‘IS CHRIST DIVIDED?’ – 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on April 27, 2018 under 2018 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; April 27, 2018 from 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Theme: In spite of its imperfections, we have great reason to thank God for the church.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

We come this morning to a very serious subject. It concerns something that is a grief to the heart of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—something that very often causes people to turn away from church—something that has been a tool that the devil has used to close the ears of some to the gospel.

And it’s the first great problem that the apostle Paul deals with in his remarkable New Testament letter called 1 Corinthians.

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Now; perhaps you’ll remember from last week that we spent some time in the introduction to this letter. That was where Paul began this letter-long treatment of the problems in the local church in ancient Corinth by expressing his praise and thanks to God for the church.

He affirmed that it was an institution on earth that is filled with people whom he refers to as “saints”—people who had been set aside by God for Himself—people who had been enriched through Jesus Christ in every spiritual blessing, so that they fall short in nothing of what God wants them to have—people who are destined to be glorified in spotless purity and majesty at the coming of Jesus Christ. The Corinthian believers were absolutely sure and certain for glory, because—as Paul said in verse 9—“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” No wonder Paul would thank God for the Corinthian church!

But it was against this backdrop of praise and thanks that Paul writes about this serious problem in the church. It is a problem that he spends the most time writing about in this letter. And in verses 10-17, he described it to his readers in this way:

Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect (1 Corinthians 1:10-17).

This serious problem, then, was the problem of division in the church. There were “contentions” or “quarrels” among the believers. It seems that what was happening was that individual believers were aligning themselves under specific apostolic leaders in the church in such a way as to separate themselves from their fellow Christians. It even seems as if it was all tied—somehow—to baptism. Some were boasting that they had been baptized under the ministry of a particular leader; and for that reason, they considered themselves to be in a superior position, or spiritually ‘wiser’, than those who had not. Some thought they were superior because they were in the ‘Paul’ camp—plain-speaking ol’ Paul. Others thought themselves superior because they were in the camp of ‘Apollos’—the highly intellectual, refined scholar who also preached the gospel along with Paul.

These leaders where good, godly servants of Christ. And the things that they taught were the things of God. But the people who were aligning themselves under their preferred teachers were forgetting that those teachers were just servants of Christ. They should have been keeping their eyes on Christ who unifies—and not on temporal matters that divide. In Chapter 3, Paul asks his readers;

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (3:5-11).

As a result of having lost a Christ-centered perspective, they began to quarrel with one another and began to pursue their own agendas against one another—speaking against those who did not hold their view. I think you can really see this in Chapter 4. Paul was summing up his instructions to them about this problem, and told them in 4:6-7;

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (4:6-7).

I think you can express Paul’s passionate concern over this matter with the question he asks in our passage this morning—the one found in 1:13: “Is Christ divided?”

So; this then is the first problem that Paul dealt with in this letter. And it was a very serious one—with very serious spiritual implications for our own church in our own day. And as these introductory words to Paul’s treatment of this problem show us, we tend toward divisions the church whenever we fail to keep the cross of Jesus in view.

As we begin looking at this portion of 1 Corinthians, my hope and prayer is that we will all allow the Holy Spirit to instruct us from it—so that we will be faithful to put Jesus Christ and His cross first in our relationships with one another. Then, that we would be willing to lay down our own personal agendas regarding one another, will overcome our differences through the grace of Christ, and will do all that we can to be united in the essentials of the gospel toward one another.

And may we do this so that the watching world can tell that we are Jesus’ disciples by our manifest love for one another.

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So; let’s look at Paul’s introductory words about this problem—the problem of division in the church. Notice in verse 10 how he begins with …

1. THE PLEA FOR UNITY.

He writes; “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ …” And I hope you won’t mind if I stop right there and point out how Paul begins to deal with this problem. He started off this letter in verse one by affirming his high honor and position as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He had great authority. He could have thrown his spiritual weight around a bit, and ordered them to stop all their fussing. But that’s not how he speaks to them. Instead, he “pleads” with them or “entreats” them. He calls them his “brethren”; which is what he also calls them in verses 11. He speaks to them as part of the family. And he makes his appeal to them not in his own authority, but rather “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. He makes the Lord and Master that he shares in common with them the basis of his request to them.

What’s remarkable about this is that Paul was careful not to further aggravate the division by the way that he dealt with it. After all, he is one of the leaders under which some were trying to divide themselves from others. But he wouldn’t allow even his manner of dealing with this problem to contribute to the problem. We can learn a lot about how to deal with divisions in our own church by following Paul’s careful example. In pursuing unity, we should be careful to speak in such a way as to advance that unity.

And what then was it that he asked them to do? He went on to say, “that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

Personally, I don’t believe that Paul was meaning by this that we all no longer have any distinct opinions, and that we lose all of our unique individuality, and that there be total conformity in all our convictions about every aspect of the faith. That wouldn’t be consistent with some things that he says elsewhere in some of his letters about allowing room for some of our differences. I think it’s helpful to notice that he doesn’t call us to speak the same “things” (plural); but rather, that we speak the same “thing” (singular). He recognizes that we will have unique convictions about various things; but that in them, we should all seek to say the same “thing” in our testimony about the Lord Jesus. He sought ‘unity’—not ‘uniformity’.

I believe that Paul expects there will be differences among us—and perhaps even, at times, disagreements. But he urges us not to let them turn into divisions. He writes, “and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” I believe Paul’s words in the original language can be translated this way: “but that you be perfectly joined together ‘in toward’ the same mind and ‘in toward’ the same judgment”. I believe he is saying that we may not necessarily agree on every little detail in the Christian life—that we may not necessarily agree on how to interpret the Bible’s commands in every area we may encounter—but that our heart-orientation is ‘toward’ the same mind and the same judgment. That unity is the direction toward which we tend to go with respect to each other.

And frankly, dear brothers and sisters, I am rather encouraged by that. As a pastor, I don’t mind if we have some measure of disagreements between us; so long as we all put Jesus Christ first in our hearts, and we all agree that the Bible—as best we understand what it tells us—is the single rule for our faith and practice, and that—no matter what—we will love and respect each other, and that we will commit to listen to each other and learn from one another.

I like what Paul says in Ephesians 4:11-16 about what the Lord Jesus has done for us;

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:11-16).

There would have to be some measure of differences between us in order for one ‘joint’ to ‘supply’ something to another. But if we are each one completely devoted to Jesus, and if we are united in Him toward one another, and if we are all committed to do as the Bible tell us—as best we understand what it says—then those differences will never have to be a cause for division between us.

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Division, however, was exactly what was arising in the Corinthian church. And so, Paul next gave …

2. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM.

In verse 11 he wrote; “For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.” Just who Chloe is we can’t be certain. Many scholars believe she was a wealthy woman from Ephesus whose servants had come to Corinth on some business. They had perhaps visited the church in Corinth; and when they came back to Ephesus—where Paul was staying at the time he wrote this letter—they reported what they had seen. I don’t believe they were behaving like ‘gossips’ in doing this. I believe they saw a very grievous problem that they sincerely felt they needed to report to Paul. The testimony of the church was being harmed; and Paul needed to do something to help them.

And in verse 12, Paul explains what the problem was. “Now I say this, that each of you says, ‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I am of Christ.’” Each member of the body was dividing themselves from the others. Some were saying, “I remember when Paul came here. He preached a very simple, straight-forward, plain-speaking message. He didn’t try to impress anyone. I could understand the things that he said. I’m with Paul!”

Others were saying, “Not me. Paul feels to me like he’s talking to children. I want some solid, meaty teaching. Apollos is a brilliant man. He really knows philosophy and rhetoric and logic. His speaking manner is refined. It follows the established Greek patterns of a good speech. You can keep Paul if you need that simple stuff. I’m going with ‘Apollos’.”

Others still were saying, “You’re both wrong. You don’t seem to understand the deep Jewish nature of the Christian faith. Peter (or Cephas, as I prefer to call him) was the one who was sent to preach the gospel to the ‘circumcised’. He really understands the Jewish roots of the faith. You can keep these ‘Hellenized’ teachers if you want; but not me. I’m going with ‘Cephas’.”

And there were still others who—perhaps in a very pious way—were saying, “You’ve all got it wrong. You’re all aligning yourselves with the words of mere men. I only listen to Jesus.” And you’d have to say that, if each of those groups had truly put Jesus first in their hearts, and had committed themselves to do as the Scriptures had told them, and had truly loved one another as the Lord commanded that they should, they would have gained the blessing from one another. They should have done what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:18-23;

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:18-23).

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If I may, let me elaborate on that just a bit. It seems as if the people in Corinth were thinking themselves “wise” on the basis of who it was that they aligned themselves with. And in doing this, they may have been trying to copy the patterns of the Corinthian culture around them. In those days, people really valued ‘refined speakers’. And that was how they measured ‘wisdom’—by which refined and learned Greek teacher or speaker you aligned yourself with.

The Corinthian believers may have allowed themselves to get caught up in all this. As you read on in Paul’s letter, you find that the Corinthian believers were quarreling with one another on the basis of their identification with specific teachers because each one thought their teacher was “wiser” or more “insightful” or more “polished” than the other. Some of them rejected Paul because they didn’t think he spoke like the ‘wisdom’ teachers that they really liked. They even went so far as to boast in their ‘wisdom’ against each other.

And if there’s that kind of ‘boasting’ and ‘quarreling’ and ‘self-assertion’ going on in the household of God, then you can be absolutely sure that whatever is happening is not ‘wisdom’. The Bible makes that very clear. Pastor James, in his letter, said this:

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James 3:13-18).

And so, we next notice—in verses 13-16—that Paul wrote about …

3. THE INAPPROPRIATENESS OF THE DIVISION.

Paul shows how absurd this all is in verse 13 when he wrote, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” What a horrible thought! Only Jesus—the Son of God—died on the cross for them. It was only in His name that they were baptized. Their spiritual standing before God was on the basis of being ‘in Christ’—and not in any other. When they said they were of Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, or Christ, they had dared to elevate the first three persons way too high … and to put the last Person way too low!

Paul went on to say in verse 15, “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.” Crispus and Gauis were outstanding Christians who lived in Corinth. Paul, apparently, had personally baptized them; but given how the Corinthian Christians were boasting over which leader had baptized them, Paul was glad that he had only baptized a few. Perhaps, because he felt that he needed to be completely accurate with them—or perhaps because Sosthenese, with whom he had written this letter, reminded him—he then added in verse 16, “Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other.” Who it was that had been baptized by him wasn’t the important thing to him.

In fact, it doesn’t matter who baptizes you. It’s important that it be a public act done in association with a church; but it doesn’t have to be the pastor who does it. It doesn’t make you a better or more spiritual Christian if you are baptized by any particular servant of the Lord. What matters is that you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, and that He has saved you, and that you publicly declare your allegiance to Him. Paul stressed that he wasn’t sent to baptize, but rather to preach the good news of the gospel so that people would believe on Jesus and be saved and then need to be baptized.

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And with that in mind, look at what Paul says in verse 17. I believe that this is where he gives us …

4. THE HINT AT THE CURE.

How does this divisiveness get corrected? What’s the cure? Paul says, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.” He wanted to take the eyes of the Corinthians off of the teachers—and certainly off their own personal agendas—and place them back on Jesus Christ and on Him crucified.

And dear brothers and sisters; if we place Jesus Christ and His cross first in our hearts and in our vision, then we will view one another differently. We won’t be focusing on the differences or disagreements between us in such a way as to divide ourselves from one another. We will, in fact, be willing to lay aside our own agendas in order to protect our peace and our love or one another. We will do as it says in the great hymn by Isaac Watts:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

We will do as Paul said in verse 10; and “all speak the same thing,” and all so that “there be no divisions” among us, but that we would be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

Paul gave us a wonderful picture of this in Philippians 2. He wrote,

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:1-4).

And pointing to Jesus, he says this;

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (vv. 5-11).

Dear brothers and sisters; let’s make sure that we keep Jesus and His cross ever in our view. And if we do, we won’t tend any longer toward divisions with one another in the body of Christ.

AE