THE IDOL OF ORTHODOXY
We have made an idol out of orthodoxy. What was meant to guard our faith has too often become a golden calf in the midst of it. We recite words once forged in the fires of devotion, but now they serve as cold test stones for who belongs and who does not. We say sola scriptura, but we speak English. Why then do we cling to Latin phrases as if heaven required them? Nowhere in Scripture does God command that His truth be preserved in a tongue foreign to love. He asks for hearts that tremble at His Word, not tongues that recite it in proper form (Isaiah 66:2).
When Jesus restored Peter after his fall, He did not ask, “Peter, do you affirm the right creed?” He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:15). That is the measure of all true religion. The first and greatest commandment is not “Understand perfectly,” but “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Matthew 22:37). The second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39). On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:40). Yet many would rather divide over formulas than unite under these words of Christ.
We have built fences around fellowship that Christ never built. We decide who is “sound” by what phrases they sign their name to, not by the fruit of their lives. Yet the Lord said, “By their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). If a brother loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity, if he walks humbly, helps the weak, and bears the burdens of others, how dare we deny him fellowship? The apostles rejoiced when Christ was preached, even if others did it differently (Philippians 1:18). The only thing that counts is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).
Christ never said, “By this shall all men know you are My disciples, if you can articulate My attributes correctly.” He said, “If you love one another” (John 13:35). That is the badge of true orthodoxy. If we speak with tongues of angels and have all knowledge, but have not love, we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1–2). Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (1 Corinthians 8:1). The Spirit does not rest upon the scholar but upon the humble and contrite heart (Isaiah 57:15).
We have traded communion for competition. We no longer ask, “Do you know Christ?” but “Do you agree with my confession?” Yet the thief on the cross had no confession but Christ Himself (Luke 23:42). The woman who washed His feet had no creed but tears and love (Luke 7:47–48). The man born blind did not even know who Jesus was when he was healed; he only said, “One thing I know, that I was blind, and now I see” (John 9:25). These are the souls heaven calls blessed. Their orthodoxy was love. Their confession was Christ.
The Bible teaches that love fulfills the law (Romans 13:10). It says that whoever loves is born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7). It says that if anyone loves God, that one is known by Him (1 Corinthians 8:3). Love is not a lesser truth but the greatest one. To love Christ is to know Him, and to know Him is eternal life (John 17:3). The Father is not seeking those who can sign statements, but those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23).
Let us therefore leave behind the pride of being “right” and seek the purity of being “real.” Let us measure soundness not by precision of speech but by passion for Christ. For where the heart burns with love for Him, the mind will follow in humility, and the lips will speak what pleases the Spirit. The Church needs fewer debates and more devotion, fewer watchmen of words and more lovers of the Word made flesh.
It is not the creed that saves. It is Christ. It is not the phrase that preserves us. It is the Person who died and rose again. Sola scriptura may remind us that Scripture is supreme, but Scripture itself points us to Jesus (John 5:39). If we love Him, we will love one another (1 John 4:11). And in that love, we will find the unity for which He prayed (John 17:21).
Let every heart return to its first love. Let the Church repent of its pride in formulas and fall again at the feet of the Lamb. For it is love that never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8), and only love that will last when every creed and slogan has turned to dust.
Bryan Dewayne Dunaway
