Why Division is Deadly
Intro:
The recipients were primarily “the church of God in Corinth” (see Acts 20:28; 2 Cor 1:1). Generally, however, the letter was addressed to “all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2)
9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Fee draws a modern-day parallel by suggesting that “Paul’s Corinth was at once the New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas of the ancient world.”
In a nutshell, Paul teaches them (and us) how to live in this present world in community with other believers and in relation to unbelievers in light of the age to come
Here we meet a church that faces issues much like the ones we face. How are we to handle disagreements among God’s people? What does a Christian sexual ethic look like when promiscuity is the cultural norm? In what ways does the gospel shape the institution of marriage? How should we relate to the cultural customs and practices of those with whom we disagree on matters of faith? How can the gospel tear down barriers that we have built between others and ourselves? We could go on.
1:13 Three rhetorical questions reveal that it is absurd to proclaim loyalty to individual teachers, because (1) there is only one Messiah; (2) Paul was not crucified and thus is the basis of no one’s salvation; and (3) believers are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ—not in the name of Paul (Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5; see Matt 28:19).
In 6:9, 10, Paul lists some of the specific sins for which the city was noted and which formerly had characterized many believers in the church there.
As the letter proceeds, however, it becomes clear that the main basis for division derives from differences of social stratification within the congregations. One type of ancient speech (known as a homonoia speech) lamented divisions and called for unity; Paul’s readers would immediately recognize the nature of his argument.
1:13 Three rhetorical questions reveal that it is absurd to proclaim loyalty to individual teachers, because (1) there is only one Messiah; (2) Paul was not crucified and thus is the basis of no one’s salvation; and (3) believers are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ—not in the name of Paul (Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5; see Matt 28:19).
wrong living always stems from wrong belief.
The church was a picture of converts who had come out of this background (see 1 Cor 6:11). The church had several problems, among them a leadership problem producing divisions in the church (1:10–17). Immoral practices were not being dealt with (5:1–6:20). An enthusiastic group in the church flaunted their spiritual gifts (12:1–14:40). A legalistic group was concerned about dietary laws (8:1–10:32). Some were abusing the Lord’s Supper (11:17–34), and others were offering false teachings regarding the resurrection (15:1–58). These matters—in addition to its multiethnic makeup of Greeks, Romans, and Jews and a mixture of social classes including rich, poor, and slave—made for a unique and troubled congregation.
If you want to know what Corinth was like, read Romans 1:18–32. Paul wrote the Roman epistle while in Corinth, and he could have looked out the window and seen the very sins that he listed!
Apollos, we know from Acts 18:24–28, was a gifted orator. Perhaps those inclined to be impressed with lofty rhetoric and speculative wisdom rallied around him.
Surely the most striking feature of this thanksgiving is how positive Paul can be about a church torn with strife and abuses of the very gifts he thanks God for having given its members.
The word “divisions” (schismata, literally “tears” or “cracks”) graphically conveys the idea of the dissensions that were rending the church. He makes this exhortation through (dia) the authority of Jesus Christ (10a), whose name they revere.
“Fellowship” means much more in Greek than it does in current English idiom. In Pauline usage the term carries the idea of participation and sharing, expressed also as being “in Christ.” Their calling into participation with the Son sets the stage for the opening exhortation of the letter body to follow in 1:10, where Paul addresses the looming problem of a divided church, which is the antithesis of those called into intimate union with God’s Son.
But the genitive of a person is more likely to be subjective and we should accept fellowship with his Son as the meaning (Ellicott thinks it is both, fellowship ‘in Him and with Him’). The word is the direct opposite of ‘divisions’ in v. 10. It is fellowship with (and in) Christ to which we are called, not divisions from one another.
10. The adversative conjunction de, ‘but’ (which NIV omits) sets what follows in contrast to the preceding. So far from fellowship being realized there is division.
The basis of Paul’s appeal for unity is a report received from Chloe’s household regarding “quarrels among you.” The mention of the informants gives credibility to the report.
The appeal to unity, however, is not an appeal to uniformity at all costs. There is no room for disagreement on the fundamental nature of the gospel, which is the heart of Paul’s argument to follow in 1:18–4:13.
The call to unity is linked tightly and logically to the previous section where Paul reminded the Corinthians that they not only number themselves among others who call up the name of the Lord (1:2), but that they also were called by God into fellowship with his Son (1:9). Their disunity is the very antithesis of their fellowship with the Son and status as God’s holy people.
Quarrels are a part of life. We grow up in them and around them. Infants are quick to express displeasure when they are not given something they want or when something they like is taken away. Little children cry, fight, and throw tantrums because they cannot have their own ways. We argue and fight over a rattle, then a toy, then a football, then a position on the football team or in the cheerleading squad, then in business, the PTA, or politics. Friends fight, husbands and wives fight, businesses fight, cities fight, even nations fight—sometimes to the point of war. And the source of all the fighting is the same: man’s depraved, egoistic, selfish nature.
Writing to fellow Christians, James asks, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1–2). The cause for all conflicts, quarrels, and fighting is selfish desire.
Quarreling is a reality in the church because selfishness and other sins are realities in the church. Because of quarreling the Father is dishonored, the Son is disgraced, His people are demoralized and discredited, and the world is turned off and confirmed in unbelief. Fractured fellowship robs Christians of joy and effectiveness, robs God of glory, and robs the world of the true testimony of the gospel. A high price for an ego trip!
In His high priestly prayer the Lord prayed repeatedly that His church would be one (John 17:11, 21–23). The implication of the oneness of nature and communion with God for which He prayed for His disciples was a “fleshed out” oneness in life.
“day by day continuing with one mind in the temple … praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46–47). Their unity bore great fruit in their ministry to each other, in their witness to the world, and in their pleasing and glorifying God.
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to agree, to eliminate divisions, and to be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. Because they were one in fellowship with their Lord, they should be one in fellowship with each other. Their unity in Jesus Christ was the basis for Paul’s appeal for unity among themselves.
Christ’s name represents all that He is, His character and His will. To pray “in Jesus’ name” is not to expect God to bow to our wishes or demands simply because we use that phrase. To pray in His name is to pray in accordance with His Word and His will.
Philippians 1:27, where Paul exhorts believers to stand “firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”
At Corinth the four groups centered around four prominent leaders. First, there were those who claimed to be special adherents of Paul, possibly because of his emphasis on the ministry to the Gentiles, a ministry with which many of them were connected. Then there were those following Apollos, enamored of that learned and eloquent preacher from Alexandria (Acts 18:24; 19:1, Titus 3:13). The followers of Cephas (Peter’s Aramaic name John 1:42) were no doubt impressed by this apostle’s emphasis on the Jews. Possibly they connected him with the Judaizers. The mention of the “Christ” party suggests that some Corinthians claimed special relationship to Christ (2 Cor 10:7), or placed a special emphasis on him—an emphasis they felt the followers of Paul, Apollos, and Cephas had neglected or did not have.
It is virtually synonymous with the next phrase, “called to be holy.” Paul is reminding the Corinthians of their overarching purpose in the Christian life.
It is this truth that Paul wanted to get across to the Corinthians, because they were guilty of glorying in men (1 Cor. 3:21). If we glory in men—even godly men like Peter and Paul and Apollos—we are robbing God of the glory that He alone deserves. It was this sinful attitude of pride that was helping to cause division in the church.
Pastoral elders should make decisions on the basis of unanimous agreement. Not even a three-fourths vote should carry a motion. No decision should be made without total one-mindedness, no matter how long that takes. Because the Holy Spirit has but one will, and because a church must be in complete harmony with His will, the leaders must be in complete harmony with each other in that will. The congregation then is to submit to the elders because it has confidence that the elders’ decisions are made under the Spirit’s direction and power. Because they believe the elders are one in the Spirit, the congregation is then determined to be one with the elders. There may be struggle in coming to this kind of unity, as there was in Corinth—but it is here mandated by the Spirit Himself through Paul.
Made complete is the Greek katartizō, used in classical Greek as well as in the New Testament to speak of mending such things as nets, bones, dislocated joints, broken utensils, and torn garments. The basic meaning is to put back together, to make one again something that was broken or separated. Christians are to be made complete (“perfectly joined together,” KJV), both internally (in the same mind) and externally (in the same judgment). In our individual minds and among ourselves we are to be one in beliefs, standards, attitudes, and principles of spiritual living.
1:10. Paul appealed to brothers, not to adversaries, in the most authoritative fashion, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the 10th reference to Christ in the first 10 verses, leaving no doubt as to the One Paul believed should be the source and focus of Corinthian unity. His appeal was for harmony, not the elimination of diversity. He desired a unity of all the parts, like a quilt of various colors and patterns blended together in a harmonious whole.
1:4. However prone the Corinthians may have been to self-exaltation, it was because of God’s grace alone that they were members of the body which existed in Christ Jesus.
joined together. The basic idea is that of putting back together something that was broken or separated so it is no longer divided. The term is used in both the NT and in classical Gr. to speak of mending such things as nets, broken bones or utensils, torn garments, and dislocated joints. Cf. Rom. 16:17; Phil. 1:27. same mind … same judgment. Cf. Phil 3:15, 16. The demand is for unity internally in their individual minds and externally in decisions made among themselves—unified in truth by beliefs, convictions, standards, and in behavior by applied principles of living (Acts 4:32; Eph. 4:3). The only source of such unity is God’s Word which establishes the standard of truth on which true unity rests.
brothers and sisters. Reminds the Corinthians that they are one single family and is the basis for the exhortation to unity: a harmoniously functioning family. Paul’s appeal is based not on his personal opinion but on the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the congregation.
Though Paul founded the church (4:15; 9:2), when he thinks of the church, he gives thanks to God because the church is not his work but God’s work (3:5–17), the result of God granting grace to sinners (2 Cor 4:15) in Christ Jesus, i.e., through the death and resurrection of Jesus, Israel’s Messiah (2:2; 15:3–7).
that God’s people possess the resources needed for spiritual growth and transformation. We are united to Christ (“in Christ Jesus”; vv. 2, 4). We share fellowship with him and with God as our Father (vv. 3, 9). As a result, we receive the blessings of grace, peace, and the gifts of the Spirit (vv. 3–7)
Paul expresses his displeasure over the situation in a series of three questions that function to show the absurdity of their attachment to human leaders: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?”
The disunity of the church of Jesus Christ remains one of the greatest scandals which compromises its witness today. In John 17, Jesus prayed that his disciples might be united. In Ephesians 3, Paul expounds the unity of the church across the greatest sociological divisions of the ancient Middle East—Jew versus Gentile. The evangelistic potential of a united church extends to the most powerful anti-Christian forces in the universe (Eph. 3:9–10). The only way this unity can have an impact on a non-Christian world is for it to be visible.
(3) There were those who claimed to belong to Cephas. Cephas is the Jewish form of Peter’s name. These were most probably Jews, and they sought to teach that Christians must still observe the Jewish law. They were legalists who exalted law, and, by so doing, belittled grace.
small and rigid sect who claimed that they were the only true Christians in Corinth. Their real fault was not in saying that they belonged to Christ, but in acting as if Christ belonged to them. It may well describe a little, intolerant, self-righteous group.
The word is the direct opposite of ‘divisions’ in v. 10. It is fellowship with (and in) Christ to which we are called, not divisions from one another.
But the genitive of a person is more likely to be subjective and we should accept fellowship with his Son as the meaning (Ellicott thinks it is both, fellowship ‘in Him and with Him’). The word is the direct opposite of ‘divisions’ in v. 10. It is fellowship with (and in) Christ to which we are called, not divisions from one another.
In short, Paul introduces in verses 10–17 the key for promoting unity and avoiding divisiveness—focusing on Christ rather than exalting human leaders. In so doing, we are driven to the cross, which should also promote humility rather than arrogance and rivalry
Virtually the entire letter of 1 Corinthians, beginning with 1:10, deals with wrong doctrine and wrong behavior. It seems that nearly every serious doctrinal and moral error imaginable could be found within that congregation. Yet Paul begins the letter by calling them saints. In practice they were gross sinners, but in position they were pure saints. We should note that there were, no doubt, some in the church who were not saints at all, who were unbelievers (16:22).
It is important for every Christian to keep in mind the great difference between his position and his practice, his standing and his state. God sees us as righteous, because He sees us through His righteous Son, who has taken our place, and because He has planted in us a righteous new nature. Without keeping this important and encouraging truth in mind, it is impossible to clearly understand 1 Corinthians or any other part of the New Testament.
Presidents do not always act presidentially, diplomats do not always act diplomatically, kings do not always act kingly—but they are still presidents, diplomats, and kings. Christians do not always act like Christians, but they are still Christians.
The main thrust of the letter is exhortation for pure, godly living. But Paul’s foundation for this exhortation is the fact of the believers’ sainthood, their having been sanctified by Christ because of their trust in Him. Because they have been declared holy and have been given a holy nature, he pleads, they should act holy. The indicative “you are” is the basis for the imperative “you ought,” a basic principle taught throughout the New Testament.
Paul takes the first nine verses of 1 Corinthians to show believers who they are—saints, holy ones, sanctified ones. The rest of the letter is built on this foundation. “You are holy; therefore act holy. Live a life commensurate with who you are.”
In 1:4–9 Paul summarizes the benefits of believing in Christ, of being a saint. The benefits have three dimensions. Some are past, given the moment we accept Christ as Savior and Lord. Others are present, worked out as we live our lives in Him. Still others are future, to be experienced only when we go to be with Him in heaven. In the past there is grace, in the present there are gifts, and for the future there are guarantees. Our past is already taken care of, our present is provided for, and our future is assured.
Grace involves unmerited, undeserved, and permanent forgiveness. Grace can operate only where there is sin. Without need of forgiveness there is no need of grace.
When we get a hold of this picture of the gospel, we will know how to love people more and need people less. It will give us the substance that we so desperately long to have. We are in union with Christ, just as he is in union with the Father and the Spirit in the Godhead. People do not need to become objects for us to use for our own benefit. The wealth that we have in the gospel will empower us to give sacrificially without expecting anything in return. This power of the upside-down gospel will have a shaping power on our vertical and horizontal harmony.
He wishes them to be knit together, a medical word used of knitting together bones that have been fractured, or joining together a joint that has been dislocated. The disunion is unnatural and must be cured for the sake of the health and efficiency of the body of the Church.
One of the outstanding features of this particular thanksgiving is the remarkable optimism that precedes Paul’s response to divisions in the church (1:10–4:21), an incident of egregious immorality (5:1–13), civil litigation before the unrighteous (6:1–11), libertine attitudes toward sexual immorality and idolatry (6:12–20; 8:1–11:1), a deficient understanding of the function of spiritual gifts in building up the church (12:1–14:40), and the denial by some of the resurrection of the dead (15:12)
First Corinthians 1:8 is truly a remarkable statement since the Corinthians were anything but blameless in their behavior! Yet, Paul’s anticipation of their blameless standing on the Day of the Lord is entirely consistent with their present status as “called saints,” and as those “set apart in Christ” (1:2), and his confidence was grounded in God’s faithfulness (1:9). Paul expressed the same kind of confidence in his thanksgiving for the believers in Philippi, “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6) and prayed for them to be “pure and blameless until the day of Christ” (Phil 1:10).
Observe the apostle’s fivefold repetition of the name of Jesus Christ in this brief section. All of salvation—past, present, and future—is based on Christ’s redemptive work. And he is coming again!
Paul looks for them to be perfectly united, where his verb is used of restoring anything to its right condition. It is used of mending nets (Matt. 4:21), and of supplying what is lacking in the faith of the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 3:10). The condition of the Corinthian church was far from what it should have been. Restorative action was demanded. Paul looks to them to come to be perfectly united in mind and thought. The two words do not differ greatly, but mind may mean ‘frame of mind’ and thought ‘opinion’.
This is because, whatever the precise nature or source of the divisions in Corinth, the core problem was a misunderstanding of the nature of the gospel, what it means to be “spiritual,” and, relatedly, a false conception of Christian ministry. Indeed, “The most astonishing feature of 1:18–4:21 is its clear implication that even the self-styled ‘spiritual’ who had presumably begun with the cross had come to regard it, in effect, as foolish.”
“perfectly united” carries with it the notion of reconciliation that brings about the restoration of relationships. “Mind” and “thought” are probably synonymous terms in this context21 and anticipate Paul’s emphasis in the ensuing argument on God’s wisdom expressed in the gospel. He wants them to embrace the “mind of Christ” (cf. 2:16), that is, to take up a perspective conditioned by the cross.
In Phil 2:1–11 Paul expresses the same idea in exhorting the church at Philippi to “think” in a certain way, that is, to be like-minded” (Phil 2:2), and to take up the humble attitude of Christ (Phil 2:5–8)
What is crystal clear is that a party spirit plagued the church in Corinth, and their boasting in men contradicted the very essence of the gospel. The root problem was pride, the worst of sins, especially for those identified with a crucified Christ.
Paul explains that he refused to preach according to human wisdom “lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” It is quite astounding to imagine that how Paul preached, or that his underlying motivations in preaching, would have rendered his preaching ineffectual. For Paul, the effectiveness of proclamation lay not in the manipulative rhetorical devices of the speaker but rather in the persuasive message of the cross proclaimed in the power of the Spirit (2:1–5).