Ephesians 4:1-16

The New Testament church faced many controversies but the leaders solved these by the use of scripture.  The issues that threaten the unity of the church were defeated by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.

In two thousand plus years we have had divisions in the Christian Church.  The first major schism was in 1054 between the sees of Rome and Constantinople.  The Iconoclastic Controversy marked a further stage. Gregory III, 731-41 was the last Pope to have his election confirmed by the Emperor of Constantinople.  The Pope excommunicated all Iconoclasts.  The Emperor retorted by confiscating the estates of the Roman sees districts and in Illyricum from the obedience of Rome to that of Constantinople.  This deprived the Roman sees of money and dignity and a very sore point.  The quarrel over Iconoclasms was followed by the coronation of Charlemagne by the Pope and the setting up of a rival emperor in the west, a fertile source of division.  The schism was about power and money between east and west.  Rome and Constantinople, divided the church with the Orthodox Church headquarters being in Constantinople and the Roman Catholic headquarters in Rome.  The fight started over the use of icons in worship but in truth it was about political power and money.

In the early years of the 1500’s Martin Luther broke with the Catholic Church over the issue of the source of our salvation.  Luther said that salvation came by faith in Jesus Christ.  He said that our sins can only be forgiven by the gift of God’s justification through our faith.  Luther wrote a letter of remonstrance to the Archbishop on All Saints Eve, 1517 and posted it on the Cathedral door.  This was his famous ninety-five theses, in which he offered to maintain as an academic exercise the unlawfulness of indulgences.  He followed up these with a sermon denouncing them. Tetzel, the Pope’s emissary replied and controversy raged fiercely.  Indulgence was an idea that you could buy forgiveness of sin.

Luther broke with his church because he found the Cardinals pagan and clergy un-devout.  Luther denied the authority of the Pope on the grounds it was not found in the scriptures.  He stated this rejection of the Pope’s authority on two points.  “First, I will not endure that man shall establish new articles of faith and judge all Christians in the world as heretics, schismatic and unbelievers only because they are not under the Pope.  It is enough that we leave the Pope to be Pope.  It is not necessary that for his sake God and his saints be abused.  Secondly, all that the Pope establishes and does I will accept, provided I first judge it according to the scriptures; he shall be to me under Christ and shall submit himself to be judged by the Holy Scripture.”

Luther’s Protestant Reformation has produced many divisions in the church’s movement. The King of England wanted to divorce his wife, the queen, but the Pope blocked this attempt. In turn the King broke with the Roman Catholic Church and formed the Church of England, or the Anglican Church.  Our Methodist Church was formed from that church when our nation won its independence from England.  We have many divisions of the church that are rooted in Luther’s Protestant Reformation.  In fact almost all of the protestant churches have some connection with the Protestant Reformation such as the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and the Church of God and other Christian denominations.   The issue of divorce broke the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church but again the larger struggle was over power and money.

Our United Methodist Church is in a real struggle about whether we will follow biblical authority or be guided by cultural human views about sin.  We have people trying to choose the sin that we will stamp with human approval to say it is okay.  The truth is that God never changes.  He is the same yesterday, today or tomorrow.  God gave his Son to us to have a way into his eternal Kingdom and the cross of Christ paid our sin debt.  The scriptures are clear that evil and sin will not be accepted by God in His eternal Kingdom.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he tells us how to keep the unity in the body, “therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.  Always be humble and gentle.  Be Patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.  Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  For there is one body and one Spirit just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father who is over all and in all and living through all.”

Paul said also to the Ephesians: “Then we will no longer be immature like children.  We won’t be tossed and blown about every wind of new teaching.  We will not be influenced when people try to teach us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.  Instead we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church.  He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.  As each part does its own special work it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”  We have people in leadership that is trying to replace the God we meet in scriptures with human ideas that offer no one a solution to sin and death.

God’s call is to accept his Word and plan that gives each of His believers in Christ a new and lasting life.