, divisions and “heresies” (which are really the same thing, as I will show in later posts), and a host of other evils, all come from a single common source, the desires within us, which war against the Spirit. Differences in doctrine or practice are merely convenient excuses for maintaining divisions that arise from a different source. These divisive evils are overcome by the fruit of the Spirit in our lives: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:22-24.

            But in all of these things, the real, underlying cause of division remains our desire for pleasure, profit or control, our selfish desire to have our own way. Indeed, as will be discussed in later posts, it is this selfish desire to ignore God so that we can have our own way that is the definition of “sin,” the force within us that separates us from God^25a,25b,25c. Therefore, it should be no surprise that it is also what separates us from each other, and is the underlying cause of all divisions in the Church.

Next: Authority, Submission and Oneness.