Either/Or and Faith Only by P. J. Casebolt (Reprinted form Focus Magazine, http://www.focusmagazine.org/)
God made man a creature of choice, with the ability or power to choose, and for good or bad, to accept the consequences of his choice. In his dealings with man, there are times when God uses the either/or principle, and gives man only one choice that is right and good. At other times, man may be given more than one choice, either or all of which may be acceptable. But man often invokes this either/or principle when there is no need for it, and to his own destruction.
The doctrine of justification by faith only is a good example of this either/or principle. God has decreed that man is justified by faith and works, but man has decided that he must choose between faith and works. Martin Luther made this mistake, and ended up rejecting the Book of James as "spurious" because it contradicted his conclusion that works had nothing to do with salvation.
The Methodist Discipline states that "we are justified by faith only" (Art. IX). The Baptist Manual says that "the salvation of sinners is wholly by grace" (Art. IV); yet says that justification is "solely through faith in Christ" (Art. V). God saves man by grace, faith, repentance, confession, baptism, works - a combination of God's grace and man's obedience, but man decides that salvation must be by faith only or grace only, contradicts himself, confuses people, frustrates the grace of God, and deprives himself of the salvation which God offers.
God invoked the either/or principle with the first of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3). Joshua exhorted the people to make this choice (Josh. 24:15), and Elijah said, "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him" (1 Ki. 18:21). Jesus says, "No man can serve two masters ... ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt. 6:24). The Lord told the Laodiceans, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth" (Rev. 3:15, 16).
The hypocritical scribes and Pharisees were practicing the either/or principle when they paid tithes, but "omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Mt. 23:23). There is no limit to the number of things we can do under the heading of "the fruit of the Spirit." We will have to use the either/or principle when it comes to the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit, but we can practice "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:16-23).
When God has limited us, we need to abide within the bounds of that limitation. The Israelites were taught to circumcise their male children "on the eighth day" (Lev. 12:3), not the seventh or ninth day. Naaman was commanded to dip "seven times" in the Jordan River (2 Ki. 5:10), not six or eight times. Yet, when Elisha told Joash to "smite upon the ground" with the arrows, the king "smote thrice, and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice" (2 Ki. 13:18, 19).
Some brethren misapply the either/or principle. They tell us that "it is better to do something wrong than to do nothing," implying that we must make one of only two choices: do nothing, or do something wrong. They ignore a third choice: do something, but do it right. And by following the scriptures, we will be "throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). Paul condemned the idea of "let us do evil that good may come" (Rom. 3:8). We need to refrain from that practice, and reprove those who teach or practice such.
Some have insisted that we must believe that Jesus was either human or divine while on earth, but that we cannot believe both, or else our secular education in mathematics and spiritual knowledge becomes suspect. Now, some are conceding that Jesus was both fully God and fully man, and to this the scriptures agree: he was of the seed of David according to the flesh, but at the same time he was "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Mt. 1:23).
In order to satisfy the doctrines of men, the premillennialists and others have invoked the either/or principle with respect to Christ and the church, and the church and the kingdom. Some say that salvation is in Christ, but not in the church, yet the Bible says that "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). Christ purchased the church with his blood (Acts 20:28), "he is the savior of the body" (Eph. 5:23), God's wisdom is made known through Christ and the church (Eph. 3:10, 11), and God is glorified through Christ and the church (Eph. 3:21).
Neither do we have to choose between the church and the kingdom as separate entities established at different times with separate identities, for the same terms are used interchangeably in the scriptures (Mt. 16:18, 19; Col. 1:13, 18; Heb. 12:23, 28). The term kingdom is simply one of several metaphors (house of God, flock/fold, body, etc.), by which God's called-out people (the church) are designated.
Bible language is not confusing when the principle of either/or is discussed. The matter only becomes characterized by confusion and strife when man is not content to abide by the ways and thoughts of God (Isa. 55:8, 9), and when man is guilty of "intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind..." (Col. 2:18). If God invokes the either/or principle, let us abide by it; if he does not, let us not bind it upon ourselves or on others.
How do you reconcile the teaching of the New Testament on love (as in 1 Cor. 13), with the requirement to speak the truth with boldness, rebuke sin and discipline the unruly. The answer is, you don't need to reconcile it. It is perfectly reconciled already, because God gave it. It is His perfect law. There is nothing God give us in His Word that we need to "reconcile" or "harmonize." When we obey what God says about the truth, and we obey what God says about love, that's our response to God.
There is nothing about rebuking sin, seeking legitimate redress, preaching the truth or exposing error that isn't compatible with the love God defines in 1 Cor. 13. Nothing about one that cancels the other. Eph. 4:15 says we are to speak the truth in love. The truth can be spoken, can be applied and obeyed fully - while practicing everything this passage teaches about love. They are perfectly compatible.
To say that another way - there is nothing built into truth that contradicts anything else God has said. There is nothing about love that interferes with our devotion to truth in any way.
Don't let anyone tell you that you obey what 1 Cor. 13 teaches about love, but that you stop that obedience when preaching the truth or rebuking sin! And let nobody tell you, that because of the teaching on love, you must compromise in preaching the truth. The one sentence answer to all of this confusion is - Speak the truth in love!
"Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed."
Psa. 85:10
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the
conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained
approval," (Heb. 11:1,2, NASB).
Faith, as stated by this inspired writer, involves three things:
Assurance, Conviction and Approval. These three things are associated
with faith.
Consider the opposites. The opposite of assurance is doubt. The
opposite of conviction is uncertainty. And the opposite of approval
is disapproval. If you want to have in your life - doubt, uncertainty
and disapproval, no faith in God is required for those results.
Do nothing in response to God; ignore the gospel, and you will
have doubt, uncertainty and divine disapproval.
On the other hand, if you want assurance, conviction and approval,
you must have faith in God. Most people want assurance, conviction
and approval, yet they are not willing to find these results by
the activity of faith in God. We should associate these things
with faith and seek them by faith: Assurance, Conviction and Approval.
"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for
he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder
of those who seek Him," (Heb. 11:6).
"Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."
"Truth ever gains, and error uniformly loses, by discussion."
MONTHLY BIBLE READING: Jesus Teaches New Covenant Concepts - The Gospels and Hebrews
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