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Matins Devotion: January 28, 2025

Writer's picture: Pastor Hans FienePastor Hans Fiene

In our reading from Romans today, St. Paul calls us to mark and avoid those who cause divisions and create obstacles to the true doctrine we’ve been taught. But to whom do these words apply? As always, the extremes are easy to identify. Joseph Smith was transparently a fraud, a belly-feeding charlatan who denied the Trinity and the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement, so we should mark and avoid the Mormons. But if someone in your congregation disagrees with you on what a certain detail in one of the parables means, that’s not sufficient grounds for marking and avoiding and tossing out the “belly feeder” accusation.


But what about a Baptist who confesses the true Christ, but denies baptismal regeneration, not out of malice, but because he’s sincerely convinced of this false teaching? What about a Roman Catholic, who confesses the Trinity and the efficacy of the sacraments, but insists there can be no salvation outside of the pope, sincerely believing it because that’s what he’s been taught?


In the end, I think the best way to apply Paul’s words is in proportion to the error. We shouldn’t pray with Mormons, shouldn’t worship with them because we don’t have the same God. We shouldn’t acknowledge their baptisms or treat them as though they have any union with Christ.


But what about the Baptist or the Roman Catholic? Well, we can acknowledge a common baptism, a shared union with Christ, but an imperfect union with each other. We can pour through the Scriptures together and ask the God who claims us all to heal our divisions. But we also can’t be content to stay in division. God is not a god of contradictions. Either baptism saves or it doesn’t. Either justification is through faith alone or it isn’t. And we must also acknowledge that those who hold false doctrines on these issues, no matter how sincerely they hold them, believe the lies of satan, the original belly-feeder crawling upon the earth and feeding on dust. So in this case, marking and avoiding means requiring unity of doctrine before we rejoice in unity of fellowship. We must put away our sad divisions before we commune together and hold worship services together. 


But we can speak words of encouragement to each other. We can pray with our separated friends, and acknowledge that we have a common bond in Christ, in the Scriptures, and being driven by the same Spirit to seek greater unity. We mark and avoid even as we strive to heal and return into each other’s arms.

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