Must We Say Everything Just Alike?

Do you find it refreshing when a new convert gets up and prays from the heart who is not yet enamored with our cliches? I once told a young college student who was not "raised" in the church that I wished the elders would pay him to lead the public prayers. Do you ever feel that way when hearing someone pray publicly, who says things from the heart differently than we usually say it? I am pretty sure you do -- at least I hope so!

Ok then, why do we have a hard time realizing that not everyone who says something different than the way I might say it is teaching false doctrine. To demand a uniformity in speech is nothing less than bowing to a creed! Where does it say I have to say it just like you say it or vice versa. Quite frankly, I find it rather refreshing when someone STUDIES (emphasis on study) a passage of scriptures and states his/her conclusions in a different way. In fact, it may take me several minutes of thinking about what they said to realize they are saying the same thing and sometimes with a depth of insight that I missed.

Now, to be sure, a false teacher is seldom, if ever, misunderstood without first wanting to be misunderstood. There is a huge difference between one who errs in the pursuit of truth and one who is morally deliberate in that error. What is the difference? Glad you asked. The one who is morally deliberate in his error will insist that he is just misunderstood. The one who errs in the pursuit of truth, will search the truth seeking to correct and clarify any expression of the truth which has been misunderstood in his teaching and/or life! This is the person who truly understands the meaning of what it means that "ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment." (1 Corinthians 1:10) He seeks to align his words, judgments and actions with the word of God and not the creeds of men!