HOW TO SPLIT A CHURCH
1 CORINTHIANS 1:10-17
NASB
10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all [a]agree and that there be no [b]divisions among you, but that you be [c]made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” 13[a]Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized [b]in the name of Paul? 14[a]I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one would say you were baptized [a]in my name. 16 Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in [a]cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
1:10 [a]Lit speak the same thing [b]Lit schisms [c]Or united 1:13 [a]Or Christ has been divided! or Christ is divided! [b]Lit into 1:14 [a]Two early mss read I give thanks that 1:15 [a]Lit into 1:17 [a]Lit wisdom
NLT
10 I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters,[*] by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. 11 For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. 12 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,[*]” or “I follow only Christ.”
13 Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not! 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 for now no one can say they were baptized in my name. 16 (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.) 17 For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News —and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.
[1:10] Greek brothers; also in 1:11, 26. [1:12] Greek Cephas.
When I was a young man, people spoke of divorce in the most hushed tones . . . a dark and secret tragedy in the same category as teenage pregnancies or mental illnesses —something that happened only to a distant relative or the unfaithful neighbor down the street. Times have certainly changed! Many of us have felt the devastating fallout from this domestic explosion. Debris from the impact of two colliding wills flies indiscriminately and often lands on the most innocent —the children.
Like the breakup of a marriage, so a congregational divorce is painful and tragic —especially for babes in the Lord who look to their spiritual family for security and stability. I’m convinced that nothing breaks the heart of God like the splintering of a church. Nothing cuts to the quick more than disharmony, unrest, and division among God’s people. You and I can count over the past ten years literally dozens of once thriving churches that are now split, divided, filled with dissension. Hate has replaced love. Chaos has driven out peace.
In Paul’s day, the church at Corinth teetered on the brink of congregational divorce. From a distance, Paul discerned those cracks of conflict that ultimately could lead to a collapse. He felt so vexed by the news of the church’s distressed condition that he couldn’t keep silent. The result? A passionate plea for the Corinthians to reconcile —to leave their selfish desires and renew their vows of commitment by cleaving to each other in the Lord Jesus Christ.
— 1:10 —
We’ve all heard the word “exhortation.” Sometimes we confuse the term with “sharp rebuke,” but the Greek word parakaleō [3870], which it often translates, simply means “to call to one’s side” for the purpose of counsel or encouragement. In other words, rather than approach the wayward Corinthians with the attitude of a father about to take his child out behind the woodshed, he’s calling them aside to speak words of wise counsel, encouraging them toward the right path before it is too late. We need to read Paul’s words as motivated by genuine love and concern, not by anger and frustration.
This is why Paul reminds his readers of his love by calling them, “brethren” (1:10). He reaches out to them tenderly, as if drawing them together for a family meeting. Yet his words also carry the authority of an older brother charged with being head of the household. As an apostle, Paul could exhort them “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” —that is, based on the Lord’s authority and power. Compelled by his love for them and using his authority to speak in Christ’s name, Paul urgently calls on the Corinthians to put an end to their divisions and to reconcile with one another.
Paul’s passionate exhortation has two sides —they are to stop being divided and instead, be united. He urges them to rid themselves of the “divisions” among them. The word “divisions” is the Greek word schisma [4978], from which we get English words like “schisms” or “scissors.” It refers to a tear, cleft, or split. The same word is used in Matthew 9:16 in reference to a tear in a garment. The Corinthian church suffered from rupture, division, and brokenness.
Paul addresses the worsening problem of schism with two positive exhortations: “that you all agree . . . [and] that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10). Notice the emphasis on the internal realm of the mind. Paul desires that even in the midst of diversity, there would be harmony of attitude, agreement on the essentials of the faith, and single-mindedness of purpose. In this way they would be “complete.” The verb katartizō [2675], translated “be made complete,” is the same word used in Matthew 4:21 for mending nets. What a perfect image for mending the broken relationships that had been torn apart through disagreement, disharmony, and unresolved conflict.
Before we move on, we need to remind ourselves about taking this verse to an extreme. Paul recognized the impossibility of establishing complete uniformity of belief and practice in any church (see Rom. 14:1-5). In fact, 1 Corinthians 12–14 makes it clear that God never intended for the church to reflect a rigid uniformity. God is not interested in manufacturing tin soldiers who look exactly alike. The goal is unity, not uniformity. Variety in the ranks reflects the power and glory of God. Neither division and conflict on the one hand, nor zombie-like uniformity on the other, can reflect God’s ideal for a local church. He longs for unity in diversity.
— 1:11-16 —
Paul moves swiftly from generalities in 1:10 to specifics in 1:11-16. Basing his admonition on the account he received from “Chloe’s people” (1:11), he addresses three major problems in Corinth: their quarrels (1:11), their cliques (1:12), and finally their conceit (1:13-16). Let’s look at the details of each of these sources of division.
Their quarrels (1:11). In the first place, Paul mentions the frequent squabbling among the believers in Corinth. The Greek for “quarrels” is eris [2054], which means strife, discord, or wrangling. Yet Paul’s use goes beyond mere bickering or minor disagreements. In fact, the word eris is condemned in the vice list of Galatians 5:19-21 among serious sins such as immorality, idolatry, and drunkenness; Paul states that “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21). In other words, Paul viewed quarreling as a severe spiritual problem, which, if not dealt with decisively, would lead to ruin for the church.
Paul, however, doesn’t blame Satan for their quarrelling. Too often the devil gets credit for sins we humans accomplish by our own fleshly desires. Ultimately Satan is behind all evil as its originator (Gen. 3), but people frequently forget that the world and the flesh also contribute to our sinfulness. No wonder Paul places the blame at the Corinthians’ feet, pointing out that their spiritual immaturity had created the conflict: “For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” (1 Cor. 3:3). James also highlighted the source of the kinds of quarrels and conflicts experienced at Corinth: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel” (Jas. 4:1-2).
The intense quarrelling of the carnal Corinthians led to the second major problem.
Their cliques (1 Cor. 1:12). Paul names four factions that were tearing the Corinthians apart. It’s understandable that many at Corinth aligned themselves with the “Paulite Party.” From Paul’s lips they first heard the good news about Jesus Christ (15:3). Because Paul’s preaching emphasized freedom from the Law, however, it is possible that this group had begun to turn grace into a green light for the flesh. In any case, those “Paulites” in Corinth were doing something similar to those today who might emphasize just a few verses from Paul’s letters, neglecting the fuller teaching we get from James, John, Peter, and the rest of the Bible.
Though the followers of Paul may have enjoyed a majority in Corinth, after Paul left the church, Apollos arrived and “helped greatly those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 18:27-28). Apollos was not only intellectually astute; he was verbally eloquent. Greeks especially would have flocked to him, enamored as they were with the skills of keen logic and impressive rhetoric. Thus was born what we might call the “Apollos Fan Club.” In light of such an articulate teacher, even Paul’s style would have appeared crude and unsophisticated (2 Cor. 10:10; 11:6). Although Paul and Apollos were colleagues rather than competitors (1 Cor. 3:6-9), some overzealous followers held up Apollos as their highbrowed hero, creating friction in the Corinthian congregation (1:12).
The situation, though, had grown more complex than an imaginary duel between two gifted teachers. Paul mentions a third group —let’s call them the “Cephas Clan” —followers of the apostle Peter. Peter was perhaps the most prominent among the original twelve disciples, and he exercised considerable influence in the Aramaic-speaking Jewish Christian community. In fact, it may be that Paul uses the Aramaic version of the name “Peter” (“Cephas”) in order to highlight that this particular clan of Peter-followers was a contingent of Jewish Christians in Corinth, as Peter was the missionary entrusted with the gospel for the Jews (Gal. 2:7-9). For them, Paul’s views on the Law would likely have been perceived as too “progressive,” and Apollos’s teaching style would have been regarded as too “Gentile.” With Peter’s credentials as an eyewitness to Christ, no wonder a faithful following would have formed around him (1 Cor. 1:12).
As if three competing sects in the Corinthian church weren’t enough to wreak havoc, Paul adds a fourth to his catalogue of clubs. The “Christ Faction” had no need for mere men —neither Paul, nor Apollos, nor Peter. Instead, they were simple followers of Christ. At first glance, we might think, What’s wrong with that? Shouldn’t they all have been striving for that? But because Paul lists them among the other unacceptable sects, the group of Christ followers must have taken their single devotion to Christ to an unhealthy extreme by rejecting all other church authorities, including those appointed by Christ. Perhaps they forgot that though the church was founded with Christ as the “corner stone,” the apostles and prophets constituted the church’s “foundation” (Eph. 2:20). Nobody could claim independent devotion to Christ while breaking from His chosen apostles. It may be that the Christ Faction had unwittingly begun to behave as though Christ belonged only to them, while claiming that they alone belonged to Christ.
After mentioning these cliques, Paul points out the root of these sinful divisions: pride.
Their conceit (1 Cor. 1:13-16). Pride fueled the embers of the Corinthians’ quarrels and cliques, fanning them into a flame that could easily have consumed that young congregation. They expressed their pride by boasting about who had baptized them (1:13). Apparently they had come to believe that the authenticity of their faith rested not only on baptism, but also on their baptizer. Amazingly, in the midst of conflict, this ordinance of Christ that should have marked the believers’ unity in one body (Eph. 4:4-6) had deteriorated into a basis for arrogant boasting.
Paul sharply challenges their bragging. Contesting his very own “Paulite Party,” he points out two obvious points: Paul had not died for their sins, and no one had been baptized in the name of Paul (1 Cor. 1:13). Paul had personally baptized very few of the converts in Corinth: only Crispus, Gaius, and the household of Stephanas (1:14, 16), and here he thanks God that he had not baptized any others. Paul is not bad-mouthing baptism, putting it down, or declaring it a useless ritual; rather, he expresses relief that he hadn’t personally baptized many of the new Christians because of the specific situation in Corinth: “so that no one would say you were baptized in my name” (1:15).
Pride exhibits itself in so many astonishing ways! Of all things to brag about —the Corinthians puffed up their chests over who laid their hands on them and spoke the name “of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (cf. Matt 28:19). Clearly, they had lost focus. They allowed the act of baptism as their visible response to the gospel message to overshadow the message of the Father who sent His Son to die for their sins, rise from the dead, and give them new life by the Spirit. When conceited, quarrelling cliques erupt into controversy in a local church, pride stops at nothing.
From My Journal
Picking Nits
1 CORINTHIANS 1:13
I once learned of two congregations of differing denominations located only a few blocks from each other in a small community. They thought it might be better if they would merge and become one united body, larger and more effective, rather than two struggling churches. A good idea, but both churches proved too petty to pull it off. The problem? They couldn’t agree on how they would recite the Lord’s Prayer! One group wanted “forgive us our trespasses” while the other demanded “forgive us our debts.” So the newspaper reported that one church went back to its trespasses while the other returned to its debts!
Several years ago I read of two unmarried sisters who lived together. Because of a slight disagreement over an insignificant issue, they stopped speaking to each other. Unable and unwilling to move out of their small house, they continued to use the same rooms, eat at the same table, and sleep in the same bedroom, all without speaking one word to each other. A chalk line divided the sleeping area into two halves, separating a doorway and fireplace. Each could come and go, cook and eat, sew and read without crossing over into her sister’s domain, and neither was willing to take the first step to forgiveness and reconciliation.
Such silly skirmishes would be funny if they weren’t so prevalent in our own churches and in our own relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s one thing to stand firm on major issues clearly set forth in Scripture; it’s another thing to pick fights over jots and tittles. I never cease to be amazed at how petty we Christians can act over things that really don’t amount to a hill of beans. But there we stand, ramrod rigid, nose to nose, as if heaven were holding its breath.
While ministering at a Bible conference one summer, I waded into this touchy subject. Afterwards it concerned me to hear from many in attendance that they had similar convictions but didn’t feel free to say so since their pastors kept fanning personal flames and picking scabs off old sores. We preachers can be awfully petty, taking pot shots in sermons when we know nobody can answer back, or shooting jabs and pounding the pulpit on minor matters that make our real adversary (the devil) yawn and smile! Instead of equipping and edifying the saints with solid, well-documented, carefully applied truth from the Book, many would rather promote an exclusive emphasis that is divisive, argumentative, and blindly opinionated.
So long as our knowledge is imperfect, our preferences vary, and our opinions differ, we should leave a lot of room in areas that don’t really matter. Diversity and variety provide the body with a beautifully blended balance. But a squint-eyed, severe spirit is a killer, strangling its victims with a noose of caustic criticism.
All of this calls for a direct and significant question: How much freedom do you allow others to enjoy?
— 1:17 —
At the climax of this sharp exhortation to forsake their quarrelling, their cliques, and their conceit, Paul redirects their attention to the most central thing —the thing that should hold them together in one mind: the gospel. “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void” (1:17). Paul didn’t go to Corinth to put on a show. He didn’t parade his abilities. He didn’t turn the spotlight onto himself. In fact, he delegated the work of baptism to others in order to free himself up to keep doing what he was called to do: preach the gospel. Paul also reminds them that he didn’t preach that message with eloquent words, rhetorical skill, or “cleverness of speech.” To do so would have turned their attention away from the message and onto the messenger. One commentator wisely notes, “To decorate the story of the cross with rhetoric and cleverness would have been to make people think more of the language than of the facts.”[11]
The gospel of Christ’s person and work should stand at the center of everything we think, say, and do. Sadly, too many of us have lost sight of this all-important truth. Today, people are mesmerized by “rock-star preachers” who can attract a crowd, rev up the audience, and put on a good show. In our entertainment-driven culture, the Word of God often gets banished to the backstage while flash and jazz take center stage, forcing their way into the limelight. What a tragedy! The apostle Paul couldn’t have been clearer: When you glorify the messenger, you distract people from the message.
APPLICATION: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:10-17
Turning Your Eyes upon Jesus
As the church in Corinth began to go up in flames of controversy and conflict, the apostle Paul stepped in and began to douse the flames with an urgent plea. As we look back from our twenty-first-century vantage point to observe how Paul handled that first-century crisis, we can learn some vital lessons for our own day. Rising from the ashes of that congregation’s smoldering relationships, there is a vital practical truth that will help us avoid the disaster of disunity in our local church bodies: We must focus fully on Christ.
When we take our focus off Christ, our gaze necessarily fixes on something else —selfish pursuits, personal opinions, marginal issues, or favorite personalities, to name a few. This misplaced focus leads to divisions. Divisions produce quarrels. Quarrels bring cliques. And cliques are just platoons awaiting orders to strike! In other words, when church members fail to focus fully on Christ, the result will be controversy and conflict. Our response to this truth? The old chorus puts it best:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.[12]
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith.”
Where is your focus today? Is Christ the center of the picture, or is His image beginning to blur? Take time to refocus your life as you consider these four common distractions that turn our eyes away from Him, leading to selfish ambition, division, and conflict. Pause and ask yourself these questions:
First, have I fixed my eyes on mere things? This invariably leads to materialism, the unquenchable lust for more: more money, more gadgets, an overabundance of plastic, chrome, metal, silicon, and digital images. If this is your focus, you will continually feel dissatisfied. Paul urged those with means “not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God” (1 Tim. 6:17).
Second, have I fixed my eyes on my circumstances? This is a great way to promote either self-pity or pride. Good circumstances tend to give a false sense of security; bad ones nudge us to feel anxious or depressed. We must turn our gaze from this world to Christ, “on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).
Third, have I fixed my eyes on myself? When we adore the “trinity” of “me, myself, and I,” our concern for others suffers, leading to disunity in the church. To correct this tendency toward an inward focus, Paul wrote, “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4). To reinforce this, he urged his readers to look to Christ as a model of selfless humility (Phil. 2:5-8).
Finally, have I fixed my eyes on others? The Corinthians excelled at turning their attention from Christ to Christ’s workers. They bronzed people into idols, set them up on pedestals, and made them objects of worship. This kind of personality-driven ministry always leads to disillusionment because every frail, fallen human will ultimately fall short and bring disappointment. As the psalmist says, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man” (Ps. 118:8).
After answering these questions, take time to “sanctify [set apart] Christ as Lord in your hearts [the center and source of your life]” (1 Pet. 3:15). By turning the eyes of your heart upon Jesus, you’ll find that the things of this world will begin to fade, and most of the seemingly irreconcilable differences we have with others in the body of Christ will melt away into irrelevance.