It does not matter how long any of us have been a Christian or what point we are in our walk, part of being humble is being ready to admit when we are wrong. "Apollos, a man cited as being eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures, instructed in the way of the Lord and fervent in spirit still had the humbleness of mind to be taught the way of God more perfectly by Aquila and Priscilla. (Acts 16) His is a brilliant example of the type of attitude that should characterize us all" (Am I Teachable?, Mark Kolchin). We should be like Apollos, standing for the truth, but ready to learn when we are mistaken.

If we can overcome that pride in ourselves and cloak ourselves in humility, and if we pray for others and for the Church, we can and will see changes taking place. Instead of getting involved in doctrinal arguments, we should reflect Jesus. We should stand on Him and make Him our focus. When we live the truth, we will have a much greater impact on people and on the Church. By putting aside our own interests and putting aside the need to be right, we can better reflect Jesus. Jesus is what Christianity is all about so if we focus on Him, stand on Him, and reflect HIM, we can overcome the pride that causes separation.

The phrase "unity in diversity" is being thrown around quite a bit these days, but what does it mean and is it even possible for Christianity? The answer is a very resounding Yes! Christianity itself can be shown with a set of core beliefs or fundamentals. I think we will agree, in fact, every Christian would agree that these five principles encompass "Christianity":

1. The inerrancy of Scriptures. The Bible is complete and completely without error: "¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

2. The Deity/Divinity of Jesus Christ. Jesus was 100% fully God: " ⁹For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority." (Colossians 2:9-10)

3. The Humanity of Jesus Christ. Jesus was 100% fully man: "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law." (Galatians 4:4)

4. Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, through is death, burial and resurrection. There is no other way to God but through Jesus: "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'." (John 14:6)

5. We are saved by God's Grace through our faith. Salvation is God's Gift, not something we earn: " ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. " (Ephesians 2:8-9)

If you believe in those five fundamentals, then one could say you are "Christian Fundamentalist" and they would be correct! I personally find that term to be somewhat redundant, and prefer to just go by the term "Christian". The reason is, those five points encompass Christianity. Jesus Christ and his death, burial and resurrection are what Christianity is all about. The people in Antioch were not called Christians because of how they sang or baptized, or how often they remembered the Lord's Supper, but because they followed Christ! Al Maxey in his article, The Gospel-Doctrine Debate states:

"The gospel message was centered in JESUS! His birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection. God had purposed from the very beginning to bring redemption and salvation to mankind via a gracious, loving sacrifice: the sacrifice of His beloved Son. This phenomenal event, and both its temporal and eternal impact upon us, is the GOSPEL message." -- Reflections, #117

Jesus Christ, the gospel message is what Christianity is all about! If you take away from that or add to it in any way, then you are preaching a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all:

" ⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- ⁷which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" --Galatians 1:6-8

The Bible is very clear on what Christianity is. And if you believe in the Gospel and have put your hope in trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, you are a Christian. So why is there all this bickering over doctrine? It goes back to pride. The thing is, people, in their pride, try to tie salvation into doctrine. But the two are not one! Doctrine is important, but Jesus is more important!

All these doctrines that people are fighting about, are really preferences. Preferences about baptism, wine, number of cups, the "roles" of women, the rapture, etc., etc., etc., the list goes on and on, and while those teachings are important, it is OK to "agree to disagree" with absolutely no bearing on ones salvation. Preferences do not make one a Christian, the GOSPEL does!!!

If we make Jesus our focus, then we can have unity. JESUS IS NOT DIVIDED!!!!! It is OK, to disagree on certain things. Given the complexity of the Bible, disagreement is going to happen, different people are going to see certain things differently. One thing is clear though, and that is Jesus. There is no going right or left on that. However on each and every one of these "preferences", people have scriptures to support them...on both sides! Both sides think they are right and both sides think the Bible supports them. What both sides need to realize is that it is ok to disagree on preferences so long as they agree in JESUS.

That is what the early church did. Back in the first century, the church was having some problems. There were disagreements among the apostles. The apostles, the very men who walked with Jesus and got their teaching DIRECTLY FROM GOD, had some disagreements. There was no Bible to go over, but they did not need the Bible, they walked and talked with Jesus. Still, even they had trouble agreeing, but when they made Jesus their focus they were able to move past the disagreements:

"Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. ¹⁰Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? ¹¹No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." -- Acts 15:6b-11

When we make Jesus our focus, we too, can get past our disagreements. Unity in diversity is possible, if people can get past their pride and focus on Jesus. I am not saying we need to do away with doctrine, even the preferences, but that we need to move the intense focus we have on those preferences over to Jesus. Only with Jesus as our focus can we accomplish what He would have us do -- "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".

Throughout the Bible, certain numbers have a special meanings. In the new testament, the number one is used quite a bit. The Greek word Heis (meaning, literally, one) is used 235 times. It is used for many things, but mainly to denote oneness in Christ:

"²⁶You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." -- Galatians 3:26-29

In Christ we are one. We are one body of believers. Not group of bodies, not a bunch of body parts, but we are one body. Christ is the head of this body, and should be our focus. There is no reason why, if we focus on our head, instead of say, an arm, that we cannot be unified. People today tend to forget that, but it is not really new. The Corinthians were struggling with this concept as well:

" ¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. ¹¹My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹²What I mean is this: One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another, 'I follow Apollos'; another, 'I follow Cephas'; still another, 'I follow Christ.' ¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?

If Paul were writing to us, he might say, "What I mean is this: One of you says, 'I am a Baptist'; another, 'I am a Methodist'; another, 'I am Pentecostal'; still another, 'I am in the church of Christ.' Is Christ divided?" In each and every case, these groups were started by a man. Sure, they all follow the teachings of Christ (God's Word) as best they know, but there are people in each of those groups that put their teaching and the way they see God's word ahead of God Himself.

That is the kind of sectarianism we need to move beyond. Jesus was not a Baptist or a Methodist or a member of any group or denomination. Jesus was not divided at all! The Church is Jesus' Church and we should not be divided either. We are ONE BODY in Christ. Yes we are all different, and some of our preferences may differ, but all together we make up one body:

"⁴Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." -- Romans 12:4-5

" ¹⁶Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf." -- 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

It goes back to the concept of unity in diversity. We are all different, but we also are one. The original Lever 2000 commercial talked about washing "all your 2000 body parts". The Body of Christ can be just as diverse, but it is still one body. Too many people are focusing on the "2000 parts" and not even giving lip service to the one body. That breeds not only disunity, but dysfunction as well. I would like to encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 12. The passage is too long to quote in its entirety, but that is what many people are doing to the Body of Christ today. They are trying to say they do not need the rest of the Body or, even worse, that the rest of the body is really not part of the body at all. In spite of this, and though this may seem harsh in spite of them, "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ" (v 12). We are ONE BODY IN CHRIST. There are countless differences, but if we can focus on our Head, Christ, then we can work as one body. If we can live like Jesus, than we can work together instead of fighting each other. It all boils down to Jesus. John Lennon had a song, called "All you need is love". I believe that can be better said, "All you need is Jesus".

Things today are sad, very sad...I often wish I could get people to understand that we need to put aside our petty differences and be unified in ONE BODY...imagine how potent the church could be if we all joined together. Imagine how effective we could be. Imagine how many souls we could win! If we could just do this, we would be such a force to be reckoned with. I believe that with what we are seeing in our country now, the urgency of reaching the lost and encouraging the saved is higher than ever. I think that now is the time when it is so important to put aside sectarian differences and work together to accomplish our goal of adding to the Body of Christ. Jesus said a kingdom divided cannot stand, and right now we are far too divided. There is a lot of work that we, as Christians, need to be doing, far too much to be fighting each other!!! Unity is not just a noble, lofty goal, it is an extremely important one. We need to work together to reach people both lost and saved. The lost need saving, and the saved need edification and encouragement. It is a hard thing, unity, but it is also a very necessary thing.

Al Maxey closed his Gospel/Doctrine article with the following thoughts. They are thoughts which I share and think sum up this article very well. He states, "It is my prayer that the day will come when brethren, barricaded in opposing fortresses, will cease firing upon one another, leave their camps, and meet together to dialogue with each other, with mutual love and respect, about their perceived differences. The family of God has been dysfunctional long enough; it is time for squabbling siblings to grow up and begin behaving as mature sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. We must lay aside our pride, and our party preferences, and join hands in sweet fellowship at the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Lord, hasten that day when your Son's prayer in John 17 is finally realized among Your children!!" (ibid) Yes, Lord, hasten that day indeed!