First pure. Then peaceable.

 

When I was a youngster in a conservative Church of Christ, I often worried about what was most important. I knew Jesus had said that the most important thing was to love God with all your being.

 

I wondered what it meant to "love God". Did that mean to feel warm fuzzies toward him, or what?

 

I also knew that Jesus had said that to love him is to obey him.

 

There was my answer: to love God is to know his legal requirements and to obey them.

 

And not just part-way.

 

I also knew that James had said that the wisdom from above is first pure, and then peaceable, and that if you break the law in any one tiny detail, you've broken it all.

 

So obviously, we must be pure in our doctrine, and we must obey it exactly.

 

So the focus was on having the right doctrine, and keeping that doctrine, and the crux of loving your neighbor was convincing him of the right doctrine and getting him to keep that doctrine.

 

So we could never really be "peaceable" with those having incorrect doctrines. It does no good to love your neighbor by mowing his lawn when he has the flu, if you haven't yet convinced him to believe and keep right doctrine. And we certainly can't consider him a brother in Christ if his doctrine has prevented him from keeping the legal requirements necessary for becoming a Christian, even if in all other ways, including loving others and reflecting the qualities of God, he outdoes us by a significant margin.

 

First pure, right? Then peaceable.

 

First, correct doctrine and obedience. Then loving actions.

 

That's the way it was for me.

 

That's the way it still is for many.