Servants of Unity
Study Scripture: 1 Corinth ian s 1:10 - 17
Lesson 1

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Key Verse

Now I beseech you, brethren, by 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 perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

1 Corinth ian s 1:10

INTRODUCTION

Today we begin a look at a church in the then fourth largest city in the Roman Empire with a population of about two hundred and fifty thousand.  The age of the city, its location, its wealth and prosperity, the mix of its population, and the peculiar sexually oriented nature of its pagan goddesses, go a long way to explain the kind of city Corinth was, and the nature of the church in that city.  

Let us pay attention to the fact that the history of a place, the social environment and the population mix, will help us greatly to understand the nature of the problems that the local church will encounter and have to grapple with such problems.  

Corinth was a very ancient city that had always been wealthy.  It figured prominently in Greek desire for an independent Greece and in 146 B.C. the Romans completely destroyed the city to crush the Greek intense longing for the glory days of their empire under Alexander the Great and their understandable desire for independence.   

In 44 B.C. the city was rebuilt and colonized by Roman veterans and freedmen, a rather proud bunch and in 27 B.C. Caesar Augustus extensively rebuilt the city to capitalize on its strategic location on the narrow isthmus that connected the southern peninsula of Greece to its mainland and also separated the Aegean Sea to the east from the Adriatic Sea to the West.  Much of the trade between Asia Minor, now Turkey , and Rome and Italy , went back and forward through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth .  

The rebuilt Corinth became a very important commercial center, a bustling city, with great wealth, inhabited and frequented by people from many different nationalities and cultures.  

The many sailors and visitors delighted in the excessive sexual immorality spearheaded by the twelve heathen temples in Corinth , headed by the temple of Aphrodite or Venus, the pagan goddess of love. One thousand temple prostitutes, male and female priests and priestesses, offered their sexual services in the worship of Aphrodite and they came out from their temples and flooded the city every day.  

Corinth was not only a hotbed not only of immorality, but also a centre for the ‘wisdom of the world’.  Read chapter 2.  

By the time Paul visited around A.D. 50, the immorality and debauchery in that city had reached such amazing depths and to such a level of notoriety, that the city stood out even in the depraved pagan world.   

The term “to corinth ian ize” was the popular term used to describe people living in gross sexual immorality and frequenting prostitutes.  Greek plays at the time always represented the citizens of Corinth as either a drunk or a prostitute.  

Fabulous worldly wealth and commerce, paganism, heathenism, sexual immorality and drunkenness, combined with the Greek love of human philosophy and wisdom made it a great example of a place controlled by Satan.  

When Paul came to the area on his second missionary journey, he first went to Athens and there encountered people steeped in self-destructive ‘human wisdom’.  He made few converts and when he left that sin sick city for Corinth , he arrived as he described in 1 Con.2:3

“in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling”.

Paul was under intense pressure and God provided the excellent couple and companions Aquila and Priscilla to be his faithful companions and fellow workers.  

But this support and companionship of Aquila and Priscilla was not even enough, for in Acts 18:9-10 we read what God did for Paul.

“Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace:  

For I am with thee, and no man shall set, thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city”.  

We immediately learn or expect several things about this church.

First, it was in a bad environment of the grossest satanic sort.  Logically Satan would not make this an easy church establishment and growth experience.  

Second, Satan would use the rank immorality prevalent in the city to contaminate those coming into the church.

 Third, the people would be under great temptation to bring the pervasive Greek philosophy and practices into the church, with the emphasis on the value of Greek rhetoric, stately and impressive speech and intellect.  Ordinary ability and an ordinary station in life would never be considered as a blessing.  

Fourth, there would be a great tendency for the learned to set themselves up as superior teachers and connected with this to emphasize the worth of superior teachers as in Greek academic and school traditions.  

Fifth, there would be an irresistible attraction to bringing the marked and strict class structure and division in the surrounding society and make it a part of church life.  This would not make life easy for the many poor and the slaves that would be attracted to the gospel of salvation for all men.  

Sixth, there would be a craving and enticing attraction for those poorer church members, the poor and less fortunate people who formed the vast majority in the church (see1:27), to constantly exhibit the impressive spiritual gifts with which God had enriched them, compensating for their lowly status in the rest of society.

 Seventh, the women would have a tendency to violate the rules of decorum and behave as the pagan women who were accustomed to attending the pagan temple.  

Let us be mindful that God had already determined that many in that city belonged to him, and so Paul, when faced with their terrible behavior caused by their inability to properly resist the prevailing societal influences, still treated them as Saints of God, who had already been sanctified.  

Located in this flourishing, worldly city that attracted the good and the bad from all parts of the Empire, it is not surprising that this church would exhibit extremes of behavior, both good and bad, with the clearly gifted and talented as well as grossly crude exhibitionism.  

In fact, God seemed to have gone straight into the pit of hell, pulled out and elevated the weak, the poor, the foolish things of the world, those who were not noble in any sense, gave them the most spectacular spiritual gifts, to show Satan that He was God and was in charge.  

Talk about God behaving here in a straight up, in-your-face, direct putting down of Satan!  

Not surprisingly, the church was under direct attack and became rife with dissension and rivalries. They succumbed to pride at the amazing gifts which they never expected to have and fought over alleg ian ce to different leaders, who never really supported their foolish claims to alleg ian ce.   

Let us be very clear, none of the evangelists and Apostles involved with Corinth were in any competition with each other and were in complete agreement and co-operation.  

As we shall see, these unlearned and lower class people their thirst for status, even elevated some Christ ian symbols to a significance that it did not possess.  

All of this reflect the great difficulties that people generally have in resisting the prevailing cultural influences and changing their behavior to reflect Christ ian virtues, coming to really understand that their new life in Christ meant that their walk should be one of holiness and obedience to their savior.   

This was a church in a fiercely competitive, immoral, sensual, intellectual, wisdom loving and bustling metropolis, which did not look and act as if they were different from the society around them.  The members of the church reflected the society, being infected with worldliness.  

 It is a common but foolish and dangerous practice to carelessly draw comparisons between what happened in that church and what has happened and continues to happen in many modern churches.  Certainly there are many lessons to be learned.  

But ignoring context is always a dangerous thing when interpreting the Scriptures.  Context and setting teaches us a lot and are very important in determining how we make interpretation and application of teachings on doctrine and behavior.  

It is astounding to hear people talk about the Corinth ian church as if they are a great model.  Now it is clear that they had their strengths and we will look at these as well as their weaknesses, hopefully learning to pattern ourselves in line with their strengths and not taking up their weaknesses.  

In this regard it is to be noted that Paul assumed that they knew the doctrines reasonably well, for this letter he does not stress doctrine as much as it stresses proper behavior.  

The core of the problem with the Corinth ian s as with many of us, is the lack of understanding of the nature of the church.  This led to gross excesses and bad behavior.  

Paul primary concern as he wrote this letter was with the true nature and life of the church.  So we see all through the Corinth ian letters an emphasis on phrases such as  the church of God”, with the Corinth ian s being “the Temple of God” because they had received the Holy Spirit and “the body of Christ”, because they had submitted to the lordship of Christ.  

The theme that Faith is inextricably linked to obedience, due to the work of Christ on the cross, stands out.  

The problems in Corinth came from specific sources and remembering this will help us in our understanding of why they were misbehaving and assist us in properly analyzing why we are misbehaving.  Let us understand that the reasons we misbehave are not necessarily the same reasons for their misbehavior.  We cannot therefore willy-nilly draw solutions to our problem, without considering our context.  

It should be stated now that the world does not understand that the Church of Jesus Christ, though composed of men and woman and boys and girls, is not simply a human organization.  

The church is really the body of Christ himself and the people that form it are persons in whom the Holy Spirit of God lives.  If the Spirit of God does not have possession of a person, that person does not belong to Christ, no matter how they may appear.  

The church is not simply a human organization, though humans are in it, for the human element is not all that there is in the church.  God has taken up residence in the church.  It is a primary instrument that God uses to break His hope to the world.  It is not an organization that is subject to change, open to new rules of behaviour, new doctrines, nor is subject to destruction.  

Persons in the church are simply ‘vessels of clay” that contain a great and magnificent treasure, namely, the Lord Jesus himself.  As such therefore they are presented as the hope of the world.  

They are the ‘called out’ ones. Faithfulness to this calling is a life and death issue.

Faithlessness, empty boasting, pride, a deviation from living up to the calling and not  understanding that Jesus Christ is the center of their being, no matter where it is found, is deadly stain.  

Because of the rule of the Spirit in the believer, we note and emphasize carefully that “Unity of the Spirit”, and the peace that the Spirit brings, is definitely not the same as the “spirit of unity”.  

There is a “spirit of unity” that brings together worshipers of Baal and worshipers of Yahweh.  But really there can be no true unity or peace between the people of God and the enemies of God.  

There can be calm, but remember that once the people of God begin to bring the “peace of God” to the world, there will be trouble.  

Paul knows this, and he writes to correct their specific problems.

It is interesting to note that Paul writes out of a heart of love, pointing these errant persons to the connection between the word of God and their personal relationships.  He does not hesitate to attack them for their failures, but he first reminds them of their identity and their standing in Christ, the riches that they have been given in Christ, and the imperative that they live up to what they have been given.  

It is amazing to think that Paul thought that these erring members of the church were actually better that what they appeared to be.  This is both a compliment and a stern rebuke.  

After telling them what they really were, pointing them to their spiritual riches and their spiritual knowledge, their expectation of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's faithfulness in calling them into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ the Lord, Paul called them to move on, to change and to be consistent with the first major implication of their position in Christ.  

If we understand who we are in Christ, we would never behave as we do.  When we do not understand who we are, the only hope we have is that God will discipline us to the point where we will never again stray.  

THE TEXT

Verse 10. God assured Paul that these people in Corinth had

-possessed the grace of God,

-had been enriched in Jesus Christ,

-had been given every spiritual gift without exception,

-had eagerly looked forward to the future second coming of Christ,

-had Christ to strengthen them,

-had been given assurance of God, who was faithful and would fulfill all his promises to them,

-they were redeemed people and now different

-they were in fellowship with Christ their Lord and Master through the work of the  Spirit,  

Paul could now begin to direct some hard questions to these believers.  Let us remember that it makes no sense for us to ask these kinds of questions of unbelievers.

He called them brethren, because that is what they were. They all were in a special relationship to Christ and this is the unifying factor of the church.  

He beseeched them, a passionate, endearing and intense form of appeal, for these were spiritual brethren, in the closest possible intimate relationship.

He invoked the name of their Lord Jesus Christ, bringing to the forefront that there was something that the “name” of Jesus meant and implied.  There was power in that name and in that name was fellowship and everything else that was holy and righteous.  

Clearly the focus must always be on Jesus and anything not consistent with that “name” was not appropriate.  

To be called by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, meant that this was the ground of unity and the nature of unity in a church.  This was the unifying factor, for there was no other name glorious enough, or powerful enough that could bring everyone together, despite their differences in status, background, education, or wealth. Everything paled in significance and their value disappeared when a common life in Christ was shared.  

Paul made it clear in his exhortation (the forceful demands of apostolic authority was not necessary) that divisiveness among the people of God could not be fitted into this common life of Christ.  Divisions were wrong, for this position was a denial of whom they were.  

Since they were in Christ, Paul’s appeal was based on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ with whom they were in fellowship.  If they were in fellowship with Christ, they would logically have to be in fellowship with one another.  

Paul then went on to define the nature of the unity.  This unity involved agreeing, or literally, speaking the same thing.  The words used meant that they should be like the Greek political parties where all members agreed on the party platform, without any competitive elements.  

Then, they were to be ‘made complete’ or ‘perfectly joined’, the verb meant to restore  something that had been torn, broken or damaged, such as mending nets that had been torn.  

They were to be restored to the situation where they were of the same mind.  Obviously they were to share the mind of Christ, as described in Philipp ian s 2:5.  

Note that this passage describes the mind of Christ, points to his willingness to give up the privileges of Heaven, to be humiliated in order to do good for men.  They were to put the things of Christ first, behave as he behaved, be willing to suffer loss, so that the glory of Christ would be elevated, a situation which would require harmony and unity in the congregation.  This behavior would only come if one had the mind of Christ, instead of the mind of the ‘flesh’.

Verse 11.    Paul did not hide the source of this information and pretend, thus supporting the unbiblical position that people should hide from declaring the truth.  He stated clearly that one of the female members of the church named Chloe, had advised him that there was literally a “tearing” or “rending”, a word used in the Gospels to describe a tear in a garment or a wrong opinion about Jesus Christ.  

This word (schismata) was used to describe something that was serious, not something minor, for it would destroy the relationships in the church, reducing the witness of the church.  The ‘rending’ was really dragging down the name of Jesus.

Verse 12.    Here Paul is very specific in pointing to the displaced loyalties of the Saints.  Note that he has used a legal term, to say he had been ‘informed’ of the situation and so it was quite clear that he's dealing with facts not rumors.  There were eyewitnesses to their bad behavior, their intense bickering, quarreling or strife, their display of the Galat ian s 5:20 fruits of the flesh.  

Paul showed the problem of ego that they were having, for they were all saying ‘I’ when taking sides around the different personalities they were favoring. They had developed fan clubs.  

First, one group was declaring that they were loyal to the founder of the church, which was Paul.  Some were Jews, while others were probably Gentile converts.  

The second group was loyal to Apollos, the eloquent, powerful preacher from the Alexandria Old Testament Center of rhetoric studies, public speaking and debate. He was undoubtedly mighty in the Scriptures, eloquent, bold, and fervent in the spirit. Once he had been corrected by Aquila and Priscilla and taught the complete gospel of Christ, he understood it and preached it fervently.  Paul was glad that after he had left Corinth , the well taught Apollos had come to serve in Corinth .  With his background in Greek philosophy and education and Greek style of speaking, we can be certain that the more educated members of the church and those immersed in Corinth ian culture, would have been naturally drawn to him.  

Then there was a third group which identified themselves with Peter, one of the original twelve apostles connected with the predominantly Jewish Mother Church in Jerusalem .  These might have been Jewish Christ ian s, who were separating themselves from the Gentile converts; converts who might have been paying little attention to Jewish history and tradition.  

The fourth group had been decrying the error in the previous groups, saying that they would listen to Christ alone.  They would probably be saying that they had no need for leaders, for they had Jesus and so were independent and were more spiritual than everybody else.

Verse 13.    Now we should never forget, even though some nowadays apparently do, the teaching that there were no theological divisions among the apostles, that these three men completely agreed in their theology.  

Peter, Apollos and Paul were of one accord, one mind and never competed with one another.  It is granted that Peter took a while to understand completely and accept the relationship with his Gentile converts, but that had been resolved.  

Each man had their own style and personality and this too was acceptable to God. Problem was that the Corinth ian s were emphasizing the messengers, the Lord's servants, taking their eye off the word, and off the Lord.  

Whenever there is no emphasis on the word of God, none or limited obedience to it, the eyes of people will be taken up with the servants, the pastors, or the leaders, and personality cults will develop inevitably.  

The problem was clear.  The Corinth ian s had been moving away from believing in the word of God, forgetting who they were, their position in Christ and what that entailed.  

Satan does not care what school of thought is pursued in the church or whether you want to become emotionally attached to some great Christ ian leader, who might have been helpful.   

The existence of personality cults in the church mean people are directly disobeying the word of God.  There is only one leader and he is Jesus.  There must be arguments only about the word of God, for the word of God tells us every single thing that we need to know and how we are to behave.  In addition, these disagreements about the word of God must be resolved. When a person strays from obeying the word of God, then it means that they are moving away from the control of the Spirit, and that must be condemned.

Leaders who do that must be condemned, for they are not obedient to God.  

So Paul pointedly exposes the foolishness of this divisiveness and divided loyalties.  This nonsense causes us to lose something precious.  

He gives the reasons that this divided loyalty is foolish and disruptive.  

First, it divides the work of Christ, literally, chopping Christ up into little pieces and passing them around, sharing it with others and diminishing the figure of Christ.  

Second, in overemphasizing human leadership and exalting any leader, the authority of Christ is diminished.  We have now begun to exalt the weak, perishing vessel and not the treasure inside.  

Third, inevitably the meaning of spiritual symbols, such as baptism, is distorted.  

Paul is quite blunt in asking whether Christ had been carved up into little pieces, into different packages, and each piece allocated to specific individuals, each reporting on his section and ignoring the rest.  

Then even more bluntly he asked whether he or anybody else had been crucified for them, whether men could become gods, could save and redeem, could forgive sins, heal what was broken, or give power to do the required work.  

Clearly, no teacher or leader can do any of those things or can reveal the Majesty of God.  Only God can do thah that himself.  There is only one Savior, and only one Deliverer.  All others are apart from Jesus and are simply servants, mere teachers.  See Matthew 23:8.  Nobody therefore should exalt programs our persons about what they really are.

Verses 14-16.   Paul pointed to the common tendency among cults and groups to distort what symbols mean, making them into an identification badge.  

Some will say that speaking in tongues means that there is something special about their status and life.  Others in this instance, were elevating baptism as something that was so special in how it was carried out, that when baptized by a particular leader, that gave them special status and cachet, making them better than others who had been baptized by other not so famous leaders.  

These people were dividing themselves over this issue and Paul said it was totally wrong.  

He did not say at any stage that baptism was not an important matter.  Paul always taught that when sinners trusted Christ they were to be baptized, symbolizing that they had separated themselves from their old life.  

This baptism was most powerful symbolism, for often when people in this pagan culture accepted Christ and identified with him in his death and resurrection, these people would be rejected by their families.  This still happens today.  

Paul however made it clear that baptism was not spiritual reality or a means of grace.  In itself it did not save.  Salvation came only by faith in Jesus.  

Jesus had given the apostles, Peter, Paul, and the others, a direct mission, a main or primary ministry to preach his word.  

They proclaimed salvation by faith in Jesus, and did nothing that would make people identify salvation with any other name but that of Jesus.  

To do anything else was to create division.  So Jesus didn't baptize people for that might divert their mind from depending on him only.  With similar caution, Peter and Paul baptized very few, allowing their associates in ministry to do that task.  They did not want to run the risk of people taking their eyes off Jesus.  

Clearly they were making too much of a big deal out of who baptized them.  They were to make sure that their loyalty only belonged to Jesus Christ.  Identification badges are never good.  Believers are not special, with special privileges and special status in the body of Christ.

Verse 17.   The facts of the gospel, the word of the cross, are what are special.  The proclamation of the gospel is of primary importance, and keeping track of how many you baptize was not the important thing.  

It was important that he speak plainly, avoiding any attempts to speak to people and dazzle them with eloquence or intellect.  

He intended to faithfully preach the cross of Christ and to tell people to put their trust not in any human style, approach, or person, but relying on God's work in Christ.  

The cross of Christ is the only thing that can heal.  When one understands the meaning of the cross, all divisions should disappear for men who follow Christ and all the illusions and the pride of men which exalt itself against the knowledge of God will disappear.  

Unfortunately, people simply do not seem to like to consider the implications of the cross of Christ.  

To be saved, a person must repent, believe in Jesus and submit themselves to his rule and his laws.  

This truth needs no dressing up, for it has majesty and a bright and dazzling light all its own.  

Remember that the cross of Christ demonstrates God's justice, his love, his power and his wisdom.  It tells us that God’s son freely gave his life, so that those who believe on him would be saved.  

It points out his resurrection, so that we will know who our Redeemer is, and the path that we must follow.

CONCLUSION

We must pay attention to the next verse which divides the human race into two categories.  It proclaims that these are the only distinctions which are of primary importance and that really matter.  

It reminds us that one category includes those who are perishing, on the path to death and destruction.  The other category includes those on the path to eternal life.  

Let us concentrate on being in this category which takes us to eternal life.  

Remember also that to those who are perishing, making choices every day that lead them to death, the preaching of the cross is foolishness.  But our job is to preach the cross, for it is the power of God.  

We are not always sure who will ultimately perish, for sometimes outward appearances do not tell all the facts.  But we do know that those who are disobedient to the word of God, who do not obey the Commandments of God, who constantly speak one thing yet do another, perpetuating the crisis of division in the body of Christ, are perishing.  At all times we are to help them through and to remind them of the word of the cross.