United

Last week, we started making our way through a letter Paul wrote to Jesus followers in Corinth. Today, Paul focuses on divisions.


1 Corinthians 1
10 I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. 11 For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. 12 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not! 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 for now no one can say they were baptized in my name. 16 (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.) 17 For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News - and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.


United. Last week, our preview revealed that Paul would be addressing a couple of important issues in the church at Corinth (check out 1 Corinthians). This issue of division is the first. Divisions have a way of distracting our focus. Our focus tends to shifts away from the focus and onto the division; and until the division is dealt with, the division becomes the focus. The only way to reverse the division is to rediscover the focus … and then stay focused on it. For the Corinthians, Paul had made very clear that the focus was the “Good News” made possible by the “cross of Christ”. After Paul left, the focus had been divided into a debate about who was the better/more important speaker/leader … some thought Paul was a more important speaker … some thought Apollos was a better speaker … some thought Peter was a more important leader … some thought they were more important because they had developed some better level of spirituality. The focus had moved from the message to the messenger and the presentation of the message. Sound familiar? Sadly, many churches today are still focused on this division. The only hope of reversing this division universally is for us to refocus individually.