That there be no divisions among you

1 Corinthians 1:1-17 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Appeal to Unity

Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

² 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 on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵ that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, ⁶ even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁸ who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰ Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. ¹¹ For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. ¹² 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.” ¹³ Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶ Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

In today’s text Paul says:  I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s 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?   In Matthew 12:25-26 Jesus says:  “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?”   Jesus says every kingdom divided against itself, so the same thing that is true of Satan is also true regarding the church, the representitives of God’s kingdom on earth. Yet across the nation and around the world how many ways do we find to divide ourselves. We   identify as in many other names and things other than Christ. We are Catholics, Protestants, Reformed, Baptists, Anabaptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Charismatics, Pentacostals, Presbyterian, Fundamentalist, Spirit Filled and on and on and on. Paul asks: Has Christ been divided?   Judging from the church today, one would think so.  In John 13:34-35 Jesus says:  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”   The world does not know and recognize the disciples of Christ because they are divided against one another rather than loving one another. Along with names and identities, we divide ourselves around many areas of doctrine, theology and Biblical interpretation. Look at the prayer that Jesus prayed for His disciples and for the church who would come after them and believe. In John 17, just before He was arrested, knowing He would be crucified, Jesus prayed for the future of the believers, His disciples. Verses 13-25, the end of His prayer say:  “I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.  As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;  that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;  and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”   That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity.”   Jesus prayer is that the believers would be as unified as He and the Father are unified. We are perfected in unity, so we are imperfect when we are in disunity.  Jesus prayed:  Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.   To be sanctified is to be perfected; to become like Christ. Rather than looking at God’s word to debate and divide with and from each other, we should look at the true purpose of God’s word which is to reveal Christ and God’s will and plan. If we will look first and foremost to find the revelation of Christ in scripture rather than the things we can dispute and disagree about, we will begin to see what we have in common rather than how we are divided. If we will focus on Christ, then we will not only see Christ in the word, but we will see Christ in each other. 1 John 4:20 says: If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  When we recognize that the same Jesus died for each one because of God’s love, we then recognize that it is also the same Christ that is in each one. We are unified by the Christ in us. Paul says: Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. When we, in our cleverness, dispute the details of the word, we void the power of the cross.

We may still disagree about some things and that’s okay, but may we disagree in love not division. In Matthew 7:1-5 Jesus says:  “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”   We should not judge or condemn others for what they see and believe, but by removing the log of judgment and condemnation from our own eye, we can see clearly; we can see them as God sees them in Christ and perhaps we can help them to see Christ more clearly.

I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.   That they (we) may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they (we) also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them (us), that they (we) may be one, just as We are one; I in them (us) and You in Me, that they (we) may be perfected in unity. Sanctify them (us) in the truth; Your word is truth.   Amen.