Jealousy is cruel as the grave.  –Song of Solomon 8:6

 How does one assess another person’s character?  Our Lord Jesus answered simply: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).

However, there is no simple yes/no checklist for love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, etc.; they are matters of degree – one cannot assign percentages.  But it is easy to construct checklists for creeds (“credo”, I believe).  If one’s friends feel ashamed of the word “creed,” then it can be called “doctrinal standards” or something similar.  The making of a creed is apt to be the art of framing doctrinal standards by which we and our friends qualify, while those who differ are excluded.  Doctrinal standards may be used to identify those who agree with us, and also give a basis to accuse and dismiss those who differ with us.

The fallen human nature says, If someone I don’t like lives more honorably than I, how can I justify myself?  I can always find something wrong with what he believes (even if I should have to change my own mind on something).  Even if something he believes has no application to what we should do, I can still call it a doctrine and insist upon it as I see it.  If I emphasize that, the contrast of his good behavior versus my behavior can be minimized.

No one is too good for the Devil to accuse.  Jesus Christ was accused to the Romans of making himself a king in opposition to Caesar (which would have been popular among the Jews), but accused to the Jews of being a sorcerer (for the healing miracles) and a (religious) seducer – each worthy of death under the Mosaic Law (though neither was a crime under Roman Law).  The pious and elderly Arius in 313 A.D. was pleading for a restoration of primitive purity in an Alexandrian church gone worldly, but he could not be accused of being too honorable by the rich young (and profligate) Athanasius. It took Athanasius five years to trump up against Arius a charge of heresy regarding the nature of God.  Martin Luther is even now accused of having had several illegitimate children by Roman Church clergy who simply refuse to recognize his marriage in 1525 to his wife Katherine; and of course, he was accused of heresy too.  In each case the accusation successfully drew attention away from the moral deficiencies of the accusers.
 

What Says the Word of God to Us?

The Bible does give some intellectual requirements to qualify as a Christian; but they are few. Half of them are given by John in his epistles.  (Most of the Biblical requirements are practical, not intellectual.)  The Christian must:

* Believe that God exists, and that he becomes a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  Hebrews 11:6

* Confess that Jesus is the Son of God.  Matthew 10:32-33; 1 John 4:15, 5:5

* Confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.  2 John 7; 1 John 4:2-3

* Not deny that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah, Anointed]  1 John 2:22, 5:1

* Believe Christians are not under the Law of Moses.  Galatians 5:4

* Believe the resurrection is not past history.  2 Timothy 2:16-18

Many Christians seem to feel uncomfortable with so few intellectual requirements.  For example, some read, “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15), and think surely John should have said, “…that Jesus is God,” but John did not.

Learn right, do right, but be charitable.  Lot was called to come out of Sodom, and it would have been fatal to have remained; even so today we are called to come out of sectarianism.  But if someone lives an exemplary life and still does not understand that call, he should not be regarded as an enemy. After all, not everyone in Jericho was an enemy of the Lord’s people.

Let not creed nor doctrinal standard becloud us from our need to change self, but let us study the Bible and its doctrines in order to change self rightly.