606
What was Christ’s final command to his disciples?
“Love one another” (John xiii, 34).
Christian writers prate about brotherly love, and yet from the very beginning the church of Christ has been filled with dissensions. Christ himself quarreled with his apostles. Paul opposed the teachings of James (Galatians ii, 16–21); James condemned the teachings of Paul (ii, 20). Paul proclaimed himself the divinely appointed apostle to the Gentiles: “The gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me” (Galatians ii, 7). Peter contended that the mission had been assigned to him: “And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel” (Acts xv, 7).
Paul declared Peter to be a dissembler. “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him face to face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him” (Galatians ii, 11–13).
John denounced Paul as a liar. “Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars” (Revelation ii, 2).
From these seeds of dissension death has reaped a bloody harvest. Dr. Talmage says: “A red line runs through church history for nearly nineteen hundred years—a line of blood; not by hundreds, but by millions we count the slain.”
Lord Byron says: “I am no Platonist; I am nothing at all. But I would sooner be a Paulician, Manichean, Spinozist, Gentile, Pyrrhonian, Zoroastrian, than one of the seventy-two villainous sects who are tearing each other to pieces for the love of the Lord and hatred of each other.”