Four Ways to Promote Church Unity - 1 Corinthians 1:10,21-31; 3:9-10,16-17

All of the Apostles were outstanding men; each was unique in his own way but Paul must be the most unforgettable and most appreciated of all the disciples. He was not one of the original dozen Apostles called by Christ who usually said simply “follow” me, and I will make you fishermen of men. He was the one that was struck by lightening [or the Holly Spirit] while on his the highway as he traveled to Damascus in search of Christians which he considered as criminal law breakers. If you will think about his experience on the day of his call, you may decide that this call was the loudest and most demanding call ever received by any man. Paul surrendered immediately and went on to become the leader in establishing new churches. He dedicated the rest of his life on earth to being a church planter.

Not only did he become the most prominent church planter of all time, but he became the most prolific writer of the New Testament. He would establish a new church and move on. Then he would write letters to the churches he had established in order to answer their questions, or give directions in regard to their church government and operations. These letters are rich and interesting, just like this one to the church at Corinth.

You may not have thought about the problems that have arisen because much of the New Testament writings are in the form of “letters” written to a church or to individuals. And there is a reason for the difficulties that have cropped up. You see…a letter is one half of a conversation between two people. A church or a person would write to Paul and ask for his advice regarding some difficulty that they had confronted. Then Paul would write and answer their question or address their problem. WE DO NOT HAVE A COPY OF THE LETTEER HE IS ANSWERING. WE HAVE TO ASSUME WHAT THE PROLEM WAS AND HOW WELL HE ANSWERED THEIR INQUIRY. I realize that Paul’s writings were called epistles, but they appear to me to be more like personal letters.

We also know that Paul did not personally write most of these letters—but he dictated the letters to another person who did the writing. In Romans 16: 22, Tertius was the writer and slipped his own greeting into the letter. In this letter to 1 Corinthians, Paul says it bears his signature [my autograph] so you will know that it comes from me.

As we start our study of the church at Corinth it is important that you know something about the city. Space limits us, but you should know that it was a wicked city with a reputation for commercial prosperity. It was a city with rapid growth at the time and with the combination of rapid growth, prosperity and sin, it made it a difficult city to win for Christ. Paul had not been gone long before he started receiving calls for help from those who were having trouble holding the church together.

Paul makes it very clear in this book that the problem was disunity in the church. He had not been gone long before some began to argue that they should follow Paul…some said Apollos and some Christ. He hammered them hard saying that I did not baptize you…you were baptized into Christ. He makes it plain that he established the CHURCH OF GOD at Corinth—and not the CHURCH OF CORINTH. Paul made it clear that a church divided could not stand.

Wherever Paul went he laid the same foundation. It was that Salvation comes through Christ alone, and there is no other way. Through Christ, man finds forgiveness for past sins and in a new relationship with his Lord. It was that man finds strength for the present and the future: and comes to realize that he can not be sustained by any other power than that of God. Man also will find his hope in Christ for the future including life forever in heaven. You will never be asked a more important question than this: How strong is your hope? Can you see yourself sitting at the right hand of God…in heaven some day soon…at the end of this brief life?

We as Christians are now serving as God’s temple who prepared ourselves to receive the Holly Spirit and give him a place of abode in our hearts daily. But if we choose to introduce dissension and divisions into the fellowship of Christ’s church we are actually destroying the temple of God.

The Spirit can not operate in a divided church! The different divisions will simply become a series of disconnected ruins, and the church as a whole will soon fall. By nature it can not stop criticizing and grow. It will always be disputatious. A divided people cannot remain silent and admire the good that is present…but must talk and criticize and tear down.

The intellectual pride of a split group is usually exclusive and they tend to look down on their opponents, rather than to sit down beside them and worship. The most of us older Christians have gone through a split in a church, and we know how devastating it can be to all concerned. When a split occurs, one of the sides will beseech the other by the Blood of Christ to sit down and realize that it is possible that they just might be mistaken. But I am telling you that this is exactly what intellectual pride cannot think! It can not believe that I am wrong. Men are more likely to be cut off from each other than they are to be reunited. Paul had a problem on his hands. Today’s churches like this have a big problem on their hands.

Paul urged the man who thought he was wise…to be a fool. This is a hard way for me to say that it is important for one who thinks he is wise to realize that he could be wrong and that it is he that needs to learn. Plato once said that no one could teach a man that thinks he already knows everything. I have tried to teach students in school who thought they already knew everything. It is impossible because they will not stop their own thoughts long enough to listen to you get started. There is an old proverb that will do to close this thought. “He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not is a fool: avoid him. He who knows not, and knows that he knows not is a wise man; teach him.” Did you know that the only way you can become wise is to realize that there are some things you do not know. The only way to knowledge is to confess ignorance.

Friends, this I know. My formal public education has taught me how to learn—but formal education has a drawback. It teaches how to learn things you do not need to know even more quickly than it teaches positive things. My bible has taught me the things that I need to know—how to live and let others live by me without imposing myself on them. My bible has taught me how to live in a world or even a Baptist Church when I do not completely agree with others I deal with.

Paul confronted divisions in Christ’s church at Corinth. He tried to solve the problems by teaching them that the church is made up of Christian bodies that serve as the temple of the Holly Spirit: and that if the church tries to worship any thing or anyone else [even Paul or Apollos] they are cultivating a division that will not easily heal.