Freedom From Division-3(2024)

FREEDOM From DIVISION-III—1Corinthians 1:12-13(:10-17)

formerly: 'The INDIGNITY Of DIVISION'

Attention:

Whole, raw cow milk, if collected from the cow & left undisturbed for 24hrs., will separate into cream & ‘skim’ milk.

So in order to avoid the natural separation, all the ‘whole milk’ you buy in the store must be ‘Homogenized.’

Homogenization mechanically mixes the cream & milk so that they remain evenly combined over time.

First the cream is separated. Then all the ‘fat droplets’ that are a natural part of the cream are injected back into the milk suspension at high-speed, so that the cream & milk will remain together/emulsified rather than separate.

Division or separation in ‘packaged whole milk’ is to be avoided. Otherwise milk would not taste the same, or respond like we would expect in cooking applications.

Likewise, division devastates any church’s potential success, as well as any ministry’s potential for success!

And So, FREEDOM from division, frees up any church/ministry for success!

Need:

God’s people must RECOGNIZE divisive behaviors in themselves & others. God calls us to SURRENDER those behaviors to His power, thru the Holy Spirit, Who lives within us.

“Indignity”—A state of being unworthy of honor or respect(in relation to godly matters).

The Corinthian church was afflicted/troubled by the indignity of internal division.

And the apostle Paul urged the Corinthian church to distance themselves from that indignity.

Successful ministry is undermined thru internal division.

?What can free or distance us from division?

And...?How can we be free from that indignity?

3 measures of freedom from division.

So far we’ve found that...

1. Freedom from division thrives in Christian...

UNITY(:10-12)

Today we’ll find that...

2—Freedom from division ALSO thrives in a United Christian...

MINDSET(:12-13)

Explanation:(:12-13)

:12—“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.”

Obviously, there were those who had been led to the Lord, or instructed to conviction about their beliefs, by certain ministers of the Gospel(including Christ Himself). And because of that, certain of the Corinthians clung to those particular (favorite)ministers with arrogant loyalty. They used the name(of their ‘hero’) as a “slogan of identity” with “implied superiority.”—Terms borrowed from John MacArthur

Some of these were even so arrogant as to place “Christ” in juxtaposition to His own apostles! Touting Christ for use as one’s partisan leanings is a real threat to the Gospel.

•No doubt many today hold to Christ as a political shoe-in to a specific body of behavior &/or belief. In similar fashion as those did at Corinth, there are many in today’s churches who have a ‘loyalty to Jesus’ that is born from a decidedly fleshly spirit.

There is nothing wrong with having a special affection for the one who led you to Christ, OR for the ones who for years guided you toward greater righteousness, OR for the ones who counseled you during a dark time of personal struggle, OR for the ones who comforted you in your greatest need...

BUT if you white-wash & elevate those people as notable ‘heroes’ of the faith, so that all others are excluded from ministering to you, then you have used your own hand to fail God’s desire! And in so doing, you actually limit & undercut the ministry you have received.

•Aligning yourself with specific ministerial ‘parties’—like politicians do their constituencies—is not the fault of the ministers themselves(“Paul”, “Apollos”, “Cephas”, “or” “Christ”). But, anyone who limits God’s Gospel to individual ‘party-line’ thinking, obviously makes him/herself answerable to God for misapplying the potnetial ministry influence they have been granted by God.

•To single-out & elevate certain teachers to the exclusion of others, is to manipulate God’s truth & reduce it a matter of fleshly ability & selfish pride.

Yes, there are preachers & teachers who are wonderfully gifted in many areas. But we must make sure that hose we follow & are influenced by, are teaching, preaching & living-out the Good News of Jesus Christ, & not simply building a following for themselves.

Let’s not confuse the Gospel, the truth, & the testimony of God concerning His plan for mankind!

Keep in mind that “Paul”, “Apollos”, “Cephas”, & “Christ” are all formative in their own ways, for the birth & sustainment of the Church.

To take any of these to the exclusion of another minister of the Gospel is to ‘throw out the baby with the bath water’ as it were.

•It would be akin to ourselves removing parts of the Bible, because they were written by someone we held a preferential distaste for. Or removing a portion of the Scripture because it calls attention to some subject that we don’t want to deal with.

2Pet. 3:14-18—“Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot & blameless; & consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation--as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught & unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace & knowledge of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now & forever. Amen.”