As we’ve hammered home again and
again, the Corinthian church was undoubtedly the most screwed-up local body of
believers in the 1st century. Paul starts off with words of
gratitude and hope and then spends the rest of the book raking them over the
coals.
And what’s the first problem he
addresses, before he gets to anything else? Church divisions. He appeals to
them in the name of the Lord Jesus (the Husband of the Bride who bled for her)
that they put aside petty bickering.
Now, we need to approach this with
wisdom and knowledge of what the Bible says on this topic. Not all unity is
good, and not all disunity is bad. The builders of the Tower of Babel
were unified. Germany was mostly united behind its “Leader.” People can be
unified in a bad purpose. If Christ hadn’t come, all humanity would have been
unified under his wrath and all of us would end up in the Lake of Fire. He didn’t
come
to bring peace on earth but a sword which will divide families.
And the Bible certainly isn’t
against disunity when the issue is important enough. I mean, we just finished
reading a couple of days ago in the book of Romans a warning
from Paul about false teachers. They’d been presenting a message contrary to
what he (Paul) had proclaimed, and he flat out told the believers in Rome to “keep
away from them.”
So what were the issues over which these believers were fighting? Did anything in the last two paragraphs apply to what was happening here? Um, no. Here
the issue was supposed loyalty to a certain leader or teacher. Paul calls them “quarrels”
over who was a follower of certain leaders: Someone might say “I follow Paul,”
while another claimed to be a follower of “Cephas” (Peter), Apollos,
or even (supposedly) a follower of Christ (as opposed to all those heretics
over there who follow Paul or someone else).
He rattles off a series of “no
brainer” questions: 1) Is Christ divided? (NO), 2) Was Paul crucified for you?
(as wonderful and important as he is/was, the answer’s a resounding NO), or 3)
Was anyone baptized in the name of Paul? (Um, NO).
Let’s take a look at the 1st
question for a moment. The point he could be making is that we’re all children
of God through faith in Christ, all baptized by one Spirit into the Body. Or he
could be making the point against the followers of “Christ”: No, Paul or
Apollos or Peter weren’t crucified for you, but they're all servants of the
same Lord. And in the case of Peter and Paul, their writings have the same
authority as those from Christ’s own lips (that’s what an apostle is). But even
Apollos, who wasn’t an apostle and who didn’t write any Scripture (unless you
think he wrote the book of Hebrews, which is a possibility), inasmuch as he was
teaching accurately from the word of God, he also was teaching with Christ’s
authority. Christ isn't divided in his Body, nor are his true servants divided
amongst themselves.
We’re going to talk a little more about
our attitude towards leaders in a few days when we examine chapter 3. But for
now, let’s talk a little bit about unity and division. Jesus said
that “a house divided against itself will fall,” and even though in context he
was speaking about Satan’s “house” and kingdom, the principle still applies
generally to the church as well (along with a whole host of other areas in
life). On issues like the Good News, or the nature and work of Christ, the
reality of Heaven and Hell, and other essentials, we can't negotiate or
compromise. These are “hills” we must “die on.”
But we need to pick our battles
carefully. And especially something so foolish as picking one leader over
another leader (when they’re both serving the same Lord) is not just
bone-headed. It’s damaging to the Body of Christ. And anyone who hurts the
Bride had better be prepared to deal with her Lord. He takes these things very
seriously, you know.
Lord Jesus, you’re the Wisdom of God in the Flesh. Please help me carefully distinguish between essentials, nonessentials, and my personal opinions. If I’m damaging the Body in any way, please point it out to me so I can repent and change, by your grace.
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