Christianity United

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

 “Christianity United”

24 April 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            If anyone ever mentions that Paul only wrote for those in the first century, all you really need to do is just ask them to look around at our churches today and see that this first letter to the church at Cornith could just as easily been written to the church in the 21^st century.

            While I don’t think Paul is against a difference of opinion on the Gospel and how we interpret Christ’s life and resurrection, I do think he would have a problem as to how acrimonius and petty we become over words and phrases. Let’s take a small tour of church history and how we went from one apostolic church to a world of thousands of denominations, not to mention the thousands of interpretations of Scripture within each of those denominations.

            The first major split occurred in 1054 in what has now become known as the Great Schism. Schismata is the word used in verse 10 to describe the division of the church and we can translate it as tear, divide, disunite, split, or opposing group. Back then there were differences in the Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) theology. But it all came to a head over how much authority the Pope held and the insertion of the words “and from the Son” into the Nicene Creed in 1014. That left us with the Orthodox and Catholic churches we know today.

            Things were calm for a few hundred years. Then in 1517, a guy you may have heard of named Martin Luther sought to reform the church and posted his 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. The powers that be didn’t like his ideas and excommunicated him four years later. From that we ended up with the Protestants.

            Because most Protestants believe in Sola Scriptura or that the Bible is the supreme authority in all matters of doctrine or practice and not a person, we tend to divide over interpretation more readily than the Orthodox or Catholic churches. Frequently our divisions are over how literally we interpret certain portions of Scripture.

            We have split denominations over ordination of women, how much we will accept same sex persons into our community, if there will be a great tribulation, the type of baptism one undergoes, what the elements of communion represent, the age at which one can accept Christ, and the list goes on.

Is this the type of division about which Paul wrote? Have we so thoroughly shredded the fabric of the Body of Christ so that we are forever split on this side of eternity? Possibly. Personally I don’t think so.

I read this passage as Paul speaking out against the intent behind divisions. He specifically calls out people for following specific people and putting their interpretation as the end all be all above all others. He doesn’t chide Corinth for having a difference of opinion, but rather for allowing cults of personality to develop and using their specific belief or status as a weapon against someone else.

Does that still happen today? Of course. We don’t have to go very far to see people using their beliefs as a club against others. Westboro Baptist comes immediately to mind. We also see many cults of personality where the church finds it identity from the pastor not Christ. Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill comes to mind.

Paul has heard rumblings that Corinth is headed in a direction towards one or both of those ends and he is determined to stop it early, hence a letter of such length. In verse 10 Paul seems to tip his hand about the intent of this letter, gracious reconciliation. Keep that in the front of your mind as we step through this letter over the next few weeks.

There is nothing wrong in having a difference of theological opinion, rather the problem occurs when we define others by that difference rather than as another person in Christ.

Every single one of us in here today will read Scripture and come to different interpretations on what God is trying to convey. We all have different experiences that form us and shape our world view. We have a wide variety of people that have taught us over the years and shared different viewpoints. Hopefully we have all experienced two people that radiate Christ to the world that have diametrically opposed ways of living out the Gospel. Personally, I have found that seeing Christ radiate from people that seem such polar opposites is a great way to learn theology.

Paul knows that when we divide over Christ in the way in which Corinth was headed, it’s not a theological fight. When there isn’t grace and reconciliation in the disagreement, it’s a fight over who has power. It’s a group of people trying to figure out the hierarchy regarding who Saint Peter lets pass through the pearly gates. It’s about us, not Christ. That’s when it gets so bad that people say, “I thank God that I baptized none of you.”

If we are truly following the Gospel, then we never get to the point where we look at someone with disgust and say, “They go to that church.” The Gospel of the cross is self-sacrifice. Not meaning that we subsume our beliefs to make someone happy, rather that we’re ok with people thinking we are different because we’re fine not agreeing with people and yet we still love them and continue to seek common ground.

Christianity has always been and will always be a counter cultural phenomenon. Just because culture may become hostile to Christ, doesn’t mean we should become hostile to culture. After all, culture has shaped us in ways we may not realize. This isn’t to say that we should jump into culture without thought, something we discussed last week. Rather we should approach culture with a posture of graceful reconciliation.

Because that is harder than it sounds, we have to practice somewhere. And that somewhere is the church. This is another reason I think Paul opens up on Corinth so harshly. We need a place to figure out what reconciliation looks like. Some of the greatest works of reconciliation began under the watchful eye of Christ. Two years after becoming a Christian, William Wilberforce focused his life’s work on abolishing the slave trade. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement in the US arose out of the church. Compassion International, World Vision, and International Justice Ministry are products of the church looking to spread reconciliation to the poor of the world. 

Lest we think that the concept of gracious reconciliation is too big for us, we are ideally suited to practice what Paul advocates in 1 Corinthians here in Singapore. I daresay we are all on the same theological page. Yet for some reason we stick together and when we have differences of opinion we talk it out in love.

To quote the astute theologian and first pastor I worked for, Jim Hodge describing the diversity of the congregation. “I’ve got tree hugging, gay loving liberals and Bible thumping conservatives here and we make it work.” That’s exactly what Paul is asking of us. Not to agree on everything, but to disagree in love and keep the focus on Christ not ourselves. For then we are one Body of Christ with all the parts doing the work of Christ in the world.