By Pr Zerubbabel Mengistu
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins … 1 Chor 15:3
The church leaders in the 5th century, found themselves debating the nature of Christ; while one group contended that He was fully God and had only a divine nature, the other side believed that He was both man and God and therefore had two natures. These debates caused a divide within the church that has remained to this day.
In 1 Chor 15:3, the Apostle Paul emphasises that the issue of ‘first importance’ in the Gospel is that Christ died and has been raised to life. This is in line with what Jesus teaches in Matthew 22, that the ‘most important’ command is to love God and love our neighbours just as we love ourselves. We learn from these two passages that, there are issues that are most important and issues that are less important in the Kingdom of God. I would like to label this perspective ‘Vertical Theology’.
When we fail to understand this hierarchy in commands, we put an equal weight on every aspect of our walk with the Lord and then proceed to judge our fellow believers based on this improper measure. I have labelled this pattern ‘Horizontal theology’.
Horizontal theology is dangerous. It means that we only cooperate and worship with those who have the exact same theology as we do and exclude those who may understand some things differently. This theology is divisive. The scribes/religious leaders were victims of horizontal theology. They knew the commands of God; they just did not have them ordered in degrees of importance. They contended among themselves solely on issues that were of secondary/less importance.
But vertical theology is different. It focuses on the issue of first importance, which is that Christ died for us and that we are now included in this new covenant where we can love the Lord and one another. Every other command comes after these issues of first importance.
The arc of the covenant was designed so that four people would carry it in tandem. If those four find themselves unable to walk together in harmony, there is no way the arc could move. It is therefore important for all the church to move together sharing the love, not the theology references we have. The Lord’s prayer in Mat 17 is that we will be one, as God is one, not that we will be right and have all theology right.
If we are not in the right standing with our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, we cannot be in the right standing with God. We need to adjust our theology and move it so that we can come together in unity to exult Jesus, so the world can see Him. In a vertical theology, there is room for everyone.
Therefore, we have one Messiah, Jesus Christ, who died for all. This is the love that He has displayed to us. This is the love that we show the world through our love for one another. Love will achieve what theology cannot do.
Find some scripture references to illustrate the concept of first importance - Galatians 3:1, Philippians 1:9-10, Galatians 5:6, 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Colossians 3:14, Revelation 2:4, Ephesians 3:17-18).