It is good for a saint to be offended by the world, for the world is anti-God, and everything that is against God should offend the Christian. The offenses of the world against the Lord's churches, contrary to its nefarious motives and designs, have served to stabilize them, rather than causing them to stagger. However, the breach created by the trespass of a church member against member or a church against church, retards brotherly edification and bedims the glory of God in His churches. Sadly, in our day, the attitude or mind-set that gives vent to division and schism in New Testament churches and between churches, is not as loathsome and strange as it was a few brief years ago. That which turns brotherly converse into verbal conflict and sets church against church, should be hated with an insatiable passion and utterly avoided, even at the cost of humiliation.
Nothing is more destructive to church unity than contending for the faith with a contentious spirit.
Baptists all through their history have been obedient to the faith, and that without being obdurate. However, it seems that the contemporary church atmosphere is permeated with an acute sensitiveness, and the least variance is sufficient grounds for dis-fellowship. The rebuke of error is vital to the church and necessary for its well-being. Then, too, a sure way to grow in grace and knowledge of the truth is correction of error, and when the reproval is made with a heart felt concern for the erring brother, the brotherly relationship will, as a rule, be enriched and the error purged. Truth is far too precious to sacrifice upon the altar of expediency or compromise, and error is to be exposed at all times and expunged whenever and wherever possible.