Bitter disputes. Angry arguments. Vicious gossip. Big lies.

These ills characterize our times. Even among followers of Jesus.

How should we heal such divisions?

We can learn from early church leaders such as Paul, Barnabas, James, Peter, and John.

Peter, Barnabas and Paul took highly controversial, highly divisive steps to welcome non-Jews as followers of Jesus. (See, e.g. Acts 10:1-11:26; 15:1-29; 21:17-26).

Eventually, Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem, “meeting privately with those esteemed leaders.” (Galatians 2:2).

When controversies and divisions are swirling, it’s wise to meet privately with “esteemed leaders” to talk things over.

Behind closed doors, Paul presented to James, Peter and John the gospel he was preaching among non-Jews.

As Paul described it: “I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.” (Galatians 2:2).

Early church leaders did not always see eye to eye.

The disciples argued among themselves even while Jesus walked among them and chided them for arguing.

For example, the disciples argued about which of them would lord it over the other ones and exercise the most authority. (Matthew 20:20-28).

An early Church Council (described in the Fifteenth Chapter of Acts) grappled with disputes about whether non-Jewish believers must be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses. (Acts 15:1-31).

Even when believers met privately, as described by Paul in Galatians, there were different perspectives. Some of the leaders would continue focusing their efforts on Jews. But Paul would focus his efforts on non-Jews. (Galatians 2:7-8).

Presumably, they also disagreed about key doctrines such as the role of faith and the role of good works in following the Way of Jesus.

We know from Paul’s letters to churches that included many non-Jews that he bridged the divisions between Jews and non-Jews by emphasizing that no one is saved by following the Law of Moses. Instead, both Jews and non-Jews have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came from Jesus Christ.” (Romans 3:22-24).

Paul wrote: “[W]e maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law [of Moses]. . . . [T]here is only one God, who will justify the [Jews] by faith and the non-Jews by that same faith.” (Romans 3:28-30).

In contrast, the letter from James that is preserved in the New Testament was written primarily to Jews who he referred to as “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (James 1:1).

James urged people to keep “the whole law” (James 2:10). He emphasized that faith without good works is dead. (James 2:17,26). He warned: “[A] person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24). And he noted that even the devils believe there is only one God! (James 2:19).

Despite such huge disagreements, the private meeting ended on an upbeat note: everyone extended “the right hand of fellowship” to each other. (Galatians 2:9).

I can’t help but think that John played a key role in bridging the disagreements between Paul and James. After all, in his Gospel John stressed that Jesus commanded us to love each other. (John 13:34-36; 15:9-14; 17:20-26).

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul expressed this mutual love as recognizing “the grace” God had given Paul to work as an apostle to the non-Jews. (Galatians 2:8-9).

How can we recognize when God has given his amazing grace to believers who we disagree with?

Paul doesn’t say why these early church leaders gave amazing grace to each other by giving the right hand of fellowship in spite of their disagreements.

But I suspect they gave amazing grace to each other because they recognized that the Spirit of the LORD was at work in the ministry of the people who they disagreed with.

Peter pointed to the outpouring of the Spirit of the LORD on the non-Jews to whom he first preached the good news—the gospel—about Jesus. (Acts 15:7-9)

Paul pointed to the outpouring of the Spirit of the LORD in signs and wonders among non-Jewish believers (Acts 15:12).

What were these signs and wonders?

Sometimes believers spoke in tongues, as charismatic followers of Jesus do to this very day. (Acts 2:1-4; 10:34-48; 11:15-17; 1 Corinthians 14:18-19).

But more importantly, non-Jewish believers joined with Jewish believers to become all one in Christ Jesus, producing the fruit of the Spirit of the LORD who anointed Jesus—love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (1 Corinthians 12:31-13:1; Galatians 3:28; 5:22-23; Matthew 3:16-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:1).

As Paul wrote: “Against such things there is no law [of Moses].” (Galatians 5:22-23).

And so, Barnabas, Paul, James, Peter, and John not only extended each other “the right hand of fellowship”. Paul agreed with them when “they asked that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” (Galatians 2:10).

Similarly, when we have disagreements with other followers of Jesus, we should do our best to follow Jesus’s command to love each other.

We should do our best to discuss our disagreements privately.

And we should be eager to work together on ministries such as remembering “the poor” in order to produce the fruit of the Spirit of the LORD: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

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For more of my thoughts about discerning when it is wise to overlook disagreements and when it is wise to be divisive, please read my blog “Grace and Peace—Titus”.

For more of my thoughts about early church leaders extending the right hand of fellowship to each other despite disagreements, please read the chapter “James, Peter and John Fellowship With Paul” in my book Lighting the World, at pages 73-82.

For more of my thoughts about the early Church Council described in the Fifteenth Chapter of Acts, please read the chapter “A Church Council Encourages Non-Jews to Turn to God” in my book Lighting the World, at pages 83-90.