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There is
one God; one Lord, that is, Jesus Christ; one Spirit, who is the Spirit of
God; one faith and one Church, which is the Church of God, whose head is
Jesus Christ. And all those who are members of this holy Assembly are called
to pursue peace with all people and to be like-minded, to have the same love,
and to be of one accord and to speak the same thing and to be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement. There should be
no divisions among them (1 Corinthians 1:10: Philippians 2:2). However, it
must be said that even though divisions must be rejected, there must be
divisions among the Church
of God.
For Paul said to the Corinthians, among whom there were divisions: “For first
of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions
among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among
you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18-19 –
NKJV). Notice that divisions are called factions by the apostle Paul and that
they must be among us so that those who live in a manner worthy of the Gospel,
and thus are approved by God may be recognized.
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What are
divisions, according to the Scripture? And why must you flee them? To answer
these questions I will remind you of the divisions existing among the saints
of Corinth
and how Paul exposed them. While Paul was at Ephesus, those of Chloe’s
household told Paul that among the saints of Corinth there were divisions
because each of them said: “I am of Paul’, or ‘I am of Apollos’, or ‘I am of
Cephas’ or ‘I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:12 - NKJV). Therefore, the
saints of Corinth
did not speak any longer the same thing and they were not any longer
perfectly joined in the same mind and in the same judgement, for some said
that they belonged to Paul, some to Apollos and some others to Cephas, and
some others to Christ. When Paul heard this, he was angry and grieved and so he
rebuked the Corinthians saying: “Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for
you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13) and
again: “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not
able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for
whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not
carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am
of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but
ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have
planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he
that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the
increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man
shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are
labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. …
Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or
things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's” (1 Corinthians
3:2-9, 21-23). Paul explained to the Corinthians that they committed a sin by
saying that they belonged to Paul or to Apollos because Paul and Apollos were
just God’s fellow workers, who worked in God’s field according to the grace
of God which was given to them, and that it was not Paul nor Apollos who made
the Word grow in them (thus, neither Paul, who had planted the seed, nor
Apollos, who had watered it) but God alone. Therefore, the fact that they
said ‘I am of Paul’ or ‘I am of Apollos’ was a wrong behaviour. They were
carnal and they were moved by jealousy and strife (as you can see, divisions
are associated with jealousies and quarrels, because it is the jealousy for a
particular minister of the Gospel and the desire to exalt him above another
minister of the Gospel that lead believers to part from one another and to
quarrel), and they had forgotten that it was God who had worked in them what
pleased Him and not Paul or Apollos. To what conclusion did Paul come then?
He told the Corinthians not to boast in Paul nor in Apollos nor in Cephas
because they were only ministers of the Gospel, who were theirs, because they
had been given by God to the Church, while they were of Christ, who had
bought them at a price, and Christ was of God.
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