Worth Repeating: Practice vs. Principle

I posted this quote two years ago, but it's worth repeating. Even though Austin Duncan's talk was about dating, his take on practice versus principle can be applied to many non-gospel issues where Christians disagree. Until Christ comes back, there won't be uniform agreement because we interpret scripture differently. The only way to ensure complete agreement is to enforce interpretation and its application, which seems to harken back to pre-Reformation days. God forbid that we should demand that from one another. We should strive to be good Bereans but also like Martin Luther who would not let his conscience be bound to anything other than the Word of God.


From this talk by Austin Duncan at the 2012 Shepherd's Conference (emphasis mine):

When you translate that [biblical] principle into a specific action and decision and seek to call it still a principle rather than an application of a principle, you can find yourself in a position like the false teachers that Ezekiel dealt with saying "Thus saith the Lord" when the Lord hath not said...

You can honor the principle and have different practices, and the beauty of the Body of Christ is that there should be people in your church who disagree on some things but love each other extravagantly because they have a common faith. They do things differently; they come from different backgrounds.

If you think your niche view of dating is God's view of dating, I want you to see if that translates to 5000 years ago, and I want you to see if it translates 1000 years ago, and I want you to take it to India and see if it works, because God's word is true then and now, here and there. And when you force your particular methodology and make your practice into a principle, you are going to wreak havoc on a church community, on a body of believers, and I can't see anything in the New Testament that God holds by way of personal and practical application in the church higher than Christian unity...

We are going to put those principles into practice different ways, but we want to be a people who take God's Word seriously. The strength of being someone who preaches for application can be a dangerous practice in your church when it gets elevated and invested with the authority that this [God's Word] alone ought to have. This is what the Pharisees did. They burdened people with man-made regulations that aren't commanded in God's Word. God's Word handled rightly will lead to automatic humble, wise, Holy Spirit-led application in the lives of believers, and there isn't just one application.