Restoring Apostolic Faith

There’s a phrase that gets passed around in churches like a peace offering:

“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

People quote it like it dropped out of Paul’s beard.

It didn’t.

It’s not Scripture.

It’s not apostolic.

It’s not even ancient.

It came from a 17th-century theologian trying to calm down Protestants who were publicly clawing each other like alley cats over doctrine.

The original intent wasn’t the problem.

The modern use is.

Because somewhere along the way, this gentle appeal to charity turned into:

“Stop bringing up uncomfortable truths.”

And now you see where the rot sets in.

Unity Has Become a Shield for Cowardice

Let’s just say it plainly:

In most churches today, “unity” means:

• Don’t challenge misinterpretation.

• Don’t correct false teaching.

• Don’t expect obedience to Jesus’ actual words.

• Don’t call out sin unless it’s safe sin (the ones we all agree to hate).

Everything else?

“We’re just going to agree to disagree.”

Which is code for:

“I don’t want to think harder or change.”

There is no unity in that.

That’s just polite stagnation.

A group of people sitting in the same room, smiling, while everyone quietly believes something different.

That’s not unity.

That’s religious co-living.

What Are the “Essentials,” Exactly?

Ask ten Christians what counts as “essential” and you’ll get:

• Ten lists,

• Fifteen sub-points,

• Three awkward silences,

• And one person quoting Jeremiah 29:11 out of context.

Most modern believers treat “essentials” like a bare minimum survival kit:

1. Believe Jesus existed.

2. Be nice.

3. Try not to commit a felony.

But the earliest Christians?

Their essentials sounded like this:

• Obey Christ’s commands.

• Love each other in costly, inconvenient ways.

• Reject worldly status and comforts.

• Endure mistreatment without folding.

• Hold fast to the faith even unto death.

You know…

actual discipleship.

Clement called these “the works of righteousness.”

Not optional extras.

Not advanced electives.

Essentials.

Liberty in Non-Essentials Has Become Liberty in All Things

The phrase was meant to say:

“Don’t divide over details that don’t impact the faith itself.”

But modern Christians heard:

“Everything is a non-essential except Jesus loves me.”

So now:

• Obedience is optional.

• Holiness is negotiable.

• Doctrine is flexible.

• Commitment is “legalism.”

• And unity means never rocking the boat.

Meanwhile the boat has a hole in the hull and everyone’s just singing louder to drown out the sound of the water rising.

Real Unity Has a Backbone

Unity is not:

• agreeing to avoid conflict

• pretending we all believe the same thing

• or smiling through theological apathy

Unity is shared allegiance to the same Lord, lived out in the same Way.

Unity is not passive.

Unity is formed — by teaching, rebuke, confession, repentance, and obedience.

Unity requires substance.

If there is no shared substance…

there is no unity.

There is only choreography.

The early church didn’t achieve unity by staying quiet.

They achieved it by correcting one another publicly, directly, and humbly to keep the church aligned with Christ.

Unity wasn’t the absence of tension.

Unity was the refusal to abandon the Way.

Charity Isn’t Niceness — It’s Love With Teeth

“Charity in all things” does not mean:

• Be soft

• Be agreeable

• Be non-confrontational

It means:

• Correct a brother because you love his soul more than his approval.

• Call a sister back to obedience because you’d rather she be holy than comfortable.

• Speak truth even when it jeopardizes your place at the table.

Charity is love with a spine.

Not love that rolls over.

The Soft Lie Exposed

The modern version of the phrase keeps everyone safe from discomfort, reflection, and transformation.

It tells the passionate ones to lower their voice.

It tells the thinking ones to stop asking questions.

It tells the obedient ones they’re being “too intense.”

It keeps the faith sentimental, private, and shallow.

It keeps people spiritually alive the way a houseplant is alive.

And it makes cowards of us.

The Early Church Didn’t Aim for “Peaceful” — They Aimed for Faithful

Unity wasn’t the goal.

Christ was.

Unity was what happened on the way to Him.

If someone wasn’t walking that way —

you corrected them.

Not because you were right.

But because He was.

That’s unity.

The other thing?

The soft, polite, smiling version?

That’s just well-funded decay.

Endnotes

1. The phrase “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity” is commonly attributed to Augustine, but scholarly consensus holds it originates with Rupertus Meldenius (Peter Meiderlin), Paraenesis votiva pro pace ecclesiae ad theologos Augustanae confessionis (c. 1627). See Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 7 (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996), 650.

2. On how the modern usage of the slogan shifted from theological charity to conflict avoidance, see Roger E. Olson, “Whatever Happened to ‘In Essentials Unity’?” in The Mosaic of Christian Belief (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2002), 37–40.

3. 1 Clement 13 and 21–23 outline obedience to Christ’s commandments as the visible mark of true confession. Clement connects unity to shared righteousness, not sentimental agreement. Text in The Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael W. Holmes, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007).

4. 1 Clement 46–48 directly addresses division in the Corinthian church, grounding unity in repentance, humility, and restoration under Christ — not silence or passivity.

5. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians 4–5, emphasizes unity as shared submission to Christ and the apostles’ teaching, not mere congregational harmony. In The Apostolic Fathers, ed. Holmes.

6. Didache 1–6 outlines the “Two Ways” moral framework expected of all believers. Unity in the early church presupposed shared moral practice, not merely shared creedal statements. See Aaron Milavec, The Didache: Faith, Hope, & Life of the Earliest Christian Communities (New York: Newman Press, 2003).

7. On unity as formed through teaching, correction, and reproof, see Titus 1:9, 2 Timothy 3:16, and Matthew 18:15–17. Early Christian unity was maintained through communal accountability, not avoidance of disagreement.

8. For the distinction between unity rooted in shared allegiance to Christ and unity rooted in institutional maintenance, see John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Corinthians (esp. Homily 3). Chrysostom argues that unity without truth is “the unity of the marketplace, not the church.”

9. For a historical overview of how post-Reformation Protestantism redefined unity as horizontal harmony instead of vertical fidelity, see Alister McGrath, Reformation Thought: An Introduction, 5th ed. (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2021), 214–220.