Essential, Secondary, or Just Divisive?
A Call for Clarity and Charity in Christian Convictions
Some hills are worth dying on. Others? Just echo chambers with a view and a megaphone.
We just released episode six of Weird Hill to Die On, titled Who’s It Hurting Anyway?, which dives into this very tension: what counts as a gospel essential, and what happens when everything else gets treated like one.
The episode explores how secondary and tertiary issues—those not traditionally considered salvation-level—often become dividing lines, fractures, and, at times, even weapons within the church. These issues aren’t unimportant. In fact, they often shape how we live, worship, and relate to the world—because ideas have consequences. But when we hold them without caution or compassion, they can start to undermine the very people we’re called to love and respect.
Jesus drew lines—but He also crossed plenty for the sake of others. When we defend secondary issues without love, we become more concerned with defending our stance than reflecting our Savior. And that’s when we stop pointing others to Christ.
Doctrine Matters—But Not Every Debate Should Be a Fight
One of the deepest tensions in modern Christian life is this: Are we more committed to being right than being reconciled?
I’ve encountered too many people who weren’t burned by denying essential Christian truths—they were burned for asking the wrong questions about non-essential ones.
They weren’t denying the resurrection or the divinity of Christ. They were just wrestling—with women in leadership, baptism styles, end-times views. But in some circles, asking those questions is enough to get you branded a heretic—or shown the door.
Let’s be clear: theology matters. Doctrine matters.
But not every disagreement demands a declaration of war.
And then there’s the thief on the cross.
No baptism. No creeds. No denominational loyalty. No seminary degree.
Just a dying man who put his trust in the right Person. And Jesus didn’t hand him a theology quiz. He gave him grace.
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” — Luke 23:43
We can debate soteriology all day. But the thief didn’t have centuries of post-resurrection theological nuance—and he was still welcomed.
That doesn’t make theology unimportant. It makes salvation personal, not transactional.¹
It’s a response to Christ, not a reward for getting your doctrinal boxes checked.
What Really Belongs at the Center of Our Faith?
In the episode, we walked through a few guiding questions to help distinguish gospel essentials from everything else:
Does this belief impact the nature, character, or saving work of Jesus?
Is it a core part of the historic Christian confession (like the Apostles’ Creed)?
Am I defending biblical truth—or just defending my tribe’s take on it?
The Apostles’ Creed is one example of how the church has historically drawn the line around gospel essentials. As Michael Bird puts it in What Christians Ought to Believe, it’s a “bullet-point summary of what Christians believe about God, Jesus, the church, and the life to come.”² It reminds us that orthodoxy has boundaries—but also breathing room. The essentials are centered on the persons of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—as well as on who Christ is, what He did, and what that means for us.
When every doctrinal disagreement feels like a do-or-die, we forget what the early church remembered:
Unity around the essentials is what keeps the Body whole.
Everything else should be held with both conviction and humility.
The church doesn’t need less theology.
It needs clarity on what truly defines the gospel—and grace for what doesn’t.
When You’ve Been Hurt by Hill Builders
This part of the conversation got personal—just not in the way I originally expected.
After we filmed the episode, I cut one particular story of mine. It came after Adam’s personal reflection on racism he experienced in a few apologetics spaces.³ During the editing process, my example that followed felt out of sync and a bit obtuse. But I did speak to the deeper issue: how taking rigid stances on complex issues—especially those that aren’t gospel essentials—can fracture the unity we’re meant to embody in Christ.
I’ve felt that fracture. I’ve experienced the subtle consequences of disagreeing with how fellow believers handled sensitive cultural moments. Not over doctrine, but over posture. Tone. Timing. The approach to the conversation itself.
And that was enough to strain relationships. To close doors. To make clear that some hills were more protected than people.
I couldn’t help but ask: if following Christ to the “nth” degree isn’t the point, then what are we actually doing with all this platform and polish?
If the fruit isn’t love, humility, or reconciliation, then maybe the project isn’t actually about Christ.
When secondary issues become sacred ground, it’s easy to confuse conviction with control.
And in my experience, people don’t usually walk away from Jesus because they lost faith in Him—they walk away because His people made the table feel smaller than it was meant to be.
Final Thoughts
Doctrine matters. Truth matters. But so does the unity of the church—and Jesus prayed for that unity with His final breaths before the cross.
The goal isn’t to pretend differences don’t exist or flatten everything into spiritual mush.
It’s to hold our convictions with clarity and charity.
To know when we’re standing on gospel ground—and when we’re just propping up a hill we built ourselves.
Because orthodoxy isn’t about winning the argument.
It’s about embodying the kind of truth that actually sets people free.
And in a world already divided by everything from algorithms to aisle seats, maybe the church could be the place where people don’t have to agree on everything to still break bread.
Some weird hills? Yeah, they’re worth dying on.
But most? Better to walk down—with a friend, a Bible, and a theology that leads people not to a fight, but to the feet of the Redeemer.
Listen to the Episode:
Catch Who’s It Hurting Anyway on your favorite platform:
Or on whatever platform you make questionable podcast choices
(Watch the convo, cringe at our jokes, and weigh in on your own weird hill.)
Join the Conversation:
What’s a “weird hill” you used to die on—but don’t anymore?
What helped you climb down?
Drop a comment or hit reply—I’d love to hear it.
📚 Footnotes
¹ As Paul affirms in Romans 10:9 (ESV), salvation comes through confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in His resurrection—not through theological completeness, but through trust. J.I. Packer echoes this beautifully: “The gospel is not a formula to recite, but a person to trust.” (Knowing God, 1973)
² Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine Through the Apostles’ Creed (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 20.
³ Some of those involved later reached out to Adam to apologize for the hurt caused—an encouraging reminder that grace and accountability can coexist.
Really enjoyed the article! My main question has always been an epistemological one — by what standard to we determine what are primary, secondary, and tertiary doctrines?
So good.