# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1930_S21
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1930. 21

think that he is speaking to the Colossians [chap. 3:14] of perfection of the person; rather he speaks of unity of the Church, and the word that they interpret as perfection means nothing other than unrent, that is, being one [τελειότης]. When he now says, "Charity is the bond of perfection," that is, it binds, joins and holds together the many members of the Church among themselves (for just as in a city or in a house unity is maintained by one's making allowance for another, and neither peace nor quiet can remain where one does not overlook much in the other, where we do not bear with one another), so Paul wishes to admonish here to Christian love, that one should endure and bear the faults and infirmities of another, that they should forgive one another, so that unity be maintained in the Church, so that the Christian company be not torn, rent apart, and divided into all kinds of factions and sects, from which then great filth, hatred and envy, all kinds of bitterness and evil poison, and finally open heresy might result." This thought is to be developed first of all in the next thesis.

3.

Although in the Church much must be forgiven for the sake of true unity, this may under no circumstances occur with denial of the truth. On the contrary, every departure from a doctrine clearly revealed in Scripture contains possibilities of church division and, if the departing party persists in the error, must lead to a dissolution of the bonds of brotherhood.

The first premise of this thesis is based on the whole discussion in Article III of the Apology, especially on §§ 113, 114 (*Conc. Trigl.*, 184): "On the other hand, perfection and unity are maintained, that is, the Church remains undivided and whole, when the strong bear with and carry the weak, when the people also have patience with their preachers, when the bishops and preachers in turn know how to make allowance for all kinds of weakness and infirmities in the people as occasion demands. Of the way and manner of maintaining unity much has also been written everywhere in the books of the philosophers and wise men of the world. For we must forgive one another much and take in good part for the sake of unity."

This loving forbearance the true Church has practiced at all times. An outstanding example we have in the manner in which the LORD, at the beginning of the New Testament period, took care of his covenant people, in order, if possible, to detach the members of the Jewish church from the false basic idea of an earthly messianic kingdom. The Savior himself came to his own, to the people of the Jews, to whom he belonged by virtue of his bodily descent and birth. He declared that for his own person, in his personal office, he was not sent but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matt. 15:24. He gave his disciples the direct charge: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," Matt. 10:5, 6. Although the Savior said to the Jews, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold," John 10:16, namely the fold of the Jewish church, Paul also followed in his practice the rule: "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek," Rom. 1:16. Although he was the apostle of the Gentiles, we nevertheless find that he almost regularly sought out the synagogue of the Jews first, and this not only for the sake of the convenient point of contact, but on principle. He