1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Divisions in the Church
10 By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ I appeal to all of you, my friends, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose. 11 For some people from Chloe's family have told me quite plainly, my friends, that there are quarrels among you. 12 Let me put it this way: each one of you says something different. One says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Peter”; and another, “I follow Christ.” 13 Christ has been divided[a]into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptized as Paul's disciples?
14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. 15 No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples. (16 Oh yes, I also baptized Stephanas and his family; but I can't remember whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ's death on the cross is not robbed of its power.
Have you ever noticed how different one church is to another? I don’t just mean the decorations or even whether they like to sing hymns or worship songs. I mean the people - what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus. Paul complains that the church looks incredibly diverse and people are thinking about things in so many different ways because they are following people or culture, but not following Jesus.
Today, we might say that we are Anglican, Methodists or Baptists and are following our own traditions. Or we could be following the teachings of Joel Osteen or Mark Driscoll and that may be defining the way that we follow Jesus. Or perhaps, in a moment of honesty, you might admit that are following yourself. Your own moral compass, desires and expectations.
Whoever you are following will shape how you think, what you do and ultimately who you become. I heard someone say that there are many things you can fake but you can not fake discipleship.
Here’s the thing, I think that deep down we all long to authentically follow Jesus. To know him and to live out the way that he was teaching. To think like Jesus thought, to act like Jesus acted and to do the things that Jesus did. This is what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus.
What would it look like for the church to have one voice and one mind? What would the impact of that be like?
