1 Corinthians 1: 10-19

A couple was celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary. A friend remarked to the husband, “It’s amazing how well you and your wife get along. Don’t you ever have disagreements?” The honored husband replied, “Oh, sure, quite often.” “And yet,” friend said, “you must get over them quickly.” “Ah, that’s the secret,” responded the husband, “I never tell her about them.”

At the factory one day one of the workers said in a serious tone to a co-worker, “Look! We have a serious disagreement here. I think that it’s time to use those four magic words my mother always used to put an end to any argument at home: ‘Go to your room!'”

Paul calls these folks at Corinth to account. “Now I appeal to you. . . 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: 10). They’re quarreling among themselves. “Each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’ or ‘I belong to Apollos’ or ‘I belong to Cephas’ or ‘I belong to Christ'” (1: 12). Factions and fighting is what characterizes the Corinthians. It is from these factions they were obtaining what they believed was wisdom. They were being fed in their minds or their spirits by what human beings were saying, but they used what they might be learning from Paul or Christ to assemble arguments against their brothers and sisters. This reminds me of the radio preachers I grew up with in my house. I’d compare and contrast what I heard from Chuck Swindoll and Chuck Smith, or John MacArthur and Kenneth Copeland. It eventually becomes denominationalism. It eventually becomes what you say is wrong and what I believe is right. The root word of Protestant is protest. It’s part of our spiritual DNA. The church in Corinth was becoming fragmented. Paul was trying to stop it.

There’s an old story about two Jews, two Catholics and two Baptists being cast away on a desert island. When they were found years later, the Catholics had started the Church of St. Christopher. The Jews had started Temple Emmanuel. And the two Baptists had started the First Baptist Church and the Second Baptist Church.

At a psychiatric hospital in California one Sunday morning, a group of patients were being shepherded to the Catholic and Protestant chapels. One patient did not enter either chapel, but continued walking toward the main gate. When an attendant caught up with him and asked him where he was going the patient replied, “I was told I could go to the church of my choice, and that’s in New York City.”

There is a message that unites us. Paul wrote to them and tells us today it is the message of the cross. “Foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

The message of the cross. I’ll share two references to this message from other writings from Paul. First of all, in the cross, what is it he did for us. From Colossians 2: 13-14, Paul wrote: “And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,  ERASING THE RECORD THAT STOOD AGAINST US with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.” The record of our trespasses was nailed to the cross. The record of our sins was nailed to the cross in the form of our Lord in his crucifixion. It was on the cross the cost of sin was paid by the Lamb of God. Sins do exist. They have ramifications, but Paul tells us our Father forgave all our trespasses. He holds nothing against us by virtue of the cross. This is outrageously good news.

Secondly, what he did for ALL of us. From the book of Ephesians, chapter two, Paul wrote, “So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by those who are called ‘the circumcision’—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2: 11-18).

He put to death all of the hostility between Jews and Gentiles. Those who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ – not the blood of lambs in a temple, not by the observance of commands (If that were the case, you wouldn’t need a savior). In place of Jew and Gentile, those in covenant with God and those outside a covenant relationship, he took steps to create a one new humanity in himself, in Christ. God’s intention was to put to death hostility through the cross. It is, therefore, not our identity to freely accept and abide in hostility toward others – we who are in relationship with God in Christ are not co-existing in hostility with anyone. In verse 18, Paul again wrote, “For through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.” This is the message of the cross – we are forgiven of all trespasses because such a record was NAILED TO THE CROSS, and through the cross all hostility between those in and those outside was put to death on the cross. Being hostile is not one of our characteristics. What if we have a good reason? “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7: 12). Hostility toward those who disagree, oppose, argue, ignore, discount you or me is NAILED TO THE CROSS that we might become one body. Hostility toward each other is not acceptable if we’re followers of Christ.

There is a message that unites us. It’s the message of the cross. There’s another phrase from Paul’s lesson in 1 Corinthians 1 I want us to see. In verse 10, Paul wrote, “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”

What might be the same purpose? Again, from Paul in 2 Corinthians, chapter five: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5: 17-21). I’m going to take a leap and say a ministry of reconciliation, the reconciliation between God and us (the vertical bar of the cross) is our same purpose. Can this be said and shared in different ways in different churches in different denominations? Of course. We should be united in the same mind and same purpose.

What might be the same mind? Now again, from Paul, Romans 12: 1-5 –

 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to THINK of yourself more highly than you ought to THINK, but to THINK with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” We obtain the same mind by thinking, by renewing our minds – think of yourself in humble terms, with sober judgment. Paul then leads us to understand we each have a measure of faith, and that we are part of one body. If we’re in the same purpose, in a ministry of reconciliation based on what Christ has done for all, and with the same mind, in humility, having a particular function with a particular measure of faith in one body with many members, quarreling about how spiritual we are and how pitiful others might be divides us and limits our abilities to reach others. Quarreling and hostility toward each other is not acceptable if we’re followers of Christ.

Are there arguments that deserve separation? Irreconcilable differences? April and I found ourselves in a position of separation from this denomination about ten years ago. We felt we couldn’t live out our callings remaining yoked to the UMC.  We turned in our certificates of ordination, our identities and authority in the church, to pursue what we believed God had called us to do. We sped up the clock, believing God had called us to particular callings in that same season. The fact was it was the wrong season. The promises we were given were not fulfilled when we believed they were to be fulfilled. We were so wise and so certain. We were impatient. We were anxious. We never saw what God promised come to be.

Don’t be so sure this is the right time to make unprecedented decisions and changes just because you think it’s meant to happen now.  “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’” – 1 Corinthians 1: 19.

(Preached at St Mark UMC in Anniston, AL, January 22, 2023)