THERE is a widely prevalent opinion that all controversy should be shunned in religion, and that it is a state of high attainment when Christians of the most diametrically opposite views can work with each other and join in the ordinary exercises of worship. This view is carried a step further when it is thought and openly proclaimed that Christians should fall in with the ways and customs of the world, rather than be always in opposition to them. Those who are guided by the laws of God’s Word instead of the principles of this world have quite different opinions to those stated above. Controversy may be very distasteful to them naturally. They would many a time if they consulted their own feelings, willingly retire from the scene of conflict, but a sense of duty imperatively demands them to stand their ground. The first controversy we have on record was in connection with religion, and it waxed so hot that Cain killed his brother. It would be monstrous, however, to blame the one who was in the right, as is too often done, and say little or nothing against Cain, who was in the wrong. Cain, of course, might plead that he was giving to God the best he had, but it is not what we consider the best that is to be offered to God, but what He asks us to render to Him, and the echoes of this ancient controversy are ringing in the world to this day.
Among professing Christians one meets with those who have different views in this matter. Some believe in peace-at-any-price; others, again, of a naturally combative nature, are, to say the least of it, too ready for the conflict; while others, again, under a deep sense of their duty and love to God’s truth, put aside all natural promptings and do battle for the truth attacked. The favourite text with peace-at-any-price Christians is—”Put up thy sword into the sheath” (John xviii. 11), while they conveniently forget a command from the same lips: “He that hath no sword let him sell his garment and buy one” (Luke xxii. 36). When God’s truth is at stake it is disloyalty on the part of any Christian to remain neutral or to hang back because the conflict would mean trouble or discomfort. We are to bear in mind that the battle is the Lord’s and not ours. And in defending God’s truth we often see men, who were naturally timid when it came to make a stand for God’s truth, they feared not the face of man. This was preeminently the case with the two honoured servants of God—one of whom is still with us—Rev. D. Macfarlane and Rev. D. Macdonald—who held their ground when others who boasted in strong language of the great things they were to do, but who utterly failed in the day of decision. Now, while it is true that some are naturally combative and keen for the fray, it is most unjust to charge some of the most faithful of God’s servants that this is the whole motive of their constant contending for the truth. There are men, whatever failings they may have, whose love of truth and interest in Christ’s kingdom have made these matters dearer to them than anything in the world. These have generally been very hardly judged by the world and lukewarm Christians. In fighting the battles of the Lord it is well we should consider what we are contending for—is it for our own honour or is it for His glory? Our weapons are not to be carnal, and love in the heart to God’s truth gives a nobility to the conflict that all that the adversaries may say can never belittle. When we think of the great men whom God raised up, the calumny they had to bear, the evil motives imputed to them, the coldness shown to them at times by those who ought to have been their staunchest friends in their noble battle for the truth, it is no wonder if at times their hearts sank within them.
We are not blind to the dangers of religious controversy, the ill and sometimes bitter feeling it engenders. There is also the danger of destroying the balance of very important truths—truths which may be regarded as corner-stone truths. He would be a very unwise builder who, emphasising the importance of a certain corner-stone, would push it so far out of plumb with the building that he endangered the stability of the whole building. We see this very noticeably in the stress laid on the love of God by preachers and theologians of the modern school. This great truth, so precious and so profound, has been pushed out of the place given to it in the Word of God until the stability of the building has been disturbed by builders who are determined to put up some kind of building whether it be in accordance with God’s Word or not. And what is true of this truth is also true of others treated in like manner by unwise and incompetent builders. There is a balance in the truth as presented in the Word of God which we must be careful not to disturb. And in controversy the greatest care ought to be exercised to guard against this danger.
Another danger in connection with religious controversy is zeal without knowledge. Zeal for the cause of God is a beautiful thing whether in young or old, but where there is zeal without knowledge, however important it may appear in the eyes of the contender, it is rather a dangerous thing, and it has many a time done a great deal of injury to the cause of Christ, and puffed up unstable minds, like Jehu of old, with an undue sense of their great zeal.
In controversy there is always the danger of pushing the positions of our opponents to what appears to us the logical outcome of the positions maintained, notwithstanding the denial of those conclusions by those against whom we are arguing. This mode of argument, while quite legitimate and useful in defence of the truth, may, at times, have within it a subtle lurking fallacy that vitiates our whole argument. The Apostle Paul met with some of these keen and subtle but fallacious logicians, who argued with their remorseless logic that because more grace was given where sin abounded, therefore more sin should be committed to get more grace. The answer of the Apostle to these logicians was “God forbid.”
The Word of God has made it plain that there must be earnest contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. We are not to have peace-at-any-price merely to suit our own comfort. But in all our contending we are never to forget that the battle is the Lord’s, and if we are to wage it successfully and faithfully, it must be done in dependence upon His grace and the guidance of His Holy Spirit. Sincere love to His truth will urge us forward when we are ready to hang back, and the realisation of the momentousness of the issues will make us think very little of what the world has to say about us in the matter, for after all what does it matter what the world has to say in these matters.