Disputable Matters

Trying to figure something out to write is really hard. So many times I’ve wanted to write, but I cannot think of anything. I’ve thought about writing about the books I’ve read. I’ve thought about writing about what’s happening with church. I’ve thought about writing about my family and friends.

What is capturing my attention right now is how do we know what God’s will is, when two very dedicated and pious individuals want to see God’s will as exactly opposite of what each other feels? How do you know that one isn’t following emotions? How do you know both have actually sought out God on the issue and are not just closed from the get-go?

This is a big question. It’s the stuff that divides congregation, spouses, families, political parties, etc. It’s the stuff that break up friendships and sets a new course for people. How do you know?

How do you know when something is right or something is wrong. Obviously there are non-disputables like the Sabbath, the coming of Christ, or even eternity. But there are disputes within even those frameworks. How to keep the Sabbath, what is right and wrong for the Sabbath, what is the manner of the second coming of Christ, when it will happen, how do we spend eternity, who lives eternally in heaven and hell. All of these make up a lot of insight and easily break down into disputable matters.

Paul told the Romans not to get involved in disputable matters in Romans 14:1. So, what is a person to really spend their time focusing on. What is core enough that it really is indisputable? Because what some people view as disputable, others view as indisputable. Music is one example of this. Sabbath keeping is another.

But for basic Christianity, Christ was crucified for us, is indisputable. Christ as the lamb of God making atonement for our sins is indisputable. The wages of sin is death is not disputable. What is a sin is disputable. Christ and Him crucified is the thing to focus on and put our direction towards. Why do we spend some much time on disputable things:

Let’s stick with the direct commands of God. Maybe we should make a list of the direct commands of God…. Wait, didn’t the Jews do that? They came up with 613 of them. These are absolutes for the believer in their eyes. One of them is “law” to kill all the Amalekites. Really? I still need to abide by these? There are quite a few of those 613 that don’t make sense any more. So are they still laws? Commands?

What if we summed all those into the 10 Commandments? But Jesus said those are detailed into two. Love God, Love Man. Let’s do those. Let’s do those as outlines in the 10. Let’s do those in our own life, and stop trying to dispute what is going on in other people’s lives. Let’s stop applying scripture to other people’s lives and start applying it to our own, for ourselves. Then we can simply stop disputing about things that are of private issue and start agreeing with each other to start applying scripture (not which scripture, but that we should apply scripture.)