Part 1 Steps To Unity Series

THE VITALITY OF UNITY

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

PART 1 STEPS TO UNITY

1 Corinthians 1:10

I. INTRODUCTION:

We live in a very competitive society and we take our competitions very seriously. We are competitive in every area of our live from our jobs to our sports. No only are we competitive, but we want people to be on our side and if they are not on our side then they are against us. Take for example the story of an Alabama football fan who poisoned the iconic Toomer's Corner oak tree on the Auburn campus after No. 2 Auburn defeated No. 11 Alabama 28–27 in Tuscaloosa rallying back from a 24–0 deficit - the largest comeback win in series history. When asked his reasoning he stated, “I wanted every Auburn fan to hate me as much as I hate them.”

Well that is the extreme, but I think a valid point to how easily we can be so devoted to a cause or belief that it becomes divisive in our life. Sadly, this extreme flows over into the Body of Christ. Unity provides fertile soil for the Holy Spirit to do His work in and through us while division has the adverse effect. Division stifles the ability of the Holy Spirit to do His work in us and through us.

a) Separating Into Parts

The history of the world is riddled with division. Division causes separation, hurt and sometimes even hate. It causes wars, murders and separates. Everyday division in America threatens our democracy due to an inability to love and respect those that we disagree with or that are different than us. Much of the stains on American history can be drilled down to division. From the infancy of our country equal rights of every person regardless to color, race or gender has been a struggle. Equal rights were not created or institutionalized by democracy. Equality and harmony are fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ. This is something we have to get right.

b) Disagreement Vs Division

To put it clearly, we can disagree without division. We’ve all heard the polite and loving response, “We will just have to agree to disagree.” That’s a very kind way to say, I don’t want this to turn into something that will cause division between us.

c) Division Is Based On Superiority:

Whether you are dealing with government, the church, the community, your job or your family. Division is caused by one thing – superiority. When a person says through action or words, “I’m right, this is the way it is going to be and nothing will change my mind, so everyone get in line or you better get out of my way” there will be division. The reason being that no one will ever have total agreement from everyone. My wife and I disagree from time to time, but we are one. We are equal. We are both intitled to our own beliefs and preferences. Neither of us are superior in our relationship. God is the superior in our lives and it is our duty and goal to align with him humbly the best we know how, and even in the best way we know how we may not agree. That’s just life. Keep God the superior figure and He will instruct you to love and be patient with one another.

Galatians 3:28

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. (NLT)

d) Dogmatic Doctrine Causes Division

Dogmatic means asserting opinions in a doctrinaire or arrogant manner; opinionated, inflexible or unbending. There are some areas in our system of beliefs that have to be dogmatic. Jesus died for the sins of all, God is love and whoever believes in Him is saved. But most areas of spiritual belief should leave room for the believer to come to an educated decision based on real, unadulterated truth. Some Bible teachers have an attitude of what I say goes and you better not stand against me… or else. You might think I’m stretching for an illustration here, but I promise, this does happen more than we want to admit.

Scripture gets filtered through a teacher’s personal convictions so it takes discipline to discover what God is ‘truly saying’ and not just using the Bible to say what we want in order to back our dogmatic beliefs. When I say “truly saying”, I’m referring to the fact that you just might have to dig a little below the surface of a passage – maybe even study in the Greek or Hebrew through a simple internet application to get the true meaning.

I believe in the priesthood of believers. Simply put, that means we do not need a priest to speak to us on the behalf of God. In the Old Testament God did not speak directly to the people. Mankind depended on a priest to speak for God. Once Jesus rose from the dead, he became the Hight Priest and assigned every single person who believes him as a priest – one who hears from God.