Thank you for inviting me. It’s nice to be invited where people like me for who I am. When I was born they asked, “So, how’s his mother.” And when I got married they said, “My, what a lovely bride” and I have no doubt that the day I die, they’ll probably say, “I wonder how much did he left her.” I get about as much attention as a white crayon.
Turn in your Bibles tonight to 1 Corinthians 1 and I’ll read verses 10-17 and while you’re doing that I’ll tell you a little story.
A woman was driving home from the Sunrise mall one night and it started to snow. Well, the snow got so heavy she was afraid she was going to lose control of her car and end up in the ditch. But as she kept going, she saw a snow plow. And she thought, if I keep as close to this plough as I can; I’ll be alright.
The problem was, sometimes the snow got so heavy she could hardly see the rear lights of the plough but she kept on going and her faithful guide kept on leading the way. After twenty minutes of driving, she noticed that the plow stopped, and the driver got out and walked back to her car. She rolled down the window and he asked, “Lady, where are you going?” And she said, “I’m heading home, I live up by St. Jacob’s.” And he said, “Well, you’re never going to get their following me! I’m plowing this parking lot!”
It’s good to know where you’re going and tonight we’re going to
1 Corinthians 1:10-17
“10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; 15 lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. 16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”
I realize the previous speaker probably dealt with the setting of this passage but let me remind you a few things about the city of Corinth, to set the scene for tonight’s message.
Corinth was a city that had a very strategic location. It was in the very centre of Greece and in those days all the north and south overland traffic had to pass through Corinth. It was like the 401 went right through the city. There was also a point off the southern coast of Greece that most sailors feared to around; so, the ships were hauled out of the water and dragged overland on these huge rollers and the path of these rollers went right by the city of Corinth. So, this made Corinth a major trading center.
It was also known as a great sports city and one of the two Olympian Games which were called the Isthmian games were held in Corinth.
The fact that it was a major trade and travel route also resulted in the population being multi-national and it was made up of Greeks, Roman officials, business people from the near east and many Jews.
The city was also the home and worship centre of Aphrodite, who was the pagan goddess of love but there was no love there. The temple of Aphrodite housed a thousand priestesses who were nothing more than ritual prostitutes.
So, Corinth was a fast paced city with a population of 700,000 and they were well known for their drunkenness and immorality. It was basically, the Las Vegas of its times.
And it was to this city where Paul planted a church. And on one hand, it was probably a very difficult place to preach but on the other, he had a lot of help. He had Apollos, Timothy, Silas, Aquila and Priscilla and there may have also been other believers who were never mentioned.
In spite of all the spiritual help they had, I think the Corinthian church was as troubled as the city it was planted in; because rather than becoming a thermostat that affected the spiritual temperature of Corinth they became a thermometer and they reflected the loose lifestyle of their pagan neighbors.
Now, before Paul addresses the failure of these Corinthians to live up to their spiritual potential he reminds them of three things. First, he reminds them they are saints. They are set apart as spiritual in the sight of God. And then second, he says, they were spiritually rich. They had everything God had given to His church or as verse 7 says, “they came behind in no gift.” And then third, he said, they were safe and secure in God and he reminds them in verse 9, “God who saved you is able to keep you.”
So, he says they’re saved people, who were equipped for service and they were as safe as God is powerful. There was no way they could ever lose their salvation but they had some deep seated problems that needed to be dealt with or God couldn’t bless their church.
I think it’s interesting to see that the first problem Paul addresses isn’t moral because he does this in chapter 5 and neither is it marital, because he does that in chapter 7 and it’s not even spiritual, because he doesn’t get to that one until chapter 12 but the first problem he deals with is division and dissension among the people of God.
Listen, those who are divisive in the church are just as carnal as the immoral, the unfaithful and those whose lives are marked by spiritual pride. So, Paul is writing, because he really wants these people to realize what their problems are; so they can do what God commanded them to do and that was to preach the gospel.
Let’s face it; we can all be bitter or resentful toward others because they’re done something to offend us and yet, they may not even know what we’re angry about. Someone once said, “Living with resentment is like taking poison and expecting the other guy to get sick.” It doesn’t do anything to anyone but you.
Now, I know this will come as a shock to you but even pastors can find certain people annoying in the congregation. In both churches I pastored I had someone who was always finding fault with everything I said and everything I did and it drove me crazy. And I prayed and prayed that God would either change them or change me.
I was talking to a missionary one day and I was sharing my problem and he said, “I had a lady who drove me around the bend and one day I was on the other side of the world and there she was; thousands of miles from home.” I said, “Did she actually follow you?” And he said, “She might as well have.”
Listen ultimately, resentment will hurt you far more, than the person you’re resentful towards.
So, in this passage Paul’s desire is for these people to have a better attitude and he talks about three things:
I The source of division
II The split over personalities
III The solution to their problems
I The source of division
Now, I think that behind every division in the church there is one dominant personality who feels that he or she knows better than everyone else. And this one will always take the route the devil took in Genesis 3 when he spoke to Eve. And you remember he didn’t say to Eve, “You can’t trust God. God’s generosity is nothing more than a trick.” No, no, he was too smart. He just asked her a simple question and it was, “Hath God said.” Did God really say that? And the questioning of the word of God, ultimately led to her disobedience. And if he can keep us out of the word, he’ll keep us out of God’s blessing.
Listen, we don’t follow people, we follow Jesus and when Paul asked them to do what’s right he said in verse 10, “I beseech you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And what he’s saying is, I’m asking you to do something that Jesus Himself would ask. And there are three things.
The first is; to speak the same thing. And what he was saying was; we don’t all have to agree on the color of the carpet or the kind of flowers on the platform but we do have to agree on doctrinal unity when it comes to the fundamentals of the faith.
And the fundamentals of the faith are; the inspiration of the scripture, the virgin birth, the sinless life and then the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and then salvation by faith. Listen, these are the things we must agree on. Now, whether or not you watch 100 Huntley Street in your spare time is up to you. But; Paul says, we speak the same thing, we all have the same message as far as the fundamentals of the faith are concerned.
And then second, he says, “I appeal to you, let there be no division.” In other words, don’t take sides on minor issues because divided loyalties lead to division.
And then third, “Be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgement.” Joined together is like the fitting of joints in your body. They’re all linked together for a common purpose and we should all be joined with one another in order to glorify the Lord and do His will because when one little bone is out of join, the whole body suffers.
I remember when I was about 11 or 12 I was walking barefoot on a reef in the ocean and somehow I stubbed the middle toe of my left foot and the toe broke. I’ve never even noticed that toe before but then it was all I could think of because it hurt for several days. And when any part of the body is hurt or is out of fellowship for some reason the whole body suffers.
And Paul is appealing to these people to be joined together in the same mind so they can enjoy the unity of the fellowship. If you believe the wrong things, have the wrong friends or if your goal is just to do your own thing, you can be out of fellowship and the whole church will suffer.
And then Paul focuses in the symptom of their problem and he says, “there are contentions among you.” The word contentions can also mean wrangling’s, quarrels, arguments or strife. And basically, what he’s describing is an undercurrent of hostility because the root of the word ‘contentions’ indicates that someone was causing problems and fueling the anger of those around them.
I did some digging and found that out of the ten times the word strife is used in the New Testament; eight times it’s accompanied by the word envy. And that tells us that the one who was causing strife was doing so out of envy because they were jealous of someone who was in the spotlight and they were trying to make trouble for them.
Envy is best defined as ill-will toward someone we feel is superior to us. This person may have a possession, a position or some kind of influence and if we’re envious; we’d actually feel better if they lost what they had even if we can’t have it.
Listen, compassion makes us rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep but envy will make us weep when others rejoice and rejoice when they weep.
Someone summed it up in a verse,
I hate the guys
Who minimize and criticize
The other guys
Whose enterprise
Had made them rise
Above the guys who criticize.
In 1 Corinthians 3:3 envy is described as the fruit of the flesh, where it says, “For ye are carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?”
I heard a story about envy. A long time ago in the Libyan Desert, the devil met a few junior devils who were very frustrated. Apparently they had tried and failed to tempt a very godly man. They had used lustful thoughts but he turned to God and prayed about his wicked heart. Then they tried to fill his mind with doubts about God’s love but he turned to the scriptures and committed himself to believing the words of John 3:16 where he was reminded of how much God loved him. And then finally, they tried to point out that he wasn’t as sincere as everyone thought he was; but he just hung his head and admitted it was probably true and asked God to make him a better man.
Well, these junior devils were very discouraged but Satan came along and said, "Let me show you a secret weapon." And he snuck up on the believer and said, “Have you heard the latest news? Your brother was just named chairman of the board of the biggest church in town.” And almost immediately, envy arose within his heart and jealousy filled his mind. And that’s what we call carnality or living in the flesh.
So, the source of their division seemed to be carnality and this led to a:
II Split over personalities
And we wonder: how bad was the situation in Corinth? In verse 12 Paul tells us when he says, “Every one of you.” Listen, everyone in Corinth was guilty of picking their favorite Bible teacher and then acting as though their choice somehow made them superior to everyone else.
You can always tell when a church is in trouble when the people stop saying “this is where I go to church” and say, “this is my church” and as far as they’re concerned no one can change anything because the church belongs to them.
A number of years ago I went to a Bible Conference in Louisville, Kentucky and they had a speaker by the name of Fred Craddock and he told a story about a job he had when he was attending Bible College.
He said he was called to pastor a small rural church in the country for the summer and he said, “While I was there they had a few people from what was known as the trailer park coming to the church and in this trailer park were trailers that were rented out to migrant workers. Most of them would move into the area to work for the farmers during the harvest season but some of them stayed for the whole year. And most of them were either Mexican or from some other part of South America.”
As soon as these people sensed they were accepted at the church more and more of them started attending and Fred felt like he was in the midst of a revival. The building was full and everyone seemed to be happy.
About a month later during a business meeting one of the regular members stood up and made a motion and the motion was simple. It stated that no one could join the church unless they owned property in the area. Well, Fred thought, “That’s the most absurd motion I’ve ever heard of. No one’s going to support that.” Then he said, no one spoke to the motion and he thought it would die for lack of a second but it was moved and then quietly seconded and the vote was called for. It was passed 100%. And Fred said the trailer crowd got the message and they all drifted away. And then Fred finished his summer ministry and went back to school.
Years later, as he and his wife were driving through the area he was telling her about this church and their motion. He said, it’s just a few miles off this road and she said, “Let’s drive over and see it.”
And as they came within a mile of the church they could see cars lined up on both sides of the street. He wondered what God had done to these people to get their minds off themselves and unto others; but as they got closer he saw a big sign on the front of the church that said, “All you can eat BBQ.” And he realized the church had closed and someone opened a restaurant. I guess one way or another God intended to feed the people of this area.
So, there was the trouble in the church of Corinth and they hadn’t split yet but there were four cliques, or factions within the congregation.
And the first one said, “I am of Paul.” Paul had been their founding pastor. He was a self-supporting missionary and teacher, and he probably had led a few of them to Christ and baptized them as well. So, as far as the original group was concerned, there was no one as good as Pastor Paul.
They were proud of their relationship to this spiritual giant. (And no doubt, every situation that came up, one of them would say, well, you know what Paul would say.)
The second group said, “I am of Apollos.” Apollos was one of the great speakers of the early church. Acts 18:24 says, he was mighty in the scriptures. And as far as they were concerned, no one preached like Apollos!
And then the third group said, “I am of Peter.” Some of them may have been saved at Jerusalem when Peter preached and thousands responded or they may have been gentiles whose roots went back to the gentile evangelism that began at Cornelius’ house. And they felt Peter with all his successes and failure was someone they could relate to.
And then the fourth group said, “I am of Christ.” And these were the probably the superficial types who formed their group as a reaction to the other three.
The problem with people bragging about their pastor is; they tend to overemphasize his gifts and end up making him a rival to Jesus Himself. But, as Paul reminds us time and again, we’re all servants and none of us has anything to brag about.
I heard a story about four people who were stranded on a desert island. There was a Pentecostal, a Presbyterian and two Baptists. And since they couldn’t get along, they each started their own church and on this little island they had a Pentecostal church, a Presbyterian church and first and second Baptist.
Listen it’s understandable to have a natural affection for the one who led us to Christ but when we begin to feel that our relationship with this person makes us more spiritual than others then we have a problem. And in this church they had all gravitated toward one leader or another and they all felt they were better than each other. And Paul would have nothing to do with their hero worship. He knew that neither he nor anyone else knew everything.
Have you ever asked yourself, “Why did God give us four gospels? He could have simplified it and compiled it all in one book.
Listen; even the disciples who were with Jesus were incapable of giving us a complete picture of Jesus but it took four perspectives to give an accurate depiction of who Jesus was and what He did. In the body of Christ; there are many who can preach or teach but if we limit ourselves to one perspective, we’ll have a distorted view of who Jesus is and what He’s done.
T.S. Eliot said “Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.” And there are some religious leaders who contribute to the problem of divisiveness. I think one of the most powerful religious leaders of all time (apart from Jesus) was a man by the name of Jim Jones.
People not only followed Jim Jones but they gave up their families, friends, finances and future. As a matter of fact, 914 literally laid down their lives for him. Why?
First, they say he had a special kind of charisma and he convinced these people that nothing of any consequence had ever been achieved before he came along. In other words, he was the answer to their prayers.
And then second, he told his followers that they were the spiritual elite while everyone else was phoney and the evidence was their submission to his God-appointed leadership.
Third, he emphasized that their commitment to him and his projects were expressions of their relationship to God. He’d have them out in the fields working like slaves all day in the heat and if anyone complained he’d say they were backslidden.
And then fourth, he had loudspeakers in the field where they worked and either he’d preach or they’d play his sermons and then they’d all go to meetings after supper and there’d be a constant reinforcement of his message and his message was, if you’re spiritual, then you’re on my side.
And through all these means; he not only convinced them to work for him but he convinced the entire crowd to die and others to kill for him.
Listen, constant criticism of a person, group or teaching can have a polarizing affect because those who listen begin to think in terms of them and us. And that is the beginning of a church split. Gene Edwards wrote, “A wedge between two groups is driven by building a series of doctrinal beliefs into the lives of those who are loyal to the leader. These are secondary items that the people never even thought of before and somehow they begin to feel spiritually superior to people who’ve sat and served beside them all their lives.”
Listen, splits father doctrines, doctrines rarely father splits. Very rarely do churches ever split over their beliefs. If you examine the doctrinal position of the two groups, you’ll find out they’re identical. They’d have to be, because when the original church called the pastor or appointed the leader it split into two groups who have the identical doctrinal statement.
Many times churches fight over really insignificant things like the choice of a hymnbook or the color of the carpet. There’s a church in Louisiana where the people actually fought over the color of the roof tiles and today the roof is green on one side and it’s red on the other. This church has become a monument to the unsaved world of the disunity within the body of Christ.
So, the Corinthian church was ripe for a four- way split but Paul was having nothing to do with it. They were a carnal church but he certainly wasn’t a carnal leader. And so, we turn to Paul’s:
III Solution to the problem
And he asked three questions and I think there’s a certain degree of sarcasm in his questions.
The first one is; is Christ divided? And it’s like he’s asking them has Jesus been cut up and distributed or is He still one. They failed to remember that they were parts of His body and therefore part of one another.
I wonder whether the strong emphasis on the Lord’s Table in chapter 11 is in response to a question or whether it was Paul’s way of emphasizing the need to search their hearts and root out the attitudes that lead to division.
And then second, he asks, was Paul crucified for you? I can’t help but wonder if he didn’t have a sense of sorrow and disgust to think that any group of people would give him the honor that was only due to the Saviour who gave Himself for us. Being idolized is not a compliment but an insult. I mean, here is a group of carnal people who are assuming he wanted to be treated the way they should treat Jesus.
And then third, he asks; were you baptised in the name of Paul? He never meant for people to follow and identify with him but with Jesus Christ. I believe his message was; get your eyes off me and back unto Jesus who is the real head of the body.
Conclusion
Fleshly people are the spiritually immature who will sacrifice the unity of the body just to have their own way.
Dr. Paul Brand wrote a book on the physical body and he said, “The white blood cells are the armed forces of the body. They guard against invaders. When the body has been cut, these cells abruptly stop their aimless wandering and hone in from all directions to the scene of the battle.
As if they have a sense of smell, they hurry through the tissue via the most direct route. When they arrive, many give their lives to kill the bacteria. They give themselves for the good of the larger organism out of a sense of duty.
If a cell should lose its loyalty and cling to its own life, it will share the benefits of the body but it sets up a rival organism and we call that cancer.”
So, we all need to ask ourselves, am I part of the solution or part of the problem?
When I was a youth pastor in Guelph, a lady from the church would call and ask if I would come over and sit with her uncle for an hour or so while she went shopping. They called him Uncle Jack and he was in his mid-nineties. And everything he did, he did slow but he never stopped enjoying life. He had been awarded a special medal in the first war for saving two horses and a general in the middle of a battle. He said, they appreciated the horses much more than the general.
He loved to share the various experiences he had and he always spoke about all the wonderful people he had the pleasure of knowing. He spoke about government agents, shop keepers, potato farmers, Catholics, atheists, war heroes and retirees. It was like he never forgot a soul.
One day, after reminiscing about different people and their successes and failures, he paused a few seconds and then quoted from an old poem by Thomas Gray: “The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power and all that wealth e’er gave, await the inevitable hour, the paths of glory lead to the grave.” And that was the end of everyone he knew. No matter how good or how bad they were, they were all dead. And since we’re all heading in the same direction we all need to be prepared for our departure.
A pastor I met in the states spoke about his father’s faith. He said, every time someone mentioned God, the Bible or the church his father would say, “All the church wants is another name on the roll and another offering.”
One day, he was in the hospital and cancer had eaten away his throat and he couldn’t say a word. During this time he thought about all the things he had said and where he was going when he died. His son came to see him and he motioned for a pen and something to write on. His son passed him a pen and since there was no paper he gave him a Kleenex box. And with a shaky hand he wrote a line from Shakespeare. It said, “Take great pains to tell the world my message.” And his son asked, “Dad, what is your message?” And he wrote, “I was wrong.”
God in His grace had forgiven the sin of one who spent his life criticizing the work of God. Listen, none of us are outside the love of God and no matter how far we’ve strayed, the door is still open to return to the One who created and loves us still.
In his poem The Ways John Oxenham wrote,
To every man there openeth
A way and ways and a way,
And the high soul climbs the high way,
And the low soul gropes the low,
And in between on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth
A high way and a low,
And every man decideth
The way his soul shall go.
So, the question is, where are you going?
