The Truth Divides

In this excerpt from a questions and answers event, R.C. Sproul reminds us that the truth of God divides.

Transcript

Why should we engage in debate since it seems to cause division in the church? What message does that send to those outside the church?

God forbid that we should ever debate the truth of the gospel, that we should ever follow in the footsteps of the apostle Paul, who debated the matter every day in the marketplace and who wrote all these epistles to correct error and distortions of the truth of God. Weren't those letters the apostle wrote to the Ephesians, to the Galatians, and the Colossians divisive? Nothing divides like truth. Nothing divides like Jesus. But we have this idea that the only real sin that you can have is dividing a church.

Well, there are churches that need to be divided, and they need to be divided—not over minor matters, not over pecadilos—but over substantive issues of the truth of God. And our Lord, when He was asked by Pontius Pilate, 'what are you about?' He said, 'I came to bear witness to the truth. And those who are of the truth, hear My voice.' And then the next thing Jesus said, 'but I sure don't want to divide anybody over the truth.' Thank you for laughing, but it's really not funny. But that's what they said. The worst thing you can say is that truth is important. When you do that, what happens then is that truth gets slain in the streets and anything goes.