Primary and Secondary Matters

In today’s world, there are many variations of Christianity and many denominations. They disagree on everything from soteriology (God’s salvation plan and process) to philosophy of ministry. For an unbeliever, as well as to some believers, this might seem a tremendous weakness that portends a fatal flaw for the whole system. After all, if the Christians cannot agree on their own Bible, who are they in turn to tell unbelievers what that same bible means for their life….? It would seem another piece of evidence that each religion is just as good as another.

It is a flaw – but I hope to show, not a fatal blow.  One illustration is team sports. Basketball teams, for example, have coaches and players at every level. At the end of the game, if the score is tied, the coach will draw up a play which contains specific routes and passes in order to give his team the best chance to win. Yet despite its best effort very often the team will lose regardless. There are many other factors which might affect the ending of any given game of basketball. However on the other hand, sometimes a team will win the game in spite of themselves. A player may misunderstand the coach’s directions and the play will break down.  Yet somehow, by a miracle shot or other circumstance the non-executing team wins regardless of their mishaps.

Non-Christians (and Christians) should allow for the possibility that Christians comprise the latter: a non-executing, flawed, less than intimidating, winning team. In the eyes of the world, we don’t have the raw talent or perfect team chemistry in order to vanquish our foes. There are church splits, doctrinal disagreements, and all kinds of messiness. So what kind of disagreement rises to the level of intolerability? In other words, what kind of church represents the assistant coach who is secretly selling notes from the team meeting? Occassionally, sadly even frequently, there are heretics. What’s the difference?

You could write a whole book on that subject... and people have. One great resource is Walter Martin’s “Kingdom of the Cults.”  You could also check out the ministry of Ravi Zacharrias and his book, “Why Jesus? Rediscovering his Truth in an age of Mass-Marketed Spirituality.”  There ARE good resources out there which cover a lot of ground. Ultimately, the Bible contains revelation for many of areas of life and of varying degrees of importance: that is, all the way from important to really, really, really, really, really important. Perhaps you could qualify them in 2 categories, primary and secondary matters.

Primary matters would be everything relating to sin, death, salvation, justification, atonement, forgiveness, heaven, hell, eternal life, and God. Those would be really big subjects. They envelop the theme of the entire bible, culminating in the work and person of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul comments in 1 Corinthains 15:3 what the primary matters entail,

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures..”

Notice the phrase of first importance. Paul is saying that the message of salvation and the gospel is the most important of everything he has told the Corinthians. While the rest of what Paul teaches them is also very important, apparently he means to say that the gospel is more important and urgent than other things.

There are other places in the Scriptures that define and shape the gospel in our minds – this helps us to understand what is primary and what might be secondary. But we ought to pay careful attention to everything relating to the aforementioned subjects that have to do with the gospel. 1 Corinthians 6 says,

"Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. “

That entails a whole list of things which the apostle relates directly to “inheriting the kingdom of God”- a synonym for the gospel and salvation. Apparently they relate to the gospel. We ought to be wise and consider if we are on the list. For myself having reviled an individual or two, been impure in both my heart and mind and actions in the area of lust, had a bit too much too drink, and wow, my goodness that is already 3. I think I’ll just stop there. Verses like these present us with a very serious situation in which we really should be careful in evaulating how God bestows his grace – and what salvation looks like according to the Bible.

On the other hand, there are secondary matters as well. Some churches believe in infant’s baptism, others are ‘baptist’. In any event, we know from the Scriptures that the thief on the cross repented of his sin, believed in Jesus, than went to heaven (Luke 23). So we have to interepret the issue of baptism in light of the thief on the cross. It becomes a secondary matter, while not unimportant. There is probably much more to be learned from just considering the thief on the cross.

In every situation, studying the Bible over and over and using a good Bible commentary such as the ESV study Bible is extremely useful in helping to discern what is the difference between primary and secondary matters.