Is Christ Divided?
God's word can be of benefit to us only to the extent that we are prepared in our hearts to receive it and be benefitted by it. If we are able to brush aside our prejudices, our preconceived ideas and notions, our inherited ideas of religion, and come to the word of God with readiness of mind to receive it, willing to prove all things by it, to let every question and doubt be settled and resolved in accordance with what God has said, then surely it will be a blessing to us. We must be governed and guided by it in our obedience and in our lives.
Paul once wrote to a congregation of Christians, a church which had been established by the preaching of the gospel, to men and women who had been taught to follow the Lord, but who had allowed various things to enter into their life, and so had destroyed the unity which ought to have existed. He wrote, "Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I mean, that each one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul? I thank God I baptized none of you save Crispus and Gaius; lest any man should say that ye were baptized into my name." (1 Cor. 1:10-15.)
The brethren in Corinth had begun to glory in men rather than in the Lord, to praise and put their trust in human wisdom rather than in the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result division and dissension, strife and sectarianism had entered into the congregation; various factions and sects were in the making. Some were saying they were followers of Paul; others declared they were followers of the eloquent Apollos; while still others declared themselves loyal to Cephas, and some were saying they were followers of Christ. Here was denominationalism, at least in embryonic form. If this strife continued and ripened, open division and the formation of sectarian bodies would become inevitable.
The first four chapters of this first Corinthian letter deal with the problem of factionalism and sectarianism which had entered the Corinthian church. Frankly and openly Paul brings into public view the fact of their threatening division. He does not keep it under cover; he does not deny it; he dies not seek to deal with it in some indirect fashion. On the contrary, he confronts them all with it in plain and simple language; and he tells them why it exists among them, and warns them of the certain and inescapable judgment which shall befall them unless correction is made. "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye." (1 Cor. 3:16-17.) If they are willing to tear up and divide and destroy the church of God by their dissensions and strife, they must be made to know that the heavy judgment of God shall rest upon them. God's temple is the church. The house is not the temple in which God dwells, but his abode is constituted of spiritual stones, Christian men and women. This is the habitation of God in the Spirit. Paul wrote the Ephesians, "ye are built together an holy temple in the Lord for a habitation of God in the Spirit." When Christians become divided, the house of God is torn asunder, the temple of God is destroyed. God's condemnation rests upon those who are responsible for the wrecking of his dwelling.
Paul assigns the reason for the threatened debacle at Corinth. "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able to bear it; nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and do ye not walk after the manner of men?" (1 Cor. 3:1-3.) The very existence of division at Corinth was an evidence of carnality. It revealed the utter absence of spiritual strength and spiritual mindedness among them. Carnality is that attitude of mind which concerns itself with the things of the flesh; it is the disposition of the world, and the desire to follow the pattern of the world rather than to follow after Christ. It is the exact opposite of spiritual mindedness. It is a fleshly mind or disposition.
The Corinthian brethren had allowed division and sectarianism to take hold of them; they had thus evidenced their fleshly mind, their carnality. Paul points out two indications or expressions of this carnal mind. One was their glorying in men. They were divided over great preachers; some were contending for Paul's preeminence; others argued that Apollos was greatest; and still others thought Peter, or possibly some other man stood above all others. Instead of glorying in men they should have been glorying in Christ. When we begin to champion men or exalt men in the body of Christ, we are guilty of the same disposition and sin which characterized the Corinthians. Carnality and fleshly considerations are at work among us.
A second indication of their carnal mind was their exalting of human wisdom above the wisdom of God. They were forgetting that God had chosen the foolish things of the world to bring to nought the things that are wise. Their carnality of mind, their fleshly attitudes and considerations, their absence of spirituality were all in evidence by the prominence they gave to human wisdom. They were determined to follow human ways, and were not willing to be content with the simplicity that is in Christ.
When men are concerned about spiritual things, when they genuinely love the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the truth which he established, they will turn from all fleshly considerations and dispositions. When a spiritual mind is present, discord and division, strife and sectarianism simply cannot find their way into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is food here for thought. The application is not only to Corinth, but it comes with compelling logic into this very hour of the church's life and activity.