Food for Thought
Division and Unity
~~ A look at 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 ~~
by George A. Sinkie
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This
article is in response to a meme posted on Facebook that spoke
of Division in the First Century, and showed people
saying I am of Paul, I am of Apollos,
I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ. Then
it said Division in the Twenty-First Century, and
showed people saying Im a Baptist, Im
Catholic, Im a Mormon, and Im
a Christian.
The Scripture that they used to
base this on is 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, which says, Now I exhort you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and
there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in
the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been
informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloes people,
that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that
each one of you is saying, I am of Paul, and I
of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of
Christ. Has Christ been divided? Paul was not
crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the
name of Paul?
There is a major problem with what
this meme presents. To understand this lets go back
to who it is talking about in 1 Corinthians. Back in 1
Corinthians 1:2 it says, to the church of God which is at Corinth,
to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by
calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
The church of God.
It is important to understand that this is not referring
to the modern day groups that have church of God
in their name. These groups are manmade groups that are
formed around the teachings of men. The group here in Corinth
was a church that belonged to God, this is the same thing as
the churches
of Christ (Romans
16:16). They were simply a group that belonged to Christ.
If we go back into the book of
Acts chapter 18, we can read of their history. Paul came
to Corinth and began to teach in the synagogues (Acts 18:4).
He devoted himself to the word (Acts 18:5). Paul
would have been preaching the gospel, because he believed it
was Gods power to save (Romans 1:16).
Paul believed that there was only
one gospel and to preach anything different caused one to be
accursed (Galatians 1:6-10). Paul also believed
that the gospel had to be obeyed in order for one to be saved
from eternal destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).
Pauls gospel was the teaching
about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as foretold
in the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Paul also
explained how we could obey the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ
the gospel
when he wrote to the Romans
about what they had done in Romans 6:3-7, Or do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been
baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried
with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so
we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become
united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall
be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that
our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might
be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;
for he who has died is freed from sin.
It is when a person
upon
their belief (Mark 16:15-16), repentance (Acts 2:38),
and confession (Acts 8:36-37)
humbles himself to
being immersed in water (Acts 10:47-48) for the forgiveness
of their sins (Acts 2:38) and thus washes away their sins
(Acts 22:16). This is what we see the Corinthians
doing in Acts 18:8, And
Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with
all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard
were believing and being baptized.
So getting back to 1 Corinthians
1:10-13, all of those involved here had been taught the same
gospel. They had all obeyed the same gospel by being immersed
in water. They had all been added to the same number (or
same church, KJV) (Acts 2:47), that is the Lords
church, the one that belongs to Christ (God), the one that Paul
collectively calls the churches of Christ in Romans 16:16.
The division being dealt with in
1 Corinthians 1:10-13, is division among people who are all a
part of the Lords church and they are starting to cling
to certain teachers (Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and then there
were those who simply made the claim to follow Christ). We
should never follow the preacher, we should always
follow Christ.
In the meme, all those in the First
Century had the same seed planted in them, they all obeyed that
same gospel, they were all a part of the same group of called
out people (church). The problem in the meme is that those
in the Twenty-First Century each heard different teachings. You
cannot plant the pure seed of the word of God and get Baptists,
and Catholics, and Mormons. You have to plant Baptist seed
(their distinct teachings), Catholic seed (their distinct teachings),
and Mormon seed (their distinct teachings) in order to get these
various religious groups.
First Corinthians 1:10-13 is about
division within the Lords church, not the division of denominationalism.
Dont get me wrong denominationalism is wrong,
it is just not addressed in 1 Corinthians 1:10-13.
Denominationalism is wrong because
it requires preaching something other than Scripture and the
Word (2 Timothy 3:16 - 2 Timothy 4:4). Denominationalism
is wrong because it requires preaching another gospel (Galatians 1:6-10). Denominationalism
is wrong because it violates Jesus prayer for unity (John
17:17-21). All denominationalism requires the teaching
and doctrines of men to exist and therefore result in a vain
worship of God (Matthew 15:1-9).
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