How should I respond when someone says “doctrine divides, but Jesus unites”?
Question 0048
It sounds so reasonable, so irenic, so Christian. “Doctrine divides, but Jesus unites.” The sentiment is appealing, especially to those weary of theological controversy and ecclesiastical strife. Why argue about doctrine when we could simply gather around Jesus? Why draw boundaries when we could be building bridges?
Yet beneath this pleasant-sounding phrase lies a fundamental confusion that, if embraced, undermines the very faith it claims to honour. For the question that must immediately be asked is this: Which Jesus? The Jesus of Scripture or the Jesus of our imagination? The Jesus who made absolute claims or a homely Jesus who affirms everyone? The Jesus who divides or the Jesus who unites, and on what terms?
The False Dichotomy
The statement “doctrine divides, but Jesus unites” presents a false dichotomy. It assumes that Jesus and doctrine can be separated as though one could have a relationship with the person of Jesus while remaining indifferent to the truths about Him but this is impossible. Everything we know about Jesus comes to us through doctrine. The moment you say anything about Jesus; He is God, that He died for sins, that He rose again, that He is Lord, then you are making doctrinal statements. To claim to follow Jesus while dismissing doctrine is like claiming to love someone while refusing to learn anything about them.
The word “doctrine” simply means “teaching.” When people say doctrine divides, they are saying that teaching divides; specifically, Christian teaching about God, salvation, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and how we are to live. But Jesus Himself was a teacher. He was called “Rabbi” and “Teacher” throughout the Gospels. His followers were called “disciples,” which means “learners.” Christianity is inescapably doctrinal because Jesus Himself taught doctrine.
Jesus said: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). Do you the connection between His word (teaching, doctrine), discipleship, truth, and freedom. You cannot separate relationship with Jesus and His teaching.
Jesus the Divider
Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the “Jesus unites” sentiment is that Jesus Himself was one of the most divisive figures in history. He did not come to create a vague spiritual unity that transcends all. He came with specific claims that demanded response and those claims inevitably divided people.
Jesus said: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36). This is not the language of someone whose mission was to unite everyone regardless of their beliefs. Jesus brought a message that requires decision, and that decision divides. Those who follow His teaching are distinguished from those who follow something else.
John records the actual effect of Jesus’ teaching on His hearers: “There was again a division among the Jews because of these words” (John 10:19). “So there was a division among the people over him” (John 7:43). The Greek word for “division” here is σχίσμα (schisma), from which we get “schism.” Jesus’ own words and claims caused schism among those who heard them. This was not a failure on His part; it was an inevitable result of speaking truth in a world that often prefers lies. How is this different today?
The Terms of Unity
Jesus does bring unity but on His terms, not ours. The unity Jesus prays for in John 17 is a unity in truth: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20-21).
The unity Jesus prays for is a unity of those who believe through the apostles’ doctrine. It is a unity grounded in shared faith in the truth about Jesus.
Paul understood this when he wrote to the Ephesians: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:1-6).
Notice that Paul’s call to unity is grounded in doctrinal affirmations: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. Unity is not contentless; it is unity in these truths. Remove the truths, and you remove the basis for genuine Christian unity.
Why Doctrine Must Divide
Doctrine divides because truth divides. Truth by its very nature excludes falsehood. If Jesus is the only way to the Father (John 14:6), then other claimed ways are false. If salvation is by grace through faith apart from works (Ephesians 2:8-9), then salvation by works is a lie. If Jesus rose bodily from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3-8), then those who deny the resurrection are in error.
These are not secondary matters about which Christians can agree to disagree. They are at the heart of the gospel.
Paul took this seriously. When Peter behaved in a way that contradicted the truth of the gospel regarding the inclusion of Gentiles, Paul confronted him publicly: “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?'” (Galatians 2:11-14).
Paul’s concern was “the truth of the gospel.” When that was at stake, unity with Peter took second place. This was not because Paul valued controversy but because he valued the gospel more than superficial peace.
The Danger of Doctrinal Minimalism
The slogan “doctrine divides, but Jesus unites” is often used to justify a minimalist approach to Christian belief. The idea is that if we can just get everyone to agree on “Jesus” while setting aside contentious doctrinal matters, we will achieve unity. But this approach has fatal flaws.
Which Jesus are we uniting around? The Arian Jesus who was a created being? The Gnostic Jesus who did not truly become flesh? The liberal Jesus who was merely a good teacher? The prosperity gospel Jesus who exists to make us wealthy and healthy? The progressive Jesus who affirms every sexual expression? Each of these is a false Christ, and unity around a false Christ is not Christian unity at all. Paul warned: “For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough” (2 Corinthians 11:4). There are other Jesus’s being proclaimed. Doctrine is how we distinguish the true Jesus from the counterfeits just as a bank teller knows the real notes intimately and therefore recognises the fake.
And what begins as “let’s focus on the essentials” often becomes “let’s not worry about doctrine at all.” The boundaries keep moving. Yesterday’s essentials become today’s options and tomorrow’s embarrassments. Without doctrinal conviction, the church drifts from its moorings.
Genuine unity requires agreement on what unites us. If there is no shared content to our faith, there is no real unity, only the illusion of it. J. Gresham Machen wrote: “Indifferentism about doctrine makes no heroes of the faith.” In other words their faith is so watered down that it will not produce great believers or martyrs.
How to Respond
So how should we respond when someone says “doctrine divides, but Jesus unites”?
We can agree that doctrine can be divisive and affirm that this is sometimes necessary and good. Division from error is not evil; it is faithfulness. Light divides from darkness. Truth divides from lies. The gospel divides those who believe from those who do not.
We can point out that we only know Jesus through doctrine. Ask: “What do you believe about Jesus?” Every answer is a doctrinal statement. There is no doctrine-free Jesus.
We can show from Scripture that Jesus Himself was divisive. His claims divided people then, and they divide people now. A Jesus who never divides is not the Jesus of the Bible.
We can affirm the value of unity but insist that true unity is unity in truth. We are eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit, but that unity has content: one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Unity that abandons essential truth is not the unity Jesus prayed for.
We can express a willingness to discuss which doctrines are essential and which allow for diversity within the bounds of orthodoxy. Not every doctrine is equally important. The early church distinguished between primary matters (salvation through Christ alone) and secondary matters (modes of baptism, church governance, etc.). We can do the same but the primary matters must remain non-negotiable.
And then we can also model gracious conviction. We contend for the faith with gentleness and respect. We do not become quarrelsome over minor matters. But neither do we abandon truth for the sake of a peace that has no foundation. As Philipp Melanchthon (not Augustine) is often quoted: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
“Doctrine divides, but Jesus unites” is a slogan that sounds wise but unfortunately is foolish.
“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:4-6
Bibliography
- Carson, D. A. The Gospel According to John. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991.
- Machen, J. Gresham. Christianity and Liberalism. New ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009.
- Morris, Leon. The Gospel According to John. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.
- O’Brien, Peter T. The Letter to the Ephesians. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
- Stott, John R. W. The Message of Ephesians. The Bible Speaks Today. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979.
