Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
0.58LIKELY
Extraversion
0.58LIKELY
Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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Bulletin Questions
Illustrations
The political division of our country
Aligning with parties
Aligning with party figures
Silly things churches divide over
Thom Rainer’s list?
Illustration
Things churches divide over
Comes from Thom Rainer post
LifeWay Research
Surveys of Southern Baptist churches
A Twitter question: What is the strangest thing that you have witnessed that has caused fighting in a church?
Some usual suspects:
Color of the carpet
Color of walls
The temperature of the building
The order of worship
Some unusual things (these are not made up!):
An argument over the appropriate length of the worship pastor’s beard.
Whether a piece of land should be used for a children’s playground area or a cemetery (!?!) - wonder how these became the two options!
An argument and subsequent vote over whether or not the clock in the sanctuary should be removed.
An argument over whether the church should serve deviled eggs at the church meal.
And my favorite: A fight over using the word “potluck” rather than “pot blessing”!
The church in Corinth
We hear some of the things above
And we may laugh
Or we may cry - because we have experienced something similar ourselves
But we would be wrong if we thought that churches today are the only ones that have this problem
Divisions within the church go all the way back to the New Testament
And churches throughout the ages have dealt with this
But there are things we need to learn - and we will as we continue to look at 1 Corinthians
A Thesis Statement
serves as Paul’s thesis statement for the rest of the letter
It comes as a response to a report that Paul has heard from “Chloe’s people” (v.
11)
Who is Chloe?
We really do not know much about her
This is the only appearance of her name
Likely lived in Ephesus (where Paul wrote this letter) or Corinth (the destination of this letter).
Corinth seems more likely.
Her people are probably her household (family, servants) or her business associates
Paul mentions her name to let the church know that he is not responding to rumors or hearsay, but a direct report from trusted sources
Some things we notice in verse 10:
“I appeal to you...”
This is an urgent request by Paul
The matter of division is an important one to Paul (and the entire New Testament!)
All of 1 Corinthians about bringing unity to a divided church
The main focus of Ephesians is also unity
To bring all things together under Christ
The church is the example and witness to the world of the power of God until this is completed!
Paul tells us in to have nothing to do with a believer who stirs up division
a matter of church discipline
It is that important!
Jesus prays for the unity of his followers in - the high priestly prayer
This is an urgent request by Paul
“By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”
This is the tenth time Paul has used Christ’s name in the first ten verses
He will go on to use it four more times!
He has also emphasized that Christ is “Lord” seven times in the first ten verses
For Christians there is one Lord
It is not Caesar, but Christ
Why does Paul use this repetition?
To emphasize Christ!
To remind these believers that they belong to the community of Christ
As such, they should live accordingly
How they live has a direct impact on the name and reputation of Christ
The way they are currently living does not represent who they belong to
“That all of you agree”
This phrase is literally “speak the same”
Same mind
Same judgement / opinion
What does Paul mean?
At a basic level, that they agree on the gospel message, which Paul will go into further detail about beginning in 1:18
But also, what he states negatively
“That there be no divisions among you” -
Divisions = schismata - means “to tear”
We see the word used elsewhere in places like
The people were divided in their opinions / judgments about Jesus
We are going to see that the church in Corinth was also divided in their opinions
Leaders
The church was divided on their allegiance to their leaders
Notice who the leaders were
Paul
Apollos
Cephas = Peter
Christ
We may be tempted to think that this is a good thing
Apparently though it is not in this instance, but it was a way of causing division
None of these leaders were false teachers!
All of these were good teachers!
So what is the issue?
Making too much of leaders
Elevating leaders to too high a position
The people dividing over their allegiances
Paul asks the question: “Is Christ divided?”
Who was crucified for you?
Whose name were you baptized into?
Of course, the answer is “Christ!”
All believers belong to Christ and are unified in him
The gospel
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