Dealing with Division (1:10-17, 3:1-9)
Last time we looked at 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 where we saw that Paul was able to give thanks for the Corinthians despite all the problems they were facing.
Today’s passage reveals the first of those problems – divisions in the church, and particularly division over leaders. We’ll be looking at three main passages of scripture:
1 Corinthians 1:10-17
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
John 17:11, 20-23
We will handle the subject under the following headings:
The situation in Corinth
Five things that cause division
The basis of Paul’s appeal for unity
How unity can be achieved
The situation in Corinth
1 Corinthians 1:10-17
V 10 tells us that Paul has learned from some of Chloe’s household that there are quarrels and divisions in the church.
These have sprung from the fact that the Corinthians were not ‘perfectly united in mind and thought’.
V 12 makes it clear that these divisions and quarrels were mainly over leaders:
12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
Paul has more to say on these divisions in 1 Corinthians 3:1-8 where we learn more about what was causing them.
Five things that cause division
1 Immaturity
In vv 1-2 Paul complains that the Corinthians have not grown up spiritually. By now they should have matured spiritually, but they’re still behaving like children.
1 But I, brothers and sisters, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready. (ESV)
2 Behaving only in a human way
Vv 3-4 show us that divisions in the church mean that we’re behaving no better than the people in the world around us. We’re behaving as people of the flesh (ESV).
3 For you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, ‘I follow Paul’’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos’, are you not being merely human?
Behaving in a human way means behaving like the people in the world. It involves jealousy (v3) and selfishness (1 Corinthians 11:19ff)
3 A ‘celebrity culture’
4 For when one says, ‘I follow Paul’’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos’, are you not being merely human?
The modern cult of so-called celebrities is becoming increasingly prevalent in the world around us. There is no place for it in the church!
4 Failure to recognise that the greatest of God’s servants are just that – servants!
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. (NIV)
Cf. John13:16. The apostle is not greater than the foot washing Christ who sends him.
1 Corinthians 15:10 By the grace of God I am what I am
as the Lord has assigned
God has a task for every one of us. But it’s God himself who is building his church.
Note vv7-8
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour.
This shows us the final cause of division:
5 Failure to recognise that we’re all serving the same God with the same purpose – that his church should grow, both as individual members and as a body
Summary so far:
There were serious divisions in the church in Corinth mainly with regard to leadership.
The causes of division we have identified are:
Immaturity
Behaving ‘only in a human way’ – like the world
A Celebrity culture
Failure to recognise church leaders for what they are – servants
Failure to recognise that we’re all serving the same God with the same purpose – that his church should grow.
We now turn to:
The basis of Paul’s appeal for unity
Back to chapter 1
10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ means with the authority of…
Why did Paul claim that authority?
Christ had commissioned him as an apostle (Acts 26:15-18) – He knew his gifting
15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.
16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.
17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them
18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
He was conscious that he was writing scripture
1 Cor. 14:37
If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command
For us, recognition of the authority of Scripture is the only true basis for unity
Jesus himself had prayed for their unity (John 17:11, 20-23)
John 17
11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:
23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
How unity can be achieved
1 By recognising that unity is God’s will (1:10)
10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
2 By recognising our unity in Christ (expressed in baptism and communion)
Baptism
14 I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,
To be baptised into the name of someone means that the person baptised has given himself/herself to the person into whose name they have been baptized.
As Christians we have yielded our lives to Christ because he was crucified for us.
So our baptism is a symbol of our unity because we have all yielded to the Lordship of Christ.
Communion (1 Cor. 10:16-17)
16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
3 By recognising our proper place in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:24-25)
24 … God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body…
4 By emphasising the things that unite us rather than those that divide us (esp. the cross
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
5 By respecting those with whose opinions we disagree – baptism an example
As we have seen, baptism is a symbol of our unity in Christ
Yet Christians are divided over what baptism is!
To me the New Testament is clear.
Baptism is by immersion and is for believers only.
(The reference in 1:16 to Paul baptizing the household of Stephanas provides no secure basis for the doctrine of infant baptism. Paul’s statement in 16:15 that they had devoted themselves to the service of the saints suggests the contrary).
But I recognise that many sincere Christians have a different view.
So how do we reconcile our differences on such issues?
We may never persuade our friends in other churches that our view of Scripture is the right one. (Hopefully in any one local church all the members would be agreed on this).
Baptism is important. The Lord Jesus commanded it.
So when Paul says that he is glad he baptized none of them he is not minimising the importance of baptism, but he recognises that baptism does not cause salvation.
The Spirit does that through the preaching of the Gospel – but baptism is the God-ordained response upon believing the Gospel.
But whatever our view on baptism, Jesus died for us all.
We are all of Christ (not Paul or Apollos or Peter) because of Calvary.
We have all believed the same gospel.
When we remember the cross, any differences we may have with our fellow-Christians pale into insignificance.