Irenic Christianity

Irenic is a word that until a year ago, or maybe a year and a half, I wasn’t familiar with. It’s certainly not a common word that we would run across in our day to day lives. In fact it’s probably a little archaic at this point as a look at the etymology will show that it was in use from around 1660 to 1860; it is no wonder that most of us haven’t heard of this word! But as out of date as it may be to the common language of the masses, it is not so within Christianity, or at least it shouldn’t be. As a matter of fact Webster’s New World Collegiate Dictionary Fourth Edition gives the following as a definition of Irenics, “The doctrine or practice of promoting peace among Christian churches in relation to theological differences.”

So, to be irenic is to promote peace among your fellow Christians in spite of whatever theological disagreements we may have. Do some further research and you will see that peace is a synonym for unity. Do still more and you will find the word peace some 400 times in our Bibles (at least in the KJV). I am not saying every single instance it may be used as synonymous with unity, but the concept exists prevalently throughout the word of God.

Let me start this discussion by saying that this concept is not advocating peace at all costs. We are seeing today a trend where that is exactly what is being promoted, including where heresy is abounding. Unity in place of truth isn’t worth anything. But, wise and mature Christians, with the word of God leading the way, can readily see that a great number of the differences between Christians are not spiritual essentials. In cases such as those it is vital to the health of the church that we be irenic.

Far too often though we are not irenic at all, we are flat out hostile to one another. The problem exists purely because of sin. Whether it is a legalistic overestimation of some personal preference, or legalism in the true sense of the word, or a particularly nasty disposition that seeks to dominate others through useless debate, it is all sin. Who can say that at some point they haven’t been viciously attacked over such a spiritual nonessential? We all have, perhaps many of us have been the ones viciously attacking, even if only sporadically or over one specific pet issue.

My fellow Christians, this should not be so! Ps. 133 is dedicated solely to this issue. It says,

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing – life forevermore.”

John Calvin, in his commentary on this verse, sets the stage for what it was responding to. He says,

“He sets forth the goodness of God in exalted terms, the Jews having by long experience of intestine feuds, which had gone far to ruin the nation, learned the inestimable value of union… We…, who were naturally brethren, had become so divided, as to view one another with a more bitter hatred than foreign foe…”

Oh how it would behoove the modern Reformed church to gain the same wisdom so bitterly gained by the Jews of old! We are separated by chasms that are filled with so many frivolous things! I would guess that, other than someone whose job it is to know such things, most of us can’t even name all of the Reformed denominations in the USA alone, yet alone the world. Do we not yet see the cost of such disunity? Have we not seen the spiritual fall of Germany, Geneva, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, and now America too? Are we blind to such things? Did we miss the fall of Princeton that is now a disgusting example of secular religion falsely parading itself around as a Christian seminary school? The same can be said of Harvard and many others. We see the current decline of Erskine and Covenant. All because of disunity, and we have now seemingly lost once great bastions of faith and truth to liberal ideology. The Church is no different and continues to splinter into smaller and smaller groups. Radical opinion and unbiblical foundations are being laid because the orthodox are allowing themselves to be marginalized over trivial disagreement. The Church is not irenic, it is schismatic.

Calvin goes on to say,

“There can… be no doubt that the Holy Spirit is to be viewed as commending in this passage that mutual harmony which should subsist amongst all God’s children, and exhorting us to make every endeavor to maintain it. So long as animosities divide us, we may be brethren no doubt still by common relation to God, but cannot be judged one so long as we present the appearance of a broken and dismembered body.”

What Calvin is speaking of here we have seen and are seeing happen right now in front of our eyes. And his point is entirely valid, how do we call ourselves one body figuratively when we are so broken physically? We are separating ourselves from one another, no doubt the devil himself rejoices every time there is another church split. Not that there may not be good cause at some point to leave an apostate denomination. But why then do we splinter into smaller and smaller groups? In such cases leave, that is fine, but join another denomination that has a good reputation for faithfully preaching the word of God and living by what they are taught. Seek to be united with other Christians always! But even more than that we must seek to be reconciled to those we had to leave behind. Calvin says what many today would almost certainly be unwilling to say in dealing with this issue.

“As we are one in God the Father, and in Christ, the union must be ratified amongst us by reciprocal harmony, and fraternal love. Should it so happen in the providence of God, that the Papists should return to that holy concord which they have apostatized from, it would be in such terms as these that we would be called to render thanksgiving unto God, and in the meantime we are bound to receive into our brotherly embraces all such as cheerfully submit themselves unto the Lord.”

We are to seek unity as fellow brothers in Christ; it must be a primary objective that we discipline ourselves to achieve. When we fail to do so it is a sin and we must confess it like all other sins and pray the Lord will give us an amiable spirit that is irenic both individually and as a Church. When division is unavoidable then we must remain irenic to the point that should it please the Lord to return the offenders from their apostate condition we are willing and ready to receive them back in brotherly love, the Catholics included.

Lest we think as laymen that this is a condition of Church leadership and academics alone we need but look around at the every day treatment of others over the slightest disagreements to see it is a sin that has infected us all. The Social platforms that are so prevalent today readily show this to be true. But, more than how we act with strangers and fellow Christians in general, look at how we treat each other in our families. It takes less to cause division in a family than any other type of relationship on this earth. Remember the last real argument you had with your spouse and with shame, as I do, remember the evil things that were said in anger, almost assuredly there was no sense of irenic love in that moment. The harm we can do in such a little amount of time! Whether our family or our fellow Christians, irenical dispositions would solve a multitude of sin. It would do us all well in disputes to remember such passages as Jas. 3:2-12 and 1 Jn. 2:9-11.

In the opening of this paper I said it was about a year or so ago that I learned this word. The reason it left such a lasting impression on me was because it was in the midst of a debate over a fairly controversial issue and all the parties involved remained irenic, which at the end of the discussion one of the participants thanked everyone for. I was reminded of it recently because I was starting a discussion with a brother over an equally controversial topic, if not more so, and he was repeatedly going out of his way to be specifically irenic and gracious in his interaction with me. We all have examples where we have seen the opposite of this, but may we all remember the times when we have seen this practiced and then endeavor to do the same in all of our interactions. I leave you with the exhortation from the Apostle Paul found in Eph. 4:1-6.

“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

As Matthew Henry has said in his commentary, this is the proper motivation for being irenic with one another. Let us all pray the Lord grow us so that when others think of the character we have we may be said to be truly irenic.