A quote from the ancient church, usually attributed to Augustine: “In essentials UNITY, in non-essentials LIBERTY, in all things CHARITY.”
In the teaching below entitled, “One, Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church” from Ligonier Ministries (at the 11 minute mark), Dr. R. C. Sproul recounts a story illustrating the fact that Christian unity must be based on the essential doctrines of the Christian faith, or else only a shallow, superficial (and unbiblical) unity can exist.
Transcript:
“Back in Ligonier many years ago, I had a request for 30 Frenchmen to come and visit us who were part of the charismatic movement in France. And they wanted to come to Ligonier to our study center, and bear witness to what God the Holy Spirit had accomplished in their midst. And they came in and they were filled with enthusiasm, bubbling over with joy and they were singing ‘We are one in the Spirit.’ And they gave testimony of how the Holy Spirit had given them a unity that had transcended all of their historic differences over doctrine. There were Roman Catholics there and Baptists there and people from all different kinds of backgrounds from France.
And I said, ‘Well, that’s amazing.’ And I said, ‘How have you been able to reconcile your differences over justification? Is it by faith alone or isn’t it by faith alone?’ And I started asking some of these critical theological questions to these dear people, and within ten minutes, they were at each other’s throat. [laughter]
They were singing ‘We are one in the Spirit’ until we started talking about the content of the Christian faith. They had one Lord, they had one Spirit, but they didn’t have one faith. And they said, ‘Well, that’s why we don’t like doctrine because doctrine divides.’
When did it ever not divide? When did the truth not ever divide? And these people say, ‘We have to do away with doctrine.’ If you want to do away with doctrine, you better burn your New Testaments because the New Testament is one doctrine after another which is the revelation of the truth of God. And if you want to have a superficial unity that is ultimately meaningless, get rid of your doctrine.
In one sense, I’m glad that Christians argue so much over doctrine. Because at least the people who are arguing about doctrine understand that it is of eternal significance, what we believe. And where we differ in doctrine, we should be going to the mat, and looking for that unity of the one faith that has been delivered to us in the pages of the New Testament. But let us not forget also that there exists a real and profound and important unity that all of the differences that we have in denominations, and in the trappings of our polity, and our doctrines at this point and that – that all of these differences cannot overcome.”