A Divided House

On June 16, 1858, after Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the Illinois Republicans to be their candidate for the United States Senate, he gave an acceptance speech that became famous for his doctrine for America.

Quoting the Bible, Lincoln said "A house divided against itself cannot stand." It is thought by many to be a statement that cost him the election to the Senate, but may have won him the keys to the Oval Office just two years later.

You see, Lincoln believe that a United States was a stronger nation than a divided one. He was talking of slavery--the dividing line between the North and the South and the cause of so much political dissension in his day. He believed that as long as the North was free and the South was slave, the Unites States weren't united. They were divided and the country was weaker for it.

Later, as the Southern states seceded from the Union--in large part because of Lincoln's election to the office of President--he used this doctrine to support an armed conflict to bring the Southern states, now known as the Confederacy, back into a more perfect union. He believed unity was for the betterment of the nation.

He was right. Few can argue the greatness of America after the Civil War. What would have World War 1 or 2 been like with a divided America? What about advances in medicine, industry, and economics in an America divided between North and South?  Unity, as a country, has allowed America to accomplish much on the world stage and in the annals of history.

The same could be said of Christianity. Often we are divided in our faith. We have various denominations and beliefs. Even among those denominations, you can find even further splintering based on our differences. I serve a Baptist church. Even among Baptists there are splinters: Southern Baptist, American Baptist, Free Will Baptist, Old Regular Baptist, Primitive Baptist, and for those who don't want a label, Independent Baptists. As Christians, we are often defined by our differences.

It doesn't have to be like that. In the opening to his letter to the Philippians, Paul urges unity. He wants unity between the leaders and the congregations. He wants unity between him and the church. He wants unity between the church at Philippi and the Christians of his era. He knew, like Lincoln, that a united Christian effort will succeed for greater than a divided one.

I'm not saying all theological bridges can be crossed. There are some theologies and some orthodoxies that will simply be too great to overcome. I cannot align our church with a theology that rejects the Trinity or teaches universalism--the idea that everyone goes to heaven. Those are too far to go. I cannot support a prosperity gospel that teaches that God wants everyone to be happy and wealthy.

Yet there are doctrines I don't agree with that will not keep me from the unified cause of Christ. I don't believe in infant baptism, but I won't let that belief keep me from locking arms with believers to end abortion, end sex tracking, end slavery world wide or helping the poor and needy. There are doctrines we as Christians should not let get in the way of serving a greater cause for Christ.

Paul calls on us, as believers, to be unified. We are often more alike in our beliefs than unalike. We must embrace our common, core beliefs - the trinity, the atonement of sin, the death and resurrection of Jesus - and join hands to perpetuate the cause of Christ.

A house divide against itself cannot stand.