Church Split is one of the greatest sins of the church

In today General Epistle Class, I learned about the teaching by John in 1 John. John had a very strong message on God as Spirit, God as Light and God as Love. As my lecturer commenting the verses till 1 John 3, suddenly he changed in his tone and emotion. He was saying that church split is one of the greatest sins of the church. I was thinking about the phrase that he mentioned and reflected upon the Bible, 1 John. In chapter 2, the author of the Bible talked about God as light, and how Christians should keep themselves from sinning against God by following His commandments. Then suddenly, the author changed the topic to talk about antichrist and false teachers both in chapter 2 and 3. The author seems to address the issue in the church that there were divisions in the church. My lecturer painted the background of the Christians in 1 John, that they were actually quite emphasize on the Spirit. They were people claim to have direct message from God and started to deny the truth of God, even the atonement of Jesus Christ. Then these antichrists were influencing other Christians to leave the Church.

Leaving the church is a sign of hatred among brothers and sisters. This is absolute contradict with God, where Jesus came to demonstrate God’s love. Leaving the church here refer to people who were not happy with the church, who not satisfy with the church, who have conflict with the church and decide to leave the church. These people in the eye of John are not from God. This is because if you are in God, you will live like Jesus. Therefore, there is no reason for us to justify hatred because Jesus never hated his brothers and sisters. Moreover, church is a family, and how can family members leave the family? Church is not a social club. It is a God’s family where Jesus is the head of the family.

Nevertheless, the author of 1 John understands that there will be conflict in the church. Just like a family, there will be different opinions, different method of doing things, different personalities, the church consist of many different people. Therefore, it does not justify for a person to leave his/her church if things just don’t go according to their way. John was rebuking his audience for loving only in their words but not in deeds. I think one of the reasons that church conflicts were not able to resolve is because we don’t really practice what Jesus mean by love. Just be reading 1 John helps me to once again reflect my attitude towards church and my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I need to love them with the love of Christ.

The only reason I think we can leave is when a church is no longer a church. A good question to ask: What is a church? What does the Bible say about church? Well, buy some books and read about it.