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1 Corinthians 1 "No Division"
"Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours; Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:1-3)
Today we will start to study Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. In this letter Paul corrected the Corinthian Christians about many things. It is a very good thing for us that the Corinthian church was in such a mess! Because we can learn from their mistakes. I grew up as the youngest child in a house with six children. My special talent was the ability to watch the mistakes that my brothers and sisters made and learn from them. Let's learn from the mistakes of our elder siblings in Christ. The first thing that we can learn is that there is no such thing as a perfect church. There is no such thing as a perfect Christian. Paul writes to them "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Even with the abundant grace that was given to them, even with the gifts of the Spirit working in power in their midst, even with their eagerness to know Christ, the church in Corinth still made mistakes.
I think one of the worst mistakes that you can ever make
is to think that you are not making any mistakes. But this is a mistake
that many Christians make. Why do we get so full of ourselves? We know
that we are sinners. We know that we are not perfect. And yet we still
end up pointing out everyone else's faults but our own. The reason why
so many fall into this error is because they fail to distinguish between
their own wisdom and God's wisdom. You see we serve a perfect God who
never makes a mistake. We all believe that. We believe that God's word,
the Bible, is also perfect and contains no error. Both these things
are true. But the next step is not. Just because God is perfect and
His word is perfect does not mean that His servants are perfect. I once
heard one famous Bible teacher attack the views of another by quoting
from the Bible and saying, "If it was good enough for Paul it is
good enough for me." The only problem was that I was not quite
sure that Paul would have agreed with him. There is a difference between
God's word which is perfect and our understanding of it which can be
much less than perfect indeed. We see God's wisdom now dimly, as through
a dark window. We don't love or pray or give as much as we should and
therefore cannot understand God's ways as we should. It is only when
we are able to see Jesus face to face that we will finally be perfect
and understand Him perfectly. Until that day Paul encourages us to trust
in God's faithfulness to save all of us imperfect people by His grace.
"God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I plead with you, brethren, by the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and
that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined
together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been
declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household,
that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you
says, "I am of Paul." Or "I am of Apollos," or "I
am of Cephas," or "I am of Christ." Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest
anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized
the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized
any other. (1 Cor. 1:4-16)
The main problem in Corinth was that the church was divided. Some Christians in Corinth prided themselves on being true Christians because they continued in the teaching that was given to them by Paul. Other Christians felt a stronger bond to Apollos, another evangelist who worked in Corinth with Paul and might of stayed a bit longer after he had left. So they thought of themselves as having a little clearer vision of what being a Christian was all about. They might have looked at the Paulian Christians as being too conservative and at themselves as being on the cutting edge of what God was doing in Corinth. A third group took a different approach altogether. They thought that since the true leader of the apostles was Peter or "Cephas" they should listen to the teaching of Peter first and foremost. Finally a fourth group threw up their hands in disgust at all the divisions and decided let's just follow the teachings of Jesus Himself. However, soon this group saw itself as the "real" church and started to look down on the others too.
Our church is a non-denominational church. The meaning
of that long word is that we are a church without a brand-name. In English
we use the word "generic" for products that you can buy in
a store that do not use a brand name. The advantage to these products
is that they do not have to spend all the money on advertising and overhead
so they can be priced much cheaper. The point of a non-denominational
church is to cut out all the overhead and weight of the traditional
well known churches. We don't need three or four hundred years of tradition,
we need Jesus. We need to worship Him with our hearts, in words and
songs that we understand. Calvary Chapel started as an attempt to be
a "generic" church that gets back to the basics of faith.
The first generation of churches that were planted all took different
names so that it would not become just another denomination. My church
in Oregon was called Applegate Christian Fellowship. Greg Laurie planted
a church that got called Harvest and Mike Macintosh started Horizon
from which we got our name Tokyo Horizon Chapel.
In Japan there is a successful company that sells generic products called
"Mujirushi" or "No-brand". In fact this company
became so successful that they opened up their own stores and grew to
the point that people actually recognise "Mujirushi" as a
brand in itself! This is exactly what happened to Calvary Chapel. The
Lord moved so mightily through it that soon everyone was calling up
the church wanting a "Calvary" in their city too. I don't
think that it is really possible to be generic church. God has called
each of us to a specific ministry, a particular style, a particular
focus. And even if we do succeed in being non-denominational, we still
are just as much in danger of thinking that somehow we are better than
everyone else.
Paul addressed his letter to the "church of God which
is at Corinth." I imagine that the mailman would have had an awful
time. Should I take this over to the Paulian church, or to the church
of Appolos? Perhaps it should go to the Cephas church or the church
of Christ? Actually at that time there was no church building to address
it to. They all met in different houses around the city. But the point
is that God does not see this church or that church but simply those
who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, those who are called to be saints.
In fact God sees them joined together with all those who in every place
call on the name of Jesus Christ. The same Lord Jesus Christ is Lord
of believers in Africa and India and China and America and we are all
part of the same church no matter what the name of the particular place
we happen to worship in.
How then can we be rid of division? Paul pleads, "by the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that you speak the same thing," I do not
think that Paul here is swearing. He does not use the name of Christ
to emphasise what he is saying. Instead Paul wants us to speak the same
thing by the power of the name of Jesus. Jesus is the center of our
faith; who He is, and what He has done for us. When you are speaking
with a Christian from another church, you need to focus your words on
Jesus. If the person that you are talking to agrees with you about Jesus
then you can have fellowship with them. If they don't agree about Jesus
being the Son of God who died on the cross to save us from our sin and
rose again on the third day then you need to share that good news with
them! What about all those controversial issues and doctrines that Christians
love to fight over? Go back to your home church and have a nice long
talk about them with your pastor. But when you are visiting them or
they are visiting you, by the name of Jesus Christ, speak the same thing!
The result of keeping the focus on Jesus is that where once an issue
might have divided you, now you know that you are both servants of Jesus
and are willing to forgive a slight disagreement or even to work toward
resolving the matter entirely. If fact if you both agree on Christ most
other things will work themselves out, eventually.
Agree on Christ! It might be the only thing you agree on, but Christ
is enough. In fact only Christ will do. What your friends believe about
evolution, or abortion, or predestination, or tongues or prophecy is
not really important. None of these things will make a difference if
they don't believe in Christ. It does not matter whether or not they
do the same things that you do, sing the same songs, wear the same clothes
or speak the same language. All that matters is whether or not their
sins have been forgiven by Jesus Christ. Be careful Christian that you
are not preaching anything else but Jesus. You don't have to convince
them of your culture or your style. All that matters is that they believe
in the Lord Jesus who is alive today!
| I have a question... | I want to receive Jesus Christ! | I want to confess sin... |
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Copyright 2000 Jonathan Wilson
All Rights Reserved
| I have a question... | I want to receive Jesus Christ! | I want to confess sin... |
| I need prayer... | I want to come to church... | I want to be a prayer partner! |