Alistair Begg, who faithfully ministered for many years at Parkside Church just down the road from us in Northeast Ohio, has often reminded his congregation of an old principle of Bible interpretation:
“The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.”
It’s a simple statement, but it’s one the church desperately needs today.
We are living in an age when it has never been easier to argue with other Christians. Social media gives every disagreement a microphone. Every opinion becomes a debate. Every secondary issue becomes a test of faithfulness. Too often, Christians divide publicly over matters that, while important, are not central to the gospel.
Meanwhile, the watching world isn’t asking, “Who won the argument?” They’re wondering, “Is Jesus really worth following?”
Paul gives us a better goal. In Titus 2:10 he says we are to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” The word adorn means to beautify, to display, to make something attractive.
The truth about Jesus is already infinitely beautiful. We don’t make it beautiful. We have the privilege of displaying its beauty by the way we live and treat one another.
That doesn’t mean doctrine doesn’t matter. It matters tremendously. Paul wrote the Pastoral Epistles to defend sound doctrine and protect the church from false teaching. But it’s striking that, in those same letters, he repeatedly warns against becoming quarrelsome people.
He warns against those who have “wandered away into vain discussion” (1 Timothy 1:6). He says church leaders must be “not quarrelsome” (1 Timothy 3:3). He describes those with “an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words,” producing “envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction” (1 Timothy 6:4–5).
Writing to Timothy again, Paul says, “Charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers” (2 Timothy 2:14). He continues, “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels” (2 Timothy 2:23).
Then Titus receives perhaps the strongest warning of all:
“Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him…” (Titus 3:9–11)
Paul never tells us to avoid truth. He tells us to avoid foolish controversies. He never tells us to compromise sound doctrine. He tells us not to become people who are known for controversy rather than Christ.
There are truths worth standing for. The deity of Christ. The authority of Scripture. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The bodily resurrection of Jesus. These are not optional. We contend for these because they are at the heart of the Christian faith.
But not every disagreement belongs in that category.
Every generation is tempted to major on the minors and make mountains out of molehills. We elevate preferences to convictions, opinions to doctrines, and secondary issues to tests of fellowship. In doing so, we often fail to display the very beauty of the gospel we claim to defend.
Jesus prayed that His followers “may all be one… so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Our unity is part of our witness. Our love for one another authenticates our message before a skeptical world.
One day, some of us will discover that we spent too much time winning arguments and too little time winning people.
So, let’s keep the plain things the main things and the main things the plain things.
Let’s hold firmly to biblical truth. Let’s contend courageously for the essentials of the faith. But let’s extend charity where faithful Christians may disagree.
And above all, let’s live in such a way that our words, our attitudes, and our relationships adorn the doctrine of God our Savior, making the beauty of Jesus unmistakable to a watching world.
