Go to:
Home Page
Worship
Nurture
Outreach
Colombia Project,
Sermons
Calendar
Committees
Links
Photo Albums,
What's New?
Questions/Comments
Last updated on
March 28, 2005
Chaos in Corinth
Delivered January 23, 2005
by Pastor Werner De Jong
Text: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Main Idea: The unity of the church is found only in her Lord Jesus Christ, and church unity absolutely depends on keeping Jesus central. When anything else becomes the focal point, strife and disunity soon follow.
Purpose: To challenge the listeners to seek unity with all other brothers and sisters in Christ, both within the church and between churches and denominations. To encourage the listeners that they truly are one with all of their sisters and brothers everywhere.
Introduction:
During the month of January many churches around the world celebrate a week of prayer for Christian unity. Here in Petitcodiac we came together for a common worship service with our four local churches two weeks ago. I am a firm believer in such services, for they help us to lift our eyes and see that we are part of a much greater fellowship than our own local church. We are united in Christ with our brothers and sisters here and around the world. It is a great value to keep that perspective. If we lose it, one danger we face is of becoming isolated and inward looking. And then we lose the opportunity of sharing our gifts with one another, gifts that Christ has given us. Then we also miss the opportunity to learn from one another.
I was intrigued to learn that our lectionary reading from 1 Corinthians 1 is on the theme of unity. It reminds us that unity is not only something to seek between churches and denominations; it can be just as necessary to seek unity within a congregation. In fact, it is most important to be united with those who are closest to us. The Psalm we read earlier reminds us that such unity is a beautiful thing: "How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!" If you have ever experienced a warm friendship, a loving marriage, or the understanding support of a community, you know how true these words are. God created us as social people, and life is so much better when we have relationships of mutual love, support and encouragement. A deep unity among human beings is a precious gift. Sometimes it may be taken for granted, until we experience conflict or even a broken relationship with someone close to us, and then we realize all the more what a precious gift unity is.
Unity is ultimately a gift from God. The very reason Jesus came to us was to make it possible for people to be united with God, and through their common experience of God's love and forgiveness, to reconcile to one another. Through a common experience of God's grace people can draw closer to their fellow human beings than they ever imagined could be possible. As Paul put it in his letter to the Ephesians, the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross has resulted in the creation of one new humanity. This consists of people everywhere who have recognized their own sin, their own rebellion against God, their own slavery to selfish living, their own tendency to put their own needs above the needs of others, but who then humbly and joyfully have accepted the marvellous grace and goodness of God through the cross of Jesus Christ. When we place our faith in Jesus, and recognize that he has done everything necessary to provide for our forgiveness and to make a new beginning with God possible, then we also enter into the gift of this new community which God has prepared for us. For the church is the community of forgiven sinners. We are drawn together through our common experience of God's grace. This was all part of God's plan. Just as it makes parents very happy to see their children care for one another and get along, it brings God great joy to see his children united in love.
Paul's Appeal for Unity: Precisely because unity is such a precious gift, it is also a tragedy when it is lost. The church at Corinth faced the very real danger of this very thing. The very reason Paul wrote the letter we know as 1 Corinthians was to urge the believers in Corinth, who were breaking up into various camps, to set aside their differences and reunite as one body. As soon as Paul finishes writing the salutation and thanksgiving at the beginning of this letter, he immediately launches into an appeal for unity: "Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose" (1 Cor. 1:10).
If you want to understand Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, you have to begin with this verse. It sets the tone for all that is to come. The entire letter reveals Paul's great desire that the Christians in Corinth strive to live in harmony with one another. Paul isn't simply asking the believers to try to get along with one another. The harmony the Bible envisions isn't rooted in politeness or social niceties, although such things are important. The harmony the Bible envisions, rather, goes much deeper than that. It is to be rooted in the way in which followers of Christ think about life–Paul is urging the believers in Corinth to think about life in the same way. Or to quote his own words again, Paul urges his readers to "be united in the same mind and the same purpose."
It is absolutely essential for the health of the church that its members share the same world-view. This doesn't mean we all have to agree about everything. But it does mean that we must agree about the overarching purpose of the church. There will be different ways to achieve that purpose, and there will be legitimate debates over how best to achieve it in any given context. Churches can freely debate such matters and still realize a beautiful unity. But if there is no agreement as to who the church is and as to what the church is to do, then there can be no true, deep unity of faith. Who is the church? What is the church to do? In this letter Paul answers both of those questions very clearly: the church is the body of Christ, and the purpose of the church is to bring honour and glory to our Lord who loves us. As the body of Christ, it is the role of the church to make Jesus visible to others. We are to love like Jesus loved, we are to serve like Jesus served, we are to proclaim the kingdom of God like Jesus proclaimed it. When a church keeps Jesus front and centre, a good and pleasant unity is enjoyed by the members. But when Jesus gets shunted off to the side, a spirit of disunity soon begins to settle over a church. And that is exactly what was happening at Corinth. The church was splintering into different groups. Rather than uniting around Jesus, they were dividing into various factions aligned around key personalities.
Paul first got wind of the chaos at Corinth when a group of believers who had visited the city church informed him of the situation there: "For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people," he wrote, "that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,' or ‘I belong to Apollos,' or ‘I belong to Cephas,' or ‘I belong to Christ.'" Here we come to the root of the problem. The church dividing into something like political parties, each with its own figurehead. There were those who claimed to belong to the party of Paul, or the party of Apollos, or the party of Cephas (Peter), or the party of Christ. Instead of working together in the name of Jesus, side by side, encouraging one another, supporting one another, and being intimately involved in each others' lives for the sake of the gospel, the Christians at Corinth were butting heads, trying to establish the superiority of their faction over against the others. In their zeal to elevate their own position, they lost sight of Christ. Even the party which claimed to follow Christ, according to scholars, was probably a fundamentalist group which looked down on the others saying, "We follow Christ better than you do. You're divided and we're not." That is another way to lose sight of Christ, for Jesus is humble and asks us to be humble.
If you were to read through Paul's letter in one sitting, it would became evident that the church at Corinth was as fractious and as raucous a church as you would find anywhere today. For example, the following problems become very evident. First of all, there were lawsuits among the believers in the church, who were taking one another to court. That is scarcely uniting around Jesus, for did not Jesus teach that his followers were to amicably settle their disputes with one another in a spirit of love and self-giving? There was also gross sexual immorality–one man was even sleeping with his stepmother, a repugnant act even by today's lax moral standards, and the divided church wasn't taking any action on it. This too was scarcely honouring the name of Christ, who spoke a strong word against sexual immorality. When a woman caught in the act of adultery was brought to him, he graciously forgave her, but then he also added: "Go and sin no more." The problems at Corinth did not end here. As we read on, we see that the worship services were disorderly–people would get up to speak and cut one another off without taking turns; when they gathered for their fellowship meals, the power players in the church would eat first, while some people left hungry, and other people would get drunk; there was infighting over whether or not to eat food worshipped to idols; and there was a great measure of pride and arrogance with respect to spiritual gifts–those who had the more sensational gifts looked down on those whose gifts were more ordinary. None of this brought any honour or glory to Jesus. Rather it grieved God's heart. The very people God had sent his Son to die for were losing sight of his Son because of their own infighting. When they set Jesus to the side and united around their own special interests, chaos followed.
It is hard to imagine a more messy situation. Not very many pastors today would line up to volunteer to lead such a congregation. But still Paul describes them in the opening verses of his letter as "the church of God," and he is thankful to God for the grace that has been given the church, in Christ Jesus. Those are profound words. It is a startling picture of God's grace that such a rumbustious group of people, with all of their troubles and struggles, are still considered God's people. God didn't accept them, not does God accept us, based on ethical progress or degrees of perfection; rather, God accepts people through faith in Jesus Christ.
The remarkable thing about the believers at Corinth is that they are actually described in verse 2 as "those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus." God revealed Jesus to them through the preaching of the gospel, and they accepted Christ by faith, and then God declared them holy and set them apart for special service in his kingdom. And despite their obvious difficulties, they are still considered holy in God's eyes. It is not the main point of this message, but it is a wonderful picture of the grace of God, which reaches out to us where we are, and accepts us, not based on our own merit, but based on the merit of Jesus.
None of that is to say that any of their scandalous behaviour was at all pleasing to God. To the contrary, Paul makes it absolutely clear that their actions are a terrible affront to their holy God, whose Son died not only to offer forgiveness for their sins, but to set them free from their sins. Paul insists that they must turn away from wrongdoing. Why? Precisely because they are the holy people of God. The challenge is to live up to their calling. As people whom God has freely loved and forgiven, how can they keep living as if all that God did for them didn't matter? The appeal is to remember the cross of Christ, to reunite in a common unity around the Lord who loved them and laid down his life for them.
Disunity Today: What does any of this have to do with us today? Our church is certainly not like the church at Corinth. We can be thankful for that! But we must not be too quick to rush to judgment and to point out how foolish they were. They certainly were foolish. But if we rush to judgment we may fail to see our own tendency or temptation to take our eyes off of Christ and to pursue some another agenda.
It can happen so easily. Whenever we rally around a certain cause, or a certain leader who promotes that cause, the cause can become more important than Christ. Especially if someone else is promoting a different cause. Then it is so easy to say, "Wait a minute, my cause is more important," and as soon as we say that we betray the fact that we have taken our eyes off of Jesus. For we are not to pursue our own cause, it is never to be "my cause," rather we are to pursue the cause of Christ, which is the kingdom of God.
Today there are many different church denominations. Some Christians consider themselves evangelicals, others prefer to think of themselves more as social activists. Some are charismatic, others are more contemplative. Some worship with guitars and drums, others with pianos and organs. Unfortunately sometimes a great deal is made out of these differences. It is so tempting to try to make ourselves feel special by pointing out how we do things the right way or how others do things the wrong way. But as long as we love the same Lord, and have committed our lives to him, then these differenced don't matter. If we have the Spirit of God living in us through our faith in Jesus Christ we are brothers and sisters, and the bonds that unite us are far, far, infinitely and eternally far greater than the areas where we may differ. Here in Petitcodiac we have many dear brothers and sisters in the Baptist, Anglican and United Churches. We may not know them all well now, but we will spend eternity together with them. And from the perspective of eternity, from God's perspective, there is only one church, there is only one body of Christ, which consists of people the world over who confess Jesus as Lord and desire to serve him with an undying love.
Basis of Unity: The key question is this: why do we come together? What unites us? Is it a common loyalty to Jesus Christ? That is what Paul hoped and prayed for the Corinthians. Jesus is our Lord, and we are his body. We exist because of the love of Christ, and we exist to bring him honour and glory. As his body, whether locally or globally, there is certainly a place to emphasize certain distinctives and to advocate for certain causes, provided they are part of the greater cause of the kingdom of God. Different gifts are needed to build God's kingdom, just as different gifts are needed to build a house. And we can celebrate those gifts. As long as the church keeps Jesus central, a wonderful unity will result, even if we express our faith a little differently. But if anything else is allowed to take centre place, disunity will inevitably result. When we start to look down on those who are drawn to another expression of the Christian faith, whether in our church or between churches, we grieve our Lord because it shows we have forgotten the loving sacrifice which was intended to make us one.
It cannot be stated often enough that there can be no other basis for Christian unity than Christ. We must do everything we can to protest against a party spirit within the church, and between churches. For the church does not revolve around us, nor does it revolve around her human leaders. Rather, the church revolves around her one true Lord, and leaders and laity alike are to be of the same mind and purpose in their desire to glorify him.
When we put Jesus first, and remember his love for us, it becomes apparent how trivial it is to advocate for any special interest group over and against another. We share in common the wonderful experience of God's love. Why would we then want to promote ourselves above others whom God also loves? We are brothers and sisters, members of the same body. It has been well pointed out that the church is like an orchestra. People play different instruments, but they are meant to harmonize with one another, and to produce a beautiful symphony. This week I was speaking with one of the local Baptist pastors, and the theme of unity came up. He said to me: "I think the church is like Neapolitan ice cream. We are all different flavours, but when you put them together, they taste great!" Whichever metaphor you prefer, the important thing is the wonderful truth that we are one with all believers over the whole world.
The goodness of unity: A gift worth nourishing: Because unity is a precious gift from God, it is well worth our efforts to nourish it. Like any precious gift, the gift of unity will become tarnished if neglected. But if attention is given to it, the gift will shine with the life giving love of God. I think of our brothers and sisters in Colombia. We have a warm, growing relationship with them, but it has taken a lot of work from many people to make it possible. If we want to enjoy the gift of unity, whether with Colombia or in our own congregation or between our local churches, we need to be willing to make such an effort. For relationship building takes time. A good marriage takes work. So does a good friendship. And so does unity within the body of Christ. But we know it is possible, for Christ our Lord died to make us one. No matter what their background is people around the world find a common meeting place in the grace of God. Therefore let us do everything we can to seek and promote true Christian unity, both within our own church, and between our Mennonite churches, and between denominations. For together we all represent the glorious body of Christ. That is our truest identity. May we serve our Lord with joy, and may we nourish and enjoy the unity he gives us. Amen.