Has Christ been divided?John Farley
Pastor-Teacher Sunday, March 24, 2019
Has Christ been divided?What goal did God have when He inspired Paul to write God’s purpose was to restore and reunite the saints, SO THAT… God poured the full measure of His grace into the saints at Corinth. For what purpose? 1Co 1:4-9 This will give all the glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. God will use any means necessary to get us across the finish line! Were the saints to remain in their divisions and ugly fleshliness, … they would fail in their calling, and the message of the gospel would be discredited. It wasn’t simply the fleshly sin itself. It’s what the sin revealed about them. 1Co 6:15-20 “Do you not know?” They had been given great gifts of knowledge, but they were still ignorant. Christ redeemed them not only to wipe away their sins but also so they would glorify God in their bodies. There was much more at stake than Paul wanting the saints to get along with each other. The growth and spread of the gospel message was at stake. 1Co 1:10-17 Verse 10 is the topic sentence for this paragraph. And this paragraph presents the theme for the letter. katartizo What does Paul mean by the same mind? 1Co 2:16 When we are united because we are likeminded, and we are likeminded because we are thinking like Christ, that’s when we will be united in God’s purpose for us. Each man was pledging allegiance to his own apostle or teacher, or his independence from any teacher at all. Christ chose Paul to be His apostle, and Christ sent Paul to Corinth. These people were not inclined to be obedient to Paul’s teachings and instructions. They were not simply rejecting Paul – they were rejecting what he preached. So by rejecting Paul and his message, they were rejecting Christ and His message. You make an issue of men. Apollos was more gifted. He was eloquent, mighty in the Scriptures, and fervent in spirit (Acts 18:24-25) Cephas (the apostle Peter) had walked with Christ. He had been an apostle before Paul. Paul was with them in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And he did not come with superiority in speech or in wisdom. He asks the brethren three ridiculous questions. Follow your thinking to its logical conclusion and this is where you end up. You are making men the issue instead of Christ! In verses 14-16, we learn that “who baptized whom” had become a point of contention for the brethren. You are over there fighting about baptism, which only makes the divisions worse. Meanwhile, you are oblivious to the real purpose of your calling. Let’s get back to the business of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Your only boast should be in the LORD (1co 1:31). Cleverness of speech actually robs the preaching of the gospel of its power. If you keep interfering with Paul’s apostleship to preach the gospel, you are making the cross of Christ void. Of no effect. What is God’s purpose for us? What are the threats to our unity, and what has God given us in His word to deal with these threats?
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