1 Cor 1:10-17

1 Corinthians Series: Hope and Help for the Struggling Church

A House Divided Cannot Stand

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. ¹¹My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹²What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? ¹⁴I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. ¹⁶(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

When we were looking for a house in Viroqua, our realtor was surprised to hear that I would be helping a new church get started. She said that the churches in Viroqua were like branches of a tree that divide off from one another. She did not seem too impressed with the local church scene. Most of you are aware that Viroqua has a history of church divisions and church splits—many of you know that all too painfully. So tell me, how does it strike you when Paul begins his letter to the Corinthians by sternly warning them against church divisions? Do his words have a ring of authenticity and importance to you? They should be that way to all of us, because even though our church is not currently struggling with church divisions, we live and minister in a spiritual environment where people change churches like they change their bed sheets. More than most other communities, we need to be on guard against church divisions and splits. I wish that church conflict was an oxymoron, but in reality church conflicts are inevitable. In fact, if you never have some conflicts it may mean that your church is trapped in a passive, milquetoast kind of Christianity where nothing of eternal value ever happens. But it is right to be warned of and prepared for the inevitably of conflict. Like this sign, the beginning of Paul’s letter is like danger sign warning of upcoming trouble.

The trouble is spelled out clearly—there were divisions and quarrels among the Corinthian believers that threatened to cause great harm to the church. Paul received a report from a woman named Chloe and he did not like what he heard. The church was divided into at least four factions: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” This sounds a little bit too much like Viroqua! It’s worse than just one faction against another, but the church was divided into at least four camps. Some owed their loyalty to Paul. This makes perfect sense seeing that Paul was the missionary pioneer and founder of the church in Corinth. Many of the believers in Corinth rejected Paul’s authority would be happy to never hear from him again, but some in the church were ardent followers.

There was a second division who followed Apollos. How many die-hard Apollos disciples are there ere this morning? Most of us don’t even know who this man Apollos was, let alone understand the controversy. This passage from Acts 18 is most of what we kmow about Apollos.

²⁴ Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. ²⁵He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. ²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. ²⁷When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. ²⁸For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Apollos was a smart, bold convert to Christianity who was out preaching the gospel even though he didn’t know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. After the church in Corinth was established, Apollos was sent there to strengthen and disciple the young church. We could say that Paul founded the Corinthian church and Apollos was its first pastor. He appears to have been a powerful preacher who quickly attracted a following in Corinth.

A third faction claimed Peter as their leader. We cannot be sure why they chose Peter since he was an apostle to the Jews and as far as we know did not have any part in helping the church in Corinth. Perhaps a group followed him because unlike Paul and Apollos, Peter was one the of the original twelve disciples. This group assumed that Peter was closer to Christ and was therefore a better choice to follow.

The fourth faction was those who claimed Christ as their primary leader. When you first read this the natural questions is, “What’s wrong with that—aren’t we all supposed to follow Christ?” The answer is, yes, of course we are supposed to follow Christ, but the fact that Paul saw this as a harmful division proves that this group were not really seeking to follow Jesus. They were just using Jesus as a tool for their own spiritual pride. This whole problem of divisions is like a first century card game. Imagine a deck of cards with church leaders on the face. Someone begins the game by lying down their Paul card. They think they have won the game until a second player puts their Apollos card on top and claims that the Apollos card is better than their Paul card. Then a third player pulls out their Peter card and proclaims to be the winner because Peter is clearly superior to the latecomers Paul and Apollos. Finally a fourth player lays down their Jesus card and immediately declares to be the winner because no one can possibly top Jesus. To these people, Jesus was not a savior to be worshipped, he was just the ultimate trump card. This group was claiming what I call the spiritual high ground. If you claim to follow Jesus, even if you are not, it serves to shut down the debate. This divisiveness was so great that you can almost hear the sarcasm and childish bickering—“Oh yeah, you think Paul and Peter are so great—but we follow Jesus—so there!” It’s no wonder Paul labeled it as quarreling.

This is the truly frightening thing about church conflict—every side is convinced that they are right. Think about the church splits in our area. In almost every church split, two sides can be easily identified. On one side you have the church leadership who is taking the church in one direction and on the other side you have church members who disagree with the leadership and want to go another direction. In all of your church experience, have you ever heard either side of a conflict claiming to be following Satan and worldly desires? No—each side always takes the spiritual high ground and is absolutely convinced that God is on their side. Each side plays Jesus and the Bible as the ultimate trump card. So you end up with factions marching in the streets waving their placards—“we follow the Baptists”—“we follow the Pentecostals”—“we follow the Free Church”—and of course some signs read—“we follow Jesus.” The name of Jesus is claimed on every side, but Jesus is not being followed nor is he pleased with this sickening nonsense.

Now let me be clear—if you know me at all you realize that I am not one of these “unity at all costs” kinds of people. For the sake of the integrity of the gospel, sometimes church divisions are necessary, but the majority of church factions are similar to what Paul described in Corinth—they are man-centered, success-oriented, image-conscious problems that are boiling over with pride. And we wonder why unbelievers are not attracted to our party. The divisions in Corinth were not about core theological issues. These were not debates about the deity of Christ or the necessity of Christ for salvation. In terms of core beliefs, the followers of Paul completely agreed with the followers of Apollos, Peter and Jesus. They were completely unified in their beliefs but divided by prideful factions.

You have to give Paul a lot of credit here. Even though he founded the church in Corinth, he knew that he was not well liked by many in the church. They were challenging his authority and essentially stabbing him in the back. Then he receives a report informing him of a certain faction in Corinth that were totally loyal to him. Suddenly he learns that he has some die-hard groupies in the city. A lesser man would have tried to take advantage of this group loyalty. He could have sent secret letters to his followers and encouraged them to hold secret meetings. He could have written letters defaming Apollos as being an usurper of authority and a young hot-shot preacher. He could have rallied his troops and attempted a spiritual coup in Corinth to become the top leader once again. A lesser man would have done this, but not Paul. Instead he said I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

We should commend Paul for his restraint and humility in making the right choice. As a parent, do you find it is easier to correct bad behavior in your children or to commend good behavior? As a husband or wife, are you more critical of your spouse or would your spouse say you are filled with encouragement? I think most people have a more difficult time giving praise than they do correction. Correction flows like a river while praise drips like a leaky faucet, but this should not be. We should go out of our way to catch others making right choices. I’ll never forget a story Dennis Rainey told about this son. His son was tempted to view a pornographic magazine, but his son refused to look. When Dennis heard about his son’s decision he went nuts—but in a good way. He started jumping up and down and telling his son how proud he was for making that hard choice. When Dennis was done, there was no question that the son knew that his dad was pleased with his decision. When the people around you make Christ-honoring decisions, please tell them you noticed. This applies to every relationship, but I think it is especially true for parents and their children. The Bible says that there is a party in heaven when one sinner repents. In a similar way, we should have many small celebrations when we see fellow believers making Christ-driven decisions on a daily basis.

But some of you might be thinking, “Why all this warning about church factions? We don’t have any problems like this at Grace Church.” Thank the Lord we don’t have these problems at the moment, but don’t forget this sign. We need to be warned of possible divisions before they occur. Do you know what two of the most common reasons for church conflicts are? Other than theological conflicts, issues surrounding worship is probably the number one reason for division and running a close second would be church building projects. Guess what we are starting—a church building project! Moving toward our own church facility can be one of the most faith-stretching, God-honoring ventures of our lives, but it can also be a horrible, faith-damaging experience if we are not careful.

We appreciate those of you who turned in building surveys. Based upon the answers given, everyone realizes that any facility we build will be modest and simple. Let me give a few observations about the surveys. There were two questions in the survey where there was obvious disagreement—whether or not to have a basement and whether or not to sell or trade any of our ten acres of land. First of all, let me say that this is exactly the kind of helpful feedback we need at this stage. We haven’t finalized decisions about these things and we need all the input we can get. I just found it interesting that both issues were about split down the middle. Like most split decisions, some opinions are loosely held. A “no basement” person could easily switch to a ”basement” person and visa versa. A “keep the land” opinion could become a “sell the land” opinion, and visa versa. Right now varying opinions are welcome and encouraged, but the warning to us is to realize that eventually some opinions are going to be chosen in favor of others. Right now it is fine to say you are of the basement camp or of the no basement camp, but for example, what will the “no basement” people do if the church votes to build a basement? What will the “keep the ten acres” people do if the church votes to get rid of 5 acres?

An even more pressing decision that was not on the survey is in regard to the capital campaign. In about six weeks the members will vote about whether or not to use the services of our denomination’s Ministry Campaign Services or not. As a body, are we convinced that we can run a successful campaign on our own or do we think we could benefit from outside counsel and accountability? Please carefully look over the bulletin insert and make sure all your questions get answered. But the most important question is, what will you do if the vote does not go your way? Will you give up your right to be right and gladly go along with the group? Will you stir up trouble and try to sabotage the process? Will you take your ball and go play somewhere else? Let’s be clear about one thing: decisions about land, basements and financing are not found in the Bible, but principle about pride, love and unity are. Scripture does not instruct us about basements, but Scripture does command us to love our brother and sister in Christ and to maintain unity. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not chastising anyone because we don’t have any conflicts or divisions right now. Neither am I saying that such divisions will definitely happen, but I do think it is well worth our time to give proper warnings and encouragement before we go any further in the process. I can guarantee you that God cares just as much about the process as he does about the results. If we cannot maintain a ministry of love while we build the building, what makes us think we will have a ministry of love once we are in the building? Paul’s famous chapter on love does not come until chapter thirteen, but much of the motivation and context for that chapter was borne out of these harmful church factions—all of which were the opposite of love. I hope that you are excited about the road that lies ahead of us. Can we agree on one thing right now? Let us all commit to having a love-based building program. When we get done are have our first service in the new building, Lord willing, what if we were able to look back and say, “I really like our new building, but I really love the people sitting in it.”

Rich Maurer

July 9, 2006