Suppose that three brothers, born of the same parents, attend a Gospel meeting and all are saved. That means they have all received the same faith. Now suppose that after being saved one goes to a Presbyterian seminary, another to a Methodist college, and the third to a Baptist university. After a year's time they will all collect and adhere to many diverse doctrines, and when they come together, they will undoubtedly debate and argue with one another. You see, immediately after they were saved, they had the faith, they could be one. But in addition to the faith, they proceeded to gather all kinds of doctrines. They began with something good, but they started to collect "junk"—I would use such a strong word. And then they began to love the junk. We may use another word and say that they began to gather "toys." The many doctrines which divide so many of the Lord's children today are simply toys.

Now suppose that these three brothers who have collected their "toys" are confronted by a brother who really knows life, a brother who knows how to make the saints grow. Suppose that this brother comes to them, never speaking about doctrines, but helping them to grow. He teaches them to call on the name of the Lord by saying, "O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!" All the doctrines and doctrinal differences will spontaneously be dropped and disappear. You see, while we are being fed with something of Christ, we are growing spontaneously and cannot be divided over doctrine.

The younger we are, the more toys to which we hold. I am a grandfather—I do not have one toy. But all my grandchildren have many toys. When we grow up, the toys automatically fall away. Paul was so concerned "that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine." The children are those who are carried about by the doctrines; they are carried away from Christ the Head and the church the Body. When all the doctrines are gone, when all the "toys" have been dropped, we are brought back to Christ and the church.

We have all been distracted and carried away from Christ and the church by many kinds of doctrines. Notice: they are doctrines, not heresies. They may be sound, scriptural, and fundamental, but they are carrying people away from Christ and the church, from the Head and the Body. Hallelujah, it is by the growth in life that we drop all the doctrines and arrive at the unity of the faith. Those three brothers in our example were one in the faith at the time of their salvation, but following that, they were carried away by the various doctrines. Then by the growth of life, praise the Lord, they were brought back to arrive at the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

Have you realized that when you collected the doctrines, you collected all kinds of religion? The doctrines are the religious things. I have just mentioned one category of doctrines—the doctrines concerning the Lord's coming. Consider how many doctrines there are concerning baptism. Some believe in being immersed once, others believe in being immersed three times; some believe in being immersed forwards, others backwards; some in natural water, others in flowing water. There are all kinds of teachings concerning baptism. And there are many other categories of doctrines which we have not yet covered.

Are we here for all these things? May the Lord have mercy upon us. We must be here for Christ and the church. This will make us one. It is thus that "all the body fitly framed and knit together through every joint of supply, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh growth of the body unto the building up of itself in love" (v. 16). We must drop all the doctrines, give up all the religion, and only hold the reality, which is Christ and the church, His expression. Then we will be one in the unique faith, the saving faith.