LIE: Division is avoidable

Lie: Division is avoidable.

Truth: Division is unavoidable.

Truth: Division can be good and should not be feared, but exposed

The political right-left divide, woke–non-woke, racism, classism, first world–third-world — the divisions in our world multiply like rabbits. Cancel culture, hate-speech crime, church splits, mass rally protests, marches through the streets — in practically every nation of the world, the anger, hatred, rage and violence is growing. The whole world appears to be disintegrating.

In a word: division.

Division is on every level – nation, city, church, community. And of course it extends to family, marriage, friendship, and individual, that is, internal, personal division: double-mindedness, confusion, anxiety and fear.

In his classic allegory, The Great Divorce, C S Lewis tells the story of an unnamed narrator who boards a bus from ‘grey town,’ where it constantly rains and where everyone hates each other. The residents of grey town who have moved successively farther and farther apart from one another suddenly have the opportunity to take a holiday to the ‘solid country,’ where they discover they are translucent.

However you may conceive of hell, one thing is clear: it’s a place/dimension where everyone is absolutely alone. I personally believe that hell is the logical conclusion of the exaltation of self above all. It is the non-stop ingestion/consumption of everything for self until the self finds itself in a deep hole. Unless it’s rectified by the Lord, this path of narcissism starts on earth and continues its trajectory indefinitely until it produces a dehumanized shell of a person, like Lewis’ translucent souls.

This is the ultimate end of division — fragmentation, atomization, pulverization.

But strange as it may seem the good news is that our great God can actually use division for our good. Many have forgotten Jesus’ statement:

And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” — John 9:39

Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.— Luke 12:51

Jesus was and is a lightening rod — the lightening rod of history — and he made no attempt to tame the effects of his true identity. Actually, at times he deliberately offended people to expose these divisions.[1] I will discuss this more later, but suffice it to say, we cannot and should not be afraid of division or causing offence or believe the lie that division is somehow avoidable or manageable.

That said, I first need to make clear: yes, division is generally bad.

Division is bad

Division is a large idea and has many contexts and meanings, but let’s try to define its core concept.

division – disunity, dis-integration, the splitting off of what should be, or is designed to be an integrated whole into autonomous and superfluous parts.

Let’s take a simple example.

I’m looking right now at my coffee cup. You could say that this cup is made up of two basic parts: one, the cup itself, and two, the handle. These are two distinct parts, but they’re joined to create an integrated and useful whole — the coffee cup.

Now, if the handle were separated (divided) from the cup, could the cup still be usable? The answer is yes, but not as it was intended or designed. That’s because without the handle, I may burn my hand if I pour hot coffee in the cup and pick it up.(Or I may be forced to drink lukewarm coffee – not a very pleasant thought.) The handle serves the purpose of allowing me to drink the coffee comfortably while it’s still hot. What an ingenious invention!

I could site similar but more complex examples:

• the pencil and its eraser
• the book and its cover
• the flower and its stem
• the cell and its mitochondria
• the marriage and its wife
• the family and its father
• the individual and its rationality

Why then is division so bad?

Division is bad because that which is designed to be a functioning whole becomes dysfunctional and cannot serve its purpose. Consequently, it becomes useless, weak, and easily dominated.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. — Matthew 12:25

Empires conquer peoples by creating social instability and the breakdown of trust that produces fear, tension, and violence. They can then appoint themselves as the ‘adult,’ the savior, the judge who alone can bring order out of chaos, which happens to be the order and structure which they had originally planned.

In 1982, speaking of the ‘Computer-Managed Society’ in which electronic devices determine how man communicates, Ivan Illich, the theologian, philosopher and author of Medical Nemesis, spoke these words:

Observations of the sickening effect of programmed environments show that people in them become indolent, impotent, narcissistic and apolitical. The political process breaks down because people cease to be able to govern themselves; they demand to be managed.[2]

Illich, forty years ago, saw clearly the digital programmed environment that we find ourselves in today. It’s beyond the scope of this article, but a good case could easily be made that he was right: our digital programmed environment is producing an indolent and passive people easily dominated, managed and divided like cattle herds — some to be slaughtered and some to be fattened up (to be slaughtered later).

What causes division?

Make no mistake: sectarianism is sin. Famously, the Corinthian church was divided up by various followings of men:

Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? — 1 Corinthians 1:10–13

How do some in the church cause divisions? Listen to Paul on this point:

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. — Romans 16:17–18

The command in verse 17: ‘Note those who cause division . . .’ is to be aware of these so-called brethren and avoid them. The word ‘note’ is skopeo, to look at, observe, contemplate, to mark. So be aware, keep your eyes on those who use ‘smooth words.’ This is the opposite of what we may think. Usually, we think of those who cause division as those who deliberately offend, but here, Paul says that it’s those who use smooth words that draw people away after themselves. Smooth words are those words intentionally used to flatter, pacify, equivocate, or just to impress.

So many Christians are naïve to think that, because they would never deceive anyone to gain a following or to make themselves look good, that therefore, it doesn’t happen. They say, ‘because it shouldn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.’ But the fact is that it does happen and has happened since the time of Paul. We are told to ‘note’ those who use smooth words.

False unities

In some ways false unity is worse that open division. False unity deceives and imprisons us so that we’re unable to imagine or achieve true unity. At least three false unities subtly enslave people:

Homogenization. God’s kind of unity is seen throughout his creation. Take for example, the plant kingdom. All plants have many things in common: their roots anchor them to the ground; they grow upward and outward, their bodies are green, etc. But despite the commonality, each plant displays a uniqueness and an individual character, sometimes wildly different than his fellows (for example, compare the sequoia and the peony, both plants). Unity in diversity, not uniformity. Homogenization is a forced, either overt or subtle, blending of cultures into a nondescript blob, and at the same time, the amputation of any unique or superior (or inferior) features.

Homogenization commodifies and herds people like cattle. We see this in the branding of whole swaths of people: white supremacists, black lives matter, liberals, conservatives, etc. Those groups are then given cues and examples of how to act, think, speak, dress, etc.

Resignation/capitulation/acquiescence. Whereas homogenization is a cultural or behavioral false unity, resignation is a belief false unity. This is ‘going along to get along,’ ‘going with the flow,’ and just plain ‘giving in.’

Admittedly, sometimes it is good and right to ‘give in’ (acquiesce), when you voluntarily and truly believe it is the right thing to do. But too often ‘unity’ is achieved only after being chided, cajoled, bullied, gas-lighted or threatened. To resign ourselves is certainly not unity at all – it’s obedience, bondage, fear and in some cases, a harbor for a slow-simmering hate toward your ‘master,’ the one to whom you’ve capitulated.

Cultic. This kind of false unity is similar to resignation, or it may start out as resignation, but in some cases it can turn into a cult where the cult followers follow blindly and without question, and adhere to their ‘dear leader.’ This can of course happen in churches or literal cults where the unwritten rule is, ‘never question the pastor’s judgment.’

Or it can happen on the institutional level where the profession or guild is culturally gas-lighted. For example, this has happened to a large degree in the science world, especially in medical institutions and professions. Medical schools, grant programs, professional societies, universities, scientific journals, most of which are funded by dedicated government agencies and foundations, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are easily able to control the ‘scientific’ narrative. This creates a kind of priest class who pronounce dogma to all adherents, and who in turn are expected to ‘trust the science’ or bleat the ‘scientific consensus,’ no matter how irrational it may be.

Of course this kind of false unity is apparently supported by self-appointed ‘fact-based’ journalists, fact checkers, experts, etc. In effect ‘science’ becomes a god who demands to be worshiped, claiming to be the final arbiter of all knowledge.

But division can also be good!

Admittedly I need to be careful here not to call evil good and good evil. But I say division can be good, that is beneficial, because none other than Jesus himself said he came to bring it.[3] But to dispel your understandable doubts, read these scriptures:

 . . . if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous, or an idolater, with such a one no not to eat. — I Corinthians 5:11

 . . . they went out from us . . . made manifest that they were not all of us. — I John 2:19

 . . . for there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. — I Corinthians 11:19

 . . . this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel . . . — Luke 2:34

Let me break down this kind of division into three ways it can be beneficial:

Division can . . .

1  reveal and expose darkness and evil.

2  vindicate and validate the light, the good, and the true

3  protect the flock and the vulnerable

Division CAN expose evil, revealing the contrast

What’s more effective: cursing the darkness or turning on a light? The answer should be obvious. This was God’s first act of creation:

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. — Genesis 1:3–4

Yes, that subject-verb combination — ‘God divided’ — is right there in the very beginning and is perhaps one of the greatest theological statements in the Bible.

Paul tells the Ephesian believers that they are children of light, and as such, by living their lives as children of light, they will expose the darkness:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.” — Ephesians 5:8–14

This stark division between light and dark is made visible and even obvious over time as Christians ‘walk as children of light’ and display the ‘fruit of the Spirit . . . goodness, righteousness, and truth.’ and learn ‘what is acceptable to the Lord.’

So this division does not happen as a result of any one act or word or offense; this division becomes obvious when some in the body of Christ live their lives as children of light and when some inevitably don’t. So my point in saying that division can be good is to say, it’s in the visible, palpable contrast between the children of light and the children of darkness, that the world sees the overwhelming good of the light. ‘A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.’

So let us not be afraid or shrink back from, or try to smooth over, this unavoidable division, all the while avoiding the trap of self-righteousness. Yes, true peacemakers can serve and listen and discern and facilitate healing and reconciliation. This service to the body of Christ is also valuable and needed, but also so rare.

If division is to be unavoidable, let it be the division that Christ himself brings as the divine lightning rod. Do not make apologies for him or try to manage or moderate or lessen the effects of his sharp sword.

Hear his words:

“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” — Luke 12:49–53

He has compassion on the humble of heart, but he rebukes the proud, the self-sufficient, and the know-it-all.

Division CAN vindicate and affirm the good

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul makes a somewhat cryptic statement. This statement is made in the context of Paul’s critique of their observation of the Lord’s Supper. He says:

Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. — I Corinthians 11:17–19

Two seemingly opposing statement are made here:

. . . I hear that there are divisions among you . .

. . . there must also be factions among you . .

In short Paul is saying to the Corinthians that their divisions are visible and hurtful, even when they’re all together in one church gathering to eat together and take the Lord’s Supper together. Admittedly if ever there was a time when their divisions could dissolve it would be then. But their divisions have now hardened into factions or sects (Greek: hairesies). In fact these factions, Paul says, are unavoidable, but they do make it much more obvious who the true Christ-like leaders — ‘those who are approved’ — happen to be (unlike the selfish and uncaring ‘leaders’ who barge ahead and care nothing about the hungry and the poor among them).

St John said something similar in his letter:

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. — I John 2:19

Again, division: sects, factions, the ‘in-crowd,’ the hip, the woke — all of which are unavoidable — serve to make clear that, ‘none of them were of us.’ This may sound uncaring or even self-righteous, but it’s simply a statement of fact.

Division/separation CAN protect the flock

You may hear this referred to as ‘church discipline,’ when a member of a church is expelled for a time to allow time for that person to repent. We may not normally think of this as division, but it is essentially the same thing; it is an intentional separation of that person from the body of Christ. Paul describes it to the Corinthian church:

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” — I Corinthians 5:9–13

It seems few churches faithfully practice this discipline, and no doubt suffer for the lack of it. It is a church practice that must be administered carefully, thoroughly, legally, compassionately, transparently, biblically and above all prayerfully. The individuals who are named should not be those who sin (which all of us do), but those who practice sin openly and without repentance or remorse. The discipline communicated by the church on the person must be clear and without prejudice and must be done redemptively and in such a way as to protect the flock.

Think about it: if someone in the church who claims to be a believer in Christ and is practicing sin knowingly, openly and unrepentantly, rationalizing, justifying himself, and yet the church ignores it, rationalizes it, or tries to smooth it over. Consequently weaker believers in the church may assume that it’s okay, or that, it’s ‘no big deal.’ Yet it is! Unless the church confronts it, it will certainly grow and multiply. ‘A little leaven leavens the whole lump.’[4]

Division is not caused by confrontation but by accusation and ‘smooth words’

It is inherently offensive to expose darkness. Especially darkness that is assumed to be acceptable, normal. We will, if we live faithfully, find it harder and harder to not be ‘offensive,’ not to get ‘cancelled.’

If we as a people are walking with God, we should actually expect there to be division, a separation in the church especially with the world encroaching so much on it. We should not try to ‘smooth over,’ ‘play politics,’ equivocate, make empty promises. ‘Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no,’ ‘no.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.[5] Resist the temptation to please everyone — it simply can’t be done. Division is unavoidable.

Niceness is assumed to overrule all other attitudes. Yes, be ‘nice,’ that is be kind and caring and compassionate, but also discern when it’s time to be stern, severe, sober, intense, even what some would say: ‘offensive,’ knowing that, what you say will likely upset the person. Yet it needs to be said. The truth must be spoken, and spoken in love (Eph 4:15).

Yes, Jesus was kind, caring and compassionate, but he also spoke pointedly and occasionally even used ‘offensive’ words:[6] Here’s a sampling:

 . . . Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! . . . — Matthew 23:15

 . . . O you of little faith, why did you doubt? — Matthew 14:31

 . . . Get behind me Satan! You are an offense to me . . — Matthew 16:23

 . . . Take these things away. Do not make my Father’s house a den of merchandise . . — John 2:16

 . . . Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? — John 3:10

 . . . Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil? — John 6:70

 . . . You are of your Father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. — John 8:44

. . . Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things . . — Luke 10:41

 . . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. — John 6:53

. . . Woe to you when all men speak well of you . . — Luke 6:26

We are commanded to rebuke, reprove, correct:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. — 2 Timothy 3:16–17

The offensive words themselves, if spoken properly and from a heart of compassion, do not divide, they simply reveal the division that was already there in the heart. They give the person receiving them a clear opportunity to turn and trust in God. Whole long prophetic writings are devoted, in poetical language no less, to this kind of speech in the Old Testament.

Yet we also must ‘in as much as it’s possible . . . live at peace with all men,’ and ‘maintain the spirit of unity in the bond of peace.’ Paul exhorts us to:

With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love . . . There is one body and one Spirit. Called in one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. — Ephesians 4:1–6

We must resist the temptation to get on our high horse, self-righteously, carelessly or reactively ‘rebuking’ or ‘correcting’ people. Proper rebuke requires thought and prayer and should NOT be done in the heat of anger.

Here is some wisdom from Proverbs:

A wise son heeds his father’s instruction,
But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. — Proverbs 13:1

Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction,
But he who regards a rebuke will be honored.— Proverbs 13:18

The ear that hears the rebukes of life
Will abide among the wise.
He who disdains instruction despises his own soul,
But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. — Proverbs 15:31–32

Cease listening to instruction, my son,
And you will stray from the words of knowledge. — Proverbs 19:27

Correction and rebuke require the proper authority: father to son, apostle to church, teacher to student, master to servant. But too often it’s just our fear of division and rejection and ridicule that keeps us from properly instructing or reproving someone; consequently, we deny them the opportunity to truly repent and turn to the Lord. Yes, they may reject you, but you’ve also planted a seed that may bear a harvest later on. You may never see it in this life, but in the end it will be worth it.

Division is unavoidable. Sects are unavoidable. As the darkness encroaches on the church, the need to confront that evil and darkness will grow. This is not a time to be passive or fearful.[7] Yes, we should not accuse, slander, gossip, or provoke, but like Jesus, we must boldly, for the truth’s sake, for the sake of the church, for the sake of the gospel, speak the truth in love.

One more thing: God started the world by dividing the light from the darkness. And at the end of time, God will again divide, but this time, at the judgment of the nations, he will divide the sheep from the goats.[8] I believe that behind everything that the devil is doing right now to divide and conquer, our God is exposing a more fundamental division, making it more obvious the choice before us. Every day now the evil gets more ugly and offensive, and every day the righteous get more attractive and appealing. Many people are waking up and running to the salvation of our God in Jesus Christ because, for the first time, they see the evil being unmasked and it scares them. It’s becoming more and more obvious and at the same time more intimidating, and more desperate.

At some point, this God-initiated exposure of division, which is using the revelation of evil, will become hardened.

Here is the angel speaking to John in Revelation at the end of time:

And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”

“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.” — Revelation 22:10–12

So choose this day whom you will serve!

“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served . . .. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, . . . But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” — Joshua 24:14–15

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[1] See for example, John 6:53 where Jesus says, ‘ . . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.’

[2] Illich, Ivan, Mirror of the Past: Lectures and Addresses, 1978–1990.

[3] See Luke 12:51

[4] I Corinthians 5:6

[5] Matthew 5:37

[6] Jesus is our example here, but we must be careful in using such words since we will never reach the height of his purity or authority.

[7] See also: LIE: Fear is unconquerable.

[8] See Matthew 25:31ff