The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

AllanStanglin.com

Category: Unity (Page 2 of 9)

Stop Saying “Salvation Issue”

November 19, 2025 / / 6 Comments

Watch this video. It’s our twin grandsons, Elliott and Samuel, two Thursdays ago, “meeting” each other for the very first time. I promise it will be the best 25-seconds of your day.

Twins Talking

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love listening to Cowboys fans after Dallas beats a really bad team. All they need to do is go on a run. It’s finally coming together. This is the catalyst. The Cowboys got their fourth win the Monday before Thanksgiving week–seems kinda late. The four wins have come against the Raiders (2-8), the Jets (2-8), the Giants (2-9), and Washington (3-8). Monday was the only game all year Dallas held an opponent to under 20 points. Next up, Dallas plays the Eagles, Chiefs, Lions, Vikings, and Chargers. In that order. Yeah, they’re about to go on a run all right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today’s post is a bit of an aside in our conversation this week about Christian unity and accepting our brothers and sisters in Christ and refusing to judge other Christians or churches according to beliefs or practices that may differ from mine or yours. This is a suggestion. I believe this is a good idea for all of us. It’s at least something to consider.

Stop saying “salvation issue.”

Most Christians I know agree that we should not divide over “disputable matters” or “matters of opinion.” The problem, as we discussed here yesterday, comes when people believe a disputable matter is actually a matter of doctrine or faith. Many Christians I know call it a “salvation issue.”

When we start talking about “salvation issues,” we rank things in order of importance to God and according to what’s going to save us and what’s going to condemn us. We talk about baptism and church and communion and worship. But we don’t talk about helping the poor or loving our enemies or forgiving others, which the Bible says are actually the more important matters. Jesus calls those things the weightier matters. So, at best, we have a misunderstanding of the things that are most important to God or, at worst, we’re really only concerned with what’s important to us.

If we insist on using the term, I would suggest that all things are “salvation issues.” Everything is a “salvation issue.” Whether a church has a kitchen or not is a “salvation issue,” not because the kitchen is right or wrong, but because of how you treat people who feel differently about it than you do.

Give me a break. You people who don’t have kitchens in your churches. Grow up. You’re so legalistic and patternistic. You’re like the Pharisees. You’re more worried about the things of man than the things of God. Big picture, man. When are y’all going to get serious about the Kingdom of God?

You people who have kitchens in your churches. I guess you’ll do anything. You see any church kitchens in the Bible? I guess the Bible doesn’t mean as much to you as it does to me. You let the culture dictate everything in your church? When are y’all going to get serious about the Scriptures?

See how kitchens is a “salvation issue?” Not the kitchen itself, but your heart. Your attitude.

We won’t fellowship a church because they sing different songs or pray different prayers than we do or we won’t accept a group of Christians because they understand baptism differently than we do, but we’re okay with lying to our customers or cheating on our spouse or ignoring the poor. We should stop saying “salvation issue” because we don’t do a good job with it. We use that term to categorize what issues are important or not important to us based on our own preferences and opinions. The “salvation issue” is your attitude when you and another Christian disagree on anything.

“The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God.” ~Romans 14:17

Romans 14-15 is calling for unity in spirit, not unity in opinion, not unity in practice, not even unity in belief. Unity in spirit so that “with one heart and mouth” we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace,
Allan

Disputable Matters

November 18, 2025 / / 2 Comments

Before we get into part two of this week-long series on Christian unity from Romans 14-15, check out this picture of Sam and his granddad watching college football together two Saturdays ago. The little dude is locked in, huh? Two football zombies right there.

You already know I am a conscientious resistor when it comes to digital technology and smart phones. I never take my cell phone with me into a meeting or a restaurant or to any kind of social or business setting–my phone is always either on my desk or in my truck. Now, I’ve got another reason to make sure my phone is never on me: it keeps me from bugging every single person in my path with two dozen of the latest pictures and videos of my incredible grandchildren.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most Christians I know agree that we should never divide over matters of opinion, or what we might call “disputable matters.” That’s the problem the apostle Paul is addressing in Romans 14-15: the Christians in Rome are arguing and separating over what he calls “disputable matters.” When Paul calls on the disciples in Rome to accept one another and stop looking down on others and stop judging others, the context is in these disputable matters.

The problem, though, is that when we argue and divide, at least one of the parties believes the issue is one of doctrine.

In Churches of Christ, we’ve generally used this as a guiding principle:

“In matters of faith, unity; in matters of opinion, liberty; in all things, love.” 

That’s a creed, by the way. And it’s fine. It’s good. But it doesn’t help much, because what some Christians consider a matter of opinion, others consider a matter of faith. We don’t agree on which is what. That’s where this gets touchy. Because if you and I are arguing about something and the argument and the feelings are such that it’s threatening to divide us, then at least one of us believes with all our hearts that it’s a matter of doctrine and faith.

But even then, the Bible says it’s okay. It’s not something that should divide us.

“One person considers one day more sacred than another, another person considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. The one who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and the one who abstains, does so to the Lord, and gives thanks to God.” ~Romans 14:5-6

Each of us should be fully convinced that we’re doing is the right thing to do in the eyes of God, but do not bind that on another brother who doesn’t feel the same way. If he believes or practices something different, you assume he’s doing it to the Lord, before the Lord, and in the presence of the Lord with a clear conscience. We give all Christians the benefit of the doubt. We always assume the best. I assume that my sister in Christ who has a different belief or a different practice is not believing or practicing arbitrarily or haphazardly. She’s doing it with careful study and serious prayer and reflection. And she’s fully convinced that she’s doing the godly thing. So everything’s fine. Don’t judge her. Don’t divide from her. Accept her.

As Paul reminds in Romans 14:9-10, this is the whole reason Christ was crucified and resurrected, so he can be Lord over these things and not you. Why are you judging your own brother in Christ? Why are you looking down on other Christians?

Now, there are some things that are non-negotiable doctrinal matters in which Christians must be unified. There are issues of settled, historical, biblical, orthodox Christianity that cannot be argued. As to belief, all of those are in the Apostles’ Creed; as to practice, all of those are in the sacraments; as to ethics, all of that has long been settled by the clear teachings of holy Scripture.

As for everything else? Anything else? Accept. Do not judge.

“To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” ~Romans 14:4

Peace,

Allan

Accept Without Judgment

November 17, 2025 / / 0 Comments

This is our older (by 45-seconds) grandson Elliott, showing off his brand new teeth after his Saturday night bath. He and his brother, Sam, aren’t even four-and-a-half months old yet! This seems early for teeth, right?

As always, you can click on the pic to get the full size. While you’re at it, look at those eyelashes. Man, that’s a good looking kid.

I’m way behind on posting pictures here of Elliott and Samuel, so I’m going to post at least one a day this week, no matter what.

~~~~~~~~~

My posts this week will mainly be excerpts from the sermon we preached here yesterday at Golf Course Road Church on Christian unity from Romans 14-15. As we make plans for our annual “4 Midland” pulpit swap and Thanksgiving service this next weekend, it occurs to me that we have no problem putting aside the doctrinal differences that divide our Christian denominations for the sake of our God-ordained unity in Christ. But we allow disputable matters or matters of opinion to divide us within our own congregation. Why is that? And what do we do about it? Romans 14-15, I believe, has the answer.

The apostle Paul distinguished the disciples in that church in Rome as strong Christians and weak Christians–those are his words, not mine. Romans 14 details the problems Paul is addressing in his letter. The weak believers are vegetarians; the strong believers enjoy a good steak. The weak brothers and sisters keep all the Jewish holy days; the strong brothers and sisters don’t. The weak Christians are developing elaborate worship and lifestyle theologies and drawing lines in the sand over what’s right and what’s wrong; the strong Christians don’t have very many lines and they’re not as concerned about which worship and lifestyle practices are good or bad. The weak are criticizing the strong for being spiritually insensitive; the strong are looking down on the weak for being spiritually immature. The strong proclaim freedom in Christ; the weak say, “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything goes.” The weak tell the strong, “You’re wrong;” the strong tell the weak, “Grow up.”

Over what? Over food. Over worship styles and religious traditions. And… keep going?

Over women’s roles and deacons and divorce and remarriage. Song selection and church budgets and Lord’s Supper prayers. Small groups and creeds and Bible translations and politics.

Over… you name it. There are all kinds of issues and beliefs and practices that Christians in the same church argue about.

The Bible makes the solution to this problem easy because it gives both strong Christians and weak Christians the exact same instructions: Accept all Christians and don’t judge any Christians.

“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without passing judgement on disputable matters. One person’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another person, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not look down on the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not condemn the one who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.” ~Romans 14:1-4

Nobody look down on anybody. Nobody condemn anybody. For God has accepted him. Accepted who? Whom has God accepted? This brother or sister in Christ who disagrees with you about some church thing. This group of Christians who don’t see eye-to-eye with you on some disputable matter, some matter of opinion, that in no way should ever divide Christians. You are not that guy’s master. You’re not in charge of that Christian.

Whether he stands or falls is up to the Lord. Whether he’s right or wrong is up to the Lord. Paul says we can’t judge that. But then Paul goes ahead and makes the call. He judges it anyway.

“He will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” ~Romans 14:4

He’ll stand. He’s fine. Whether y’all agree or not, whether y’all are on the same page or not, he’s good because he’s in Christ. Jesus died for him, Paul says in verse 9. That’s the whole reason Jesus died, so he could be the Lord over these things and not you. So you accept him without judgment. Because God accepts him in Christ.

Peace,

Allan

Where “All” Becomes “One”

July 31, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” ~Galatians 3:26-28

I believe we are blessed to live in the country we live in, but the systems and structures and mottos and politics of this world will never unite anybody. The only place where the “all” becomes “one” is in Christ alone. In Christ is the only place where all people become one people. Our Lord Jesus is creating one global eternal community, not a bunch of them. So, in Christ, all the barriers are gone. There’s no more separation, no more distinctions or differences–everybody’s totally equal in Christ. The walls are down, the doors are open, the bridges are built! Now that Christ Jesus has come, all people have become one people!

To treat anyone differently, to deny anyone equal standing or equal freedom in God’s Church based on their nationality or their social standing or their gender is to, as Paul writes, proclaim “a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all” (Galatians 1:6-7). That kind of discrimination or distinction contradicts not just how we’re saved, but also why we’re saved. When we discriminate or make those distinctions in the Church, our actions contradict our message.

For illustration and application purposes, Paul gives us three pairings. All in the same context. All in the same breath.

In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. This is about ethnicity. He’s talking about nationality and culture, this is about color and race and language, anything ethnically that the world divides over. No one has to become a Jew to be a Christian. When we give equal honor and equal freedom and equal standing to Christians of all colors and from all nations and who speak all languages, then we’re proclaiming the Word of the Lord.

The worshipers in Revelation are singing to Christ Jesus in heaven. Listen to their song:
“You were slain, and with your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation!” ~Revelation 5:9

The saints of God come from all over and they’re singing the same song. If we treat Christians differently or show them less honor or give them less freedom because they’re a different color or come from a different country or speak a different language, we are proclaiming something different than God’s Word.

In Christ, there is neither slave nor free. This is about social standing and economic status. How a person is educated, what kind of job she has, or how much money he makes has nothing to do with how a person is accepted as righteous by God or how that person serves and worships in God’s Church. It’s totally irrelevant. If anybody’s getting preferential treatment at church, it should be the poor and the marginalized and the people on the outside. Listen to our Lord:

“Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed… Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame… Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in so that my house will be full!” ~Luke 14:13, 21, 23

Our Lord’s brother says it straight up in James 2, that if you show favoritism for a rich man over a poor man, you are sinning against God who has chosen the poor to be rich in faith and to inherit his Kingdom. If you only talk to Christians who have jobs, if you only eat with Christians who live in your zip code, if you only show honor to Christians who can pay you back, you’re proclaiming a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.

In Christ, there is neither male nor female. This is about gender and all the different dynamics that surround gender. This is about bestowing or not bestowing status or freedom in the Church based on a Christian’s sex.

It’s interesting to me that in a lot of our churches, in our Bible classes and small groups and in almost all our church settings, our Christian sisters are encouraged to express their full freedom in Christ and asked to exercise their spiritual gifts. But it’s different in the Worship Center. Generally speaking, women lead prayers and read Scripture and exhort the church at 9:30 all over the campus, but they’re not allowed to do those exact same things in front of the exact same people and the same God in the Worship Center at 10:30.

It seems like we should interpret and apply this third pairing just like we do the other two.

In 1 Corinthians 11, where the apostle Paul instructs women on how to pray and how to teach in the Sunday assembly, it’s in the context of we are all one together in Christ and how we need each other and each other’s spiritual gifts.

“In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.” ~1 Corinthians 11:11-12

In Christ, men and women are the same. No gender is better than the other, no gender is more honored or more gifted or more free to exercise those gifts than the other. Males and females are equal in Christ. Again, it seems to me we should interpret and practice this third couplet like we do the other two. We wouldn’t tell some Christians they can’t lead a prayer in the assembly because they’re Black. We wouldn’t tell some Christians they can’t lead the communion time because they don’t have a job. So why do we tell some Christians they can’t do those things because they are women? Paul sees these categories as the same.

Now, there are two verses in the Bible that are used to restrict Christian women in exercising their spiritual gifts, two lines addressing two particular concerns in two very specific settings. But we have this central passage in Galatians 3 and many others that call for and demonstrate this equal standing between men and women in Christ. It seems that if we restrict our Christian sisters where the Bible doesn’t, we’re proclaiming a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.

Peace,

Allan

A Juneteenth Prayer

June 19, 2025 / / 0 Comments

On this Juneteenth holiday, I invite you to join me in prayer to our God for three things:

~ lament to our Lord the atrocities of slavery and acknowledge to him this country’s sins of racism and segregation

~ thank God for the progress we’ve made  and that we are not where we once were, as individuals and in this country

~ personally resolve before God to continue fighting racism and segregation in all its forms in our communities, our families, and our churches

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Juneteenth used to be an exclusively Texas thing. For Texas Monthly’s wonderful profile of Opal Lee, the Fort Worth grandmother who almost single-handedly turned our Lone Star tradition into an official national holiday, click here.

You might also check out the work Jerry Taylor and others are doing at the Carl Spain Center on Race Studies and Spiritual Action on the campus of Abilene Christian University. Their website is here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, this Juneteenth prayer I have borrowed from the Archdiocese of Baltimore:

We pray, O Lord, for change. 
Jesus, you revealed God through your wise words and loving deeds, 
and we encounter you still today in the faces of those whom society has pushed to the margins. 
Guide us, through the love you revealed, 
to establish the justice you proclaimed, 
that all peoples might dwell in harmony and peace, 
united by that one love that binds us to each other and to you. 
And most of all, Lord, change our routine worship and work
into genuine encounter with you and our better selves
so that our lives will be changed for the good of all. 
May it be so in Christ Jesus. Amen. 

Peace,

Allan

Either / Or

June 11, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Kara Alaimo, a communications professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, has written an article that was published this week in the American Psychological Journal about kids and screen time. Based on a “meta-analysis” of 117 different studies on children younger than eleven-years-old, Alaimo shows that the more time kids spend looking at a screen, the more likely their feelings and actions don’t meet expectations for their stage of development. The more time a child spends with screens, the more likely that child is to experience and express above normal anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and aggression. You can find the article by clicking here. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I died to the law so that I might live for God.”  ~Galatians 3:19

By refusing to eat with uncircumcised Christians, the apostle Peter was saying that God’s salvation and the unity of God’s people was based on both grace and faith and circumcision and law. By refusing to worship and fellowship with Christians in other denominations, we’re saying that God’s salvation and the unity of God’s people is based on both grace and faith and interpretation and method.

It has to be one or the other; it can’t be both. This is an either/or; not a both/and.

As a way to be saved, as a way to gain righteousness, Paul writes that he gave up the law in order to live for God (Galatians 3:19). And we can’t go back. The law has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. The law is history. We’re dead to the law so we can be alive to our God. Being saved by obeying the law and being saved by faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are mutually exclusive things. It can’t be both. If Peter and Barnabas in Antioch or the Jewish Christians in Galatia are saying that circumcision or any part of the law plays a role in the good news of the Gospel, then they’re making a mockery of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Paul knows it’s an either / or, he knows it can’t be both. If he chooses law, he must reject grace. So, he makes his choice crystal clear:

“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” ~Galatians 2:21

We can’t go back. Paul writes that if he goes back to trying to get right with God by means of the law, then he proves he’s a sinner (Galatians 2:18). In other words, if the law is what saves you, then look out! You’ve already broken it!

Do you see why it can’t be both? If the law is the method, then all Christians are sinners. But if the perfect faithfulness of Jesus is the means, then all Christians are righteous. And any behavior or attitude that separates groups of Christians or draws lines of acceptance or fellowship between different kinds of Christians, distorts that good news.

We are not saved by our own merits or works, we’re not saved by being in the right group; we are saved by the faith of Jesus. That was true when Peter was differentiating between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians back then, and it’s just as true today when we’re differentiating between Church of Christ Christians and Presbyterian Christians and Baptist Christians and Methodist Christians. We are all saved by the exact same thing in the exact same way, but putting our faith in God through Christ.

That means we all belong at the same table. That means we accept all Christians with a different history, different traditions, a different story to tell. And, no, it’s not easy. I’m not saying it is. It’s actually very difficult for us. It’s almost offensive. Because God’s matchless grace totally disregards our human merit, his mercy and love completely breaks down even our socially acceptable barriers and brings together very different kinds of people. That sort of unity is tough to swallow.

Jonah got ticked off at God’s grace because God showed favor to Jonah’s national enemies. The older brother refused to come to the feast because the Father had invited the runaway son. The Pharisee thanks God that he’s not like the tax collector.

But this is God’s way: he unites as he saves and he saves as he unites.

Peace,

Allan

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑