“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. 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? Paul was not
crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank
God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would
say you were baptized in my name. Now I did baptize also the household of
Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 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.” (1 Corinthians 1:10
– 17).
In the passage preceding the
above (1:1 – 1:9), Paul affirms the work of God in the Corinthian Christians,
reminding them of who God in Christ is and who they are in Christ. Paul now
turns his attention to the fact that the Corinthians are not living as who they
really are – the sons and daughters of God – but rather as “mere men” (3:3). This
line of argument continues through Chapter Four. In these chapters Paul will
take his readers to task for living as mere men, for schisms, for naturalistic reasoning,
for destroying the sanctuary of God, for arrogance; concluding with a reminder
that he, Paul, is their father in Christ and that the “kingdom of God does not
consist in [naturalistic] word but in power.”
Is it too much to suggest that the
chaos and sin that Paul deals with in the balance of this letter (chapters 4 –
16) are the result of the sin and chaos identified in chapters 1 – 4?
Pondering verse 1:10: “…that you
all agree…” This phrase literally means “that you all speak the same thing.”
Here is an image of a people who agree to the point that for a stranger to listen
to one speak is to listen to all speak. (As Paul makes clear elsewhere
(chapters 12 – 14) in this letter, this does not preclude individuality or
diverse giftedness.)
The Trinity gives us the image of
how we ought to live, for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit speak the same
thing; indeed, as John Chapter 17 makes clear, we are called into the very
koinonia of the Trinity and that koinonia is to be our fountain of life; being
our fountain of life it is our fountain of unity. But how can we speak the same
thing if we do not all think the same thing? If the Christ of the Cross is not
our nexus of thinking and affection, if our hearts and minds are drawn elsewhere
– whether to Paul or Apollos or Peter, it is not likely we will be speaking the
same thing. (See also Ephesians 4:1 – 16; Philippians 1:27 – 2:18).
“…and that there be no divisions
among you…” Schism works directly against the will of God in Christ, it
violates the nature of the Trinity (speaking in the natural), and it works
against the prayer of Jesus (John 17). While Jesus prays that we may be “perfected
into one” (John 17:23) we glory in our doctrinal and practical “distinctives”;
or we glory in our own versions of Paul, Apollos, and Peter. As I once said to
a coworker who was caught-up in a popular television minister to the virtual
exclusion of reading the Bible, “____ didn’t die for you.”
There is tension in all of this
for, as the NT makes clear, there is such a thing as false teaching, there is
apostasy, there is heresy. There is doctrine that is heretical, and there are
practices that are heretical – harmony at the expense of the truth of the
Gospel is poison.
Nevertheless, we ought to ask
ourselves, “What is our center of gravity? How do we think about the Church of
Jesus Christ?” Do we think of the Church before we think of our local
congregation or our denomination or tradition? Do we put the Church before the
church? Are we guilty of putting our own denominational or “distinctive” houses
before the House of the LORD? (See the prophet Haggai.)
Perhaps worse, are we practicing
the way of Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:25 – 33) and fashioning idols for our people to
worship lest they wander away from our local congregations? Naturally we will
not call them idols, we would never make idols would we? Are we attracting and
retaining people with a message other than the Gospel? Other than the Cross?
Again, there is a healthy tension
for doctrine matters, the Nicene Creed matters, holy living matters. But…is our
mission to promote unity in the Body of Christ? Are we seeking to maintain the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4)? Well, as a people we
have only to look around and we’ll have our answer – there is precious little
cooperation among local congregations, between pastors, between traditions and
denominations – at least in the West. We cannot explain this away and excuse
it. We have a fractured witness, and a fractured witness does not refract the
glory of Christ. Since Jesus links our witness to the world with our love for
one another and our unity you would think we’d be more concerned about the
fragmented status quo…but of course we aren’t.
“…but that you be made complete
in the same mind and in the same judgment.” If we are to speak the same thing
we must think the same thing, and here Paul exhorts the Corinthians to be made
complete, or “knit together”, in the same mind and the same judgment, or way of
thinking and looking at things. The Greek word for “made complete” can also be
translated “knit together” and it can have the sense of something that was torn
apart being knit back together to be made whole and complete. So there is hope
for us, but I think it is a hope that we must intentionally lay hold of, focus
on, talk about, and work to obtain.
A few months ago I read a
newsletter from a friend who pastors a church in a certain region, and I was
taken aback by a statement that his church was the only church of his
particular tradition in that region and that it was therefore important that
his readers consider supporting his ministry. I know that there are other
Gospel-preaching churches in my friend’s immediate location, granted, they are
not of my friend’s “tradition”, and granted they may not even be my particular
cup of tea, but I know they preach the Christ of the Cross. I wondered at the “us
and them” mentality – a mentality I have had myself. How can I work with others
if I have such a way of thinking? Am I only interacting with pastors outside my
tradition from a sense of charitableness? Am I up here and are they down there?
More often than not I don’t know
my own heart, but I pray that I’ll focus on our communion (koinonia) in Christ when
I meet pastors and Christians from other Gospel traditions with a high view of
Scripture.
I want the people I serve to
think of themselves as Christians, as disciples of Jesus, before they think of
themselves as being within “this” or “that” tradition. I want our core identity
to be Jesus Christ and the Church; it seems to me that any other core identity
is problematic.
Jesus Christ made our unity in
the Trinity a focal point of His prayer and desire. Paul confronts schism and
its results in 1 Corinthians, and throughout his letters he appeals to our unity
in Christ. If we cannot lament the schismatic condition of the professing church,
if we cannot repent of it, if we cannot truly seek to inculcate a sense of the
universal Church in the hearts and minds of our congregations…do we have much
of a future in the chaos and anarchy of our world? Are we being faithful shepherds?
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