"I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment."- 1 Corinthians 1:10
The reason for this division is revealed in verse 12-13 where Paul says: "What I mean is that each of you says, "I follow Paul', or "I follow Apollos, or "I follow Cephas(Peter)", or "I follow Christ". Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
The thing that strikes me about this verse is that the issue is of a great significance yet Paul's answer to this is "all of you agree, and that there be no divisions amongst you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgement." I am at a lost as to how we achieve this without confrontation, and a good bit of admonishing. I find this especially hard to meet the social expectations for what love really is when faced with a circumstance such as this. The love of Christ is portrayed as this by the same author, Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians.
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.-Ephesians 6:1-2
In case you are wondering, that "therefore" is preceded by this: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were all sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor, and slander but away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God is Christ forgave you."-Ephesians 5:30-32. In fact, Ephesians chapter 4 is about unity in the body of Christ. You see, my thought is that it begins with unity, it does not winds up there by chance. I wonder if statements like 1 Corinthians 1:10 and Ephesians 4:1-3 are more of a contingency plan for backslidden members.
In Ephesians, like in 1 Corinthians, Paul is calling the readers attention to there mindset. Its all wrong, and as long as it is trying to fuse gentile thinking in with jewish thinking, and jewish thinking in with that of the gospel of Jesus Christ we will all suffer disunity within the body. However Ephesians 4:5 says "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through alland in all." The biggest problem we face is "How do we maintain this loving unity within the body if people are not exemplifying the gospel of Jesus Christ?" Do we surrender discipline, and our rebukes all for the sake of "smooth sailing"?
We should however remember that this focus of unity will never become a thing of the past. In fact, its something we will have to earnestly contend for. Even in the Philippians 2 we see Paul reiterating this for them even thought they are full of joy and thanksgiving.
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, and comfort from love, and participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord with one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant that yourself."-Philippians 2:1-3
The 2 fragments of this passage I have underlined seemed to be connected in my mind. In fact, I would almost bet that the chief cause for disunity is not that we have the same love(for Christ), but rather, we love different things ... or maybe that love is a desire for something completely separate than God's kingdom. I am sure there have been churches planted on the foundation of a desire completely separate from the love of God. Sometimes, this love differs on major things like "love of self" or "the love of money" or doctrines and traditions. But sometimes you see major walls go up because different people within a church have decided that certain demographics are more important than others. To all of this Paul says "do NOTHING from rivalry or conceit". Are we holding onto our pride and casting an attitude of superiority? Well ... verses 5-8:
"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."-Philippians 2:5-8
BUT! Then we add on top of this whole mess that which Jesus said about the true vine in John 15:
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you."-John 15:12-14
OUCH! Can you imagine dying for the stiff necks at church who make attending church a real drag? Ahh but, a slight bit of relief is offered in 1 Corinthians 5 that offers a bit of self righteous zeal towards those who are clearly in the wrong. Paul says:
"What have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church that you are to judge? God judges those outside. "Purge the evil person from among you."-1 Corinthians 5:12-13
*disclaimer* The evil the man here is guilty of is incest. The sin is specific to a "brother" who is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, idolatry, reviler, drunkard, or swindler. Paul, says "dont even eat with them"(verse 11)
Can it be? Can we actually be this harsh on someone who is an obvious sinner, like the rest of us, and still maintain the love of Christ? I think it is according to Paul. Paul is in fact reverberating God's instructions for Israel in preserving holiness when flagrant, un-repented of sin is in its midst. Look at what Paul says prior to verse 12-13, in verse 6&8.
verse 6: "Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens that whole lump?"
verse 8: "Let us therefore celebrate the festival(passover), not with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
Im sure that by now that most of you are hearing Romans 5:8 in your head and wondering how? If "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" can we be so harsh on a sinner? I have two verses for you to meditate on and. Ill start with Romans 6, preceding chapter, and finish things up with Hebrews 10.
"What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, sonow present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification."-Romans 6:15-19
"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and hasoutraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."-Hebrews 10:26-31
My cry here is that we would all be active participants in this unity! I often worry that our mindsets, and what we envision things like love and unity to be for God's people may be something completely separate from the truth of God's word. God does not intend for us to doormats, he intends for us to be servants. The problem here is that sometimes we think we are serving people in what seems like a righteous manner when in fact we may be aiding in their damnation because we are not being a community, or rather, THE kingdom of God. Please do not forget that confrontation is riddled through out the new testament.
To be continued ...
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