Years ago, the Democratic Convention had just concluded, and the Republican Convention was soon to begin. The day the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, announced his selection for Vice President, Joe Biden, the Republicans unleashed what’s called an attack ad. Senator Biden, who was running for the presidency at the time, points out Barack Obama’s poor foreign policy judgment and argued that Americans are quickly realizing that Senator Obama is not ready to be president (Fox news).
Senator Biden dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination after a poor finish in the Iowa caucus, but not before he talked dismissively of joining someone else’s ticket. He said, “I am not running for vice president. I would not accept it if anyone offered it to me. The fact of the matter is I’d rather stay as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee than be vice president.”
Of course, there are the Clintons. The hard feelings between them and Senator Obama had been widely talked about on the news talk shows. But what was portrayed in their speeches was unreserved support for their competitor for the Democratic nomination. Senator Clinton appealed for unity in the party when she asked her supporters if they were in the campaign just for her, or were they in it for the people of this country?
Do you think the church could learn something from the Democrats? I’m not naïve about the struggles over leadership in the party, but I get the sense from the committed Democrats that their greatest concern is not who is the nominee but winning the presidency. Whatever criticism the competitors had for one another, they are portraying it should be put aside for a wholehearted effort to make the next president a Democrat.
Churches, like political parties, are made of people with different opinions. What is the central issue that is so important that it draws us together and compels us when necessary to set aside our desires? It’s Christ. We find unity when we give up anything that hinders magnifying Jesus Christ. Christ and the cross unify the church when they are kept the priority of the church.
In chapter 1:1-9 Paul tells them the way God sees them. After that he begins to deal with the problems he has heard they are having in the church. He tells them the source of his information—Chloe’s people (v. 11). None of this cowardly, “Several people are upset” routine. That usually means two or three people at the very most. He is specific. He actually quotes what is being said: “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Peter,” or “I follow Christ” (v. 12). All the way through chapter six Paul deals with the problems that Chloe’s people report to him. In the meantime, he receives a letter from the Corinthians detailing other problems and questions, which he answers in chapter seven through sixteen.
The overriding admonition to this troubled, divisive church is verse ten. Look at the many words of unity in this verse. The word “appeal” literally means called alongside. Paul’s asks them to join him in the effort to reestablish unity in the church.
They are “brothers.” The other day my grandsons were showing me a basketball game they have in their playroom. Six-year old Bradley was shooting basketballs into the hoop and explaining the game to me. His four-year old brother, Carter, edged his way beside him. This resulted in Bradley shoving Carter. Quicker than a flash, Carter bared his nails and mauled Bradley like a cougar. I stopped Bradley from whacking his brother. Off he goes crying to his mother. He tells his mother that Carter had scratched him. All the time Carter is calmly shooting basketballs. His mother calls up the stairs, “Carter, did you scratch your brother?” Carter, without missing a beat, said, “Nope.”
Generally, brothers have a commitment to one another that exceeds other relationships. We love, forgive, tolerate, and sacrifice for our family to a degree we will not for others. Paul is calling them to love one another like family. That will go a long way toward dealing with their conflict. In fact, Paul sets the example. He could have pulled rank on them as an apostle, instead he appeals to them as a brother.
The basis of this appeal to unity is the person of Jesus Christ. They claim to be Christians. Are they living like Christ with their fellow church member? Just whose authority have they submitted—their personal preferences or Christ?
He wants three things to happen (v. 10). He wants them to agree with one another. The KJV gives a better translation. It says say the same thing. We reveal a lot by our speech. A person’s speech can reveal what part of the U.S. they come from. A person’s speech can reveal whether they are young or old. The way a church talks will reveal if it is one or not.
Paul wants them to restore the same mind and opinion they once had (v. 10c). Does he mean they have to agree on all things? No. The word division was used to describe a garment that was torn or a farmer plowing a field. It is used in John 7:43 to describe people holding various opinions about Jesus because of jealousy and pride.
Paul is addressing the attitude and opinion they have toward one another. We must agree on the fundamental beliefs about Jesus Christ, but we can have a wide diversity of opinion on many issues and still have a beautiful, harmonious fellowship if we maintain Christ’s mindset toward one another.
Listen to this insightful observation of A.W. Tozer:
One hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other. They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship (The Pursuit of God, p. 90).
Whether it is a political party, a sports team, a family, or a church, unity is found when they have something that they rally around. As you seek the same attitude Christ has about me, and I seek to hold the same opinion Christ has about you, we will grow in harmony.
Paul is shocked to learn of the fussing and fighting spirit that has crept into the church at Corinth. He asks three questions. Each question implies the oneness of Christ (v. 13). “Is Christ divided?” Of course not! He belongs to all who have received him. “Was Paul crucified for you?” Or for that matter Apollos or Peter? Of course not! Only Christ could be crucified for their sins. And by whose name were they baptized? Christ’s. In other words, Christ saved them, and their total allegiance is not to any man but to Christ alone.
Paul is grateful that he didn’t personally baptize many (v. 14-16). It proves that the real emphasis was on Christ and the cross and not the ceremony. Baptism is important, very important. The scriptures insist that we be baptized after we receive Jesus Christ. The reason is baptism declares who is our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Corinthians had lost sight of that message.
He didn’t do much baptizing personally while in Corinth but what he did do a lot of was preaching the good news of salvation of Jesus Christ (v. 17). He didn’t do it with human wisdom. That refers to a style of eloquence that was popular in Greek culture. He will address this again in chapter two. This style was very attractive and entertaining to the Greeks. Paul is saying that he kept his presentation of the gospel plain, simple, and clear. He didn’t want anything to distract from the astonishing message of the Son of God becoming incarnate as a human being, living a perfect life, dying a substitutionary death on the cross for all sinners and rising from the dead three days later, and ascending to the Father. It’s not that Paul was boring. He was probably riveting. But when people went away they were talking about the message of Jesus and not the rhetorical eloquence of Paul. It’s another example of Paul keeping Christ and the message of the cross front and center.
How does a church keep Christ and the cross the unifying priority?
I. PERSPECTIVE—WE’RE FAMILY.
The most common description of the church is family. The Bible uses many other metaphors to help complete our understanding of the church. We’re soldiers, sheep, stones in a temple, royal priests, the body of Christ, and many more. You and I have God as our Father, Jesus as our brother, and the Holy Spirit as our companion. This makes us brothers in the family of God.
It seems our day emphasizes our differences. We’re African American or Native American, blue collar or redneck. The senior adults are called Builders, my generation is called Boomers, and the 20-year-olds are called Millenniums. But the cross is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter if you are from jail or Yale; the cross makes us equal before God. All deserve judgment. All must receive the grace of God. It’s not that these distinctions aren’t important; it is that they don’t divide us before God.
In his great message given at Oxford University Church in 1941, C.S. Lewis spoke about the weight of glory within each human soul. "There are no ordinary people," said Lewis. "You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit."(Weight of Glory, p. 39)
Of the six billion people on earth, the one’s in your home who are your spouse and child are your family. Of all people we should be patient and kind with our family. You love and care for them like no one else on earth. If somehow, we could recover this high view of our church family, we’d be less divisive and complaining. We’d be more generous in our forgiveness and love.
The cross is a reminder that you were on Christ’s mind when he died on that cross. He sacrificed for you. He loves you. He died for you. The Holy Spirit lives within you and is seeking to gain more possession of you. Unless I’m cold-hearted to the cross, this must result in me being more loving, forgiving, and truthful with my family and church family. It is Christ and the cross that shapes my attitude and actions toward others. How dare I mistreat someone Jesus died on a cross to forgive and reconcile to himself.
A church that maintains the perspective that it is a family because of Christ and the cross will treat one another differently. Christ and the cross change our perspective.
How does a church keep Christ and the cross the unifying priority? It must have a priority.
II. PRIORITY—CHRIST AND THE CROSS ARE CENTRAL.
Rising above every other issue and concern in our church and our own personal desires are Christ and the cross. In our church we have members with interests and commitments to various areas. For example, we’ve had members like Jim Gann who has a passion for evangelism. They see everything with a soulwinner’s eyes. Thank God for people like this in our church. Others have a passion for music. Still others are committed to women’s ministry or children’s ministries. We have social ministries like Eisenhower Elementary, Sunday School, prayer, and many others. We are designed to have conflict as each group competes for people, resources, and time on the calendar. How do we keep unity? We need something to integrate our burdens, interests, talents, and spiritual gifts. The hub that all those things connect to and serve is Christ and the cross.
Pour yourself out for the calling God has for your life, but remember that it is to be submitted to the preeminent purpose of our church. They are valuable to the degree that they exalt Christ and his message. They are to be done with the spirit and sacrifice of Christ.
Someone has said that the cross has become so ordinary that we hardly see it anymore. Isn’t that a deeply sad statement? Can you imagine a time when you could hardly be moved by the death sentence being passed on someone very near to you? Yet church members can act as if they no longer see the message of the Christ and his cross.
Sculpture Theodore Prescott has spent a lot of time thinking about the cross. He has been working on a series of crosses made of different substances and forms trying to restore the cultural punch the cross had on the first century. He made a cross of salt blocks and put it in the pasture for cattle. He calls it the Salt Lick Cross. As the cattle drew sustenance from the salt cross it was shaped in unique ways. The metal rusted do to the cattle’s saliva. The reason for his interest in attempting to restore the power of the message of the cross was a sculpture he made and many saw a cross in the design. He didn’t. It was not his intent. He wondered how many times we fail to see the cross in life’s events.
This is what happened to the church at Corinth. They’d lost sight of the power and meaning of the cross and the Christ who died and then vacated that cross. We need to remember what Pilate declared about that specific cross on which Jesus was hung: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
Northeast Baptist Church was given existence primarily to magnify Christ and spread His message. When we remember this and bend our desires and use our gifts to this end, we will experience the unity we have in the Spirit. However long this church exists, may Christ and his cross be its priority.
How does a church keep Christ and the cross the unifying priority? Christ and the cross must determine our perspective of one another. Christ and the cross must always be our priority. Finally, we must persevere in maintaining Christ and the cross as our priority.
III. PERSEVERANCE—IT TAKES EFFORT
He asks them to give effort to maintain the unity they already have in the Holy Spirit.
William Doherty begins his book Take Back Your Marriage with a powerfully true illustration. His office is in St. Paul, Minnesota, not far from the farthest point north on the Mississippi River. He describes the river’s powerful but silent current that drives its waters southward. He writes, “Everything on the water that is not powered by wind, gasoline, or human muscle” heads south. “I have thought that getting married is like launching a canoe into the Mississippi at St. Paul. If you don’t paddle, you go south. No matter how much you love each other, no matter how full of hope and promise and good intentions, if you stay on the Mississippi without a good deal of paddling—occasional paddling is not enough—you end up in New Orleans. Which is a problem if you want to stay north.” (rzim.org)
It is accurate to say our generation is in a relationship crisis. We have the highest divorce rate in the Western hemisphere, more couples live together than are married, absentee fathers or mothers are common, abortions that number into the hundreds of thousands year after year. For ten years the top five reasons given for vacating the pulpit or firing another staff member has to do with relationship issues: control issues, poor people skills, resistance to change, leadership style is too strong, or the church was already in conflict when the pastor arrived. You might have thought the most common reason had to do with sexual misconduct or ethical issues, but 2005 was the first time that sexual misconduct was listed in the top ten (number nine) and ethical issues made the top 20 (number eleven). The biggest problem in our churches is not division over doctrine or morality, but relationships (LifeWay survey). We don’t know how to get along or we aren’t willing to work at it.
We’ve grown up in a culture that has taught us we are to be served rather than serve. We would rather be the head than the foot. When we remember Christ, we remember he said that he came to serve and not be served, and he sacrificed for us when we least deserved it. Our God wrapped a towel around his waist and washed the filth from the feet of his disciples.
The next time you dislike someone or dislike something in the church, bring it to the cross. Does it really diminish Jesus Christ or the cross or is it a matter of personal preference? Does it really distract from the cross or is it just an inconvenience to you and your agenda? If a church or family would live this way the joy, peace, and unity would significantly increase. Peace and unity in the church takes effort.
CONCLUSION
Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Prize winner and survivor of the Holocaust, tells of his time in the concentration camp. He and a few others were forced to witness the hanging of two Jewish men and one Jewish boy. The two men died right away, but the young boy struggled on the gallows. Someone muttered behind Weisel, “Where is God? Where is He?” Then the voice growled again, “Where is He?” Weisel was asking those same questions, “Where is God? Where is He?” Then he heard a voice softly within him saying, “He is hanging on the gallows, where else?”
The next time you are wounded, either in the church or elsewhere, let it be a reminder that Christ was wounded so you might draw near to him. You see it is at that point you come face-to-face with the cross. You have a choice. You can die to pride and selfishness and humble yourself, so you can live near Christ. Or you can think only of yourself and walk away from Christ and the church. All that is waiting for you is loneliness.
I know this is hard. But He has promised when we do it his way, we will find our life when we lose our life. When Christ and the way of the cross are kept priority, we discover oneness with Him and one another.
