Agreeing

I Corinthians 1.10-17

I tore a sweatshirt into several pieces on Sunday. Its was fun, but it left the sweatshirt totally useless.

When a church is divided, when it is torn in pieces, it is rendered useless and unable to accomplish the grand plan God has for it.

Back in the first century the church in Corinth had been torn into four rival factions. There was a group that followed Paul, another that followed Peter, another that followed Apollos, and another that claimed to only follow Christ. These groups bickered and argued and fought and were hostile with each other. It was ugly. Paul was not happy.

Today we are a bit torn as well. We have parts of the church that follow Calvin (Presbyterians), others who follow Luther (Lutherans), others who follow the local leader (Baptists), and others who follow Wesley (Methodists).

Is this bad or wrong or evil?

Not necessarily. We all have preferences of style and culture. We all have different tastes in music. We all have different leadership styles that appeal to us. I may think one leader is cool. You may think another leader is cool.

It's OK to prefer one denomination over another. It's OK to worship in different ways. It's OK to have different heroes and leaders. But it's not OK to bicker and fight and be hostile. And there are many, many things that we all need to work together on: things like local mission, caring for the poor, and community development.

Paul's word to us is to agree as much and as often as possible. So agree!

Here are some addition passages to check out: I Corinthians 12.25-26, Romans 16.17-18, and Philippians 4.2-3.

Building Faith in a Modern Day Corinth

1 Corinthians 1.1-9

It was around the year 50AD that the Apostle Paul started a new church in the city of Corinth. He preached the good news of Jesus, led a few people to Christ, and organized a congregation. Most of his converts knew very little about living a God-honoring lifestyle. They had grown up immersed in a culture full of materialism, sexual confusion, and self-centeredness. In short, it was a world much like most of us grew up in.

So, when these new converts came into the church, they brought with them some of the questionable lifestyle practices they had always known. This created big problems in the church. Bad stuff began to appear. An incident of incest occurred. A few church members continued to frequent houses of ill repute. Factions formed between rival groups in the congregation. The rich among them did not choose to be very generous. Arguing and bickering broke out, fueled by pride and self-promotion.

It was a huge mess. The people was messing up big time. So Paul wrote the book of 1 Corinthians to correct the abuses and straighten things out.

But how should one start such a letter? Paul chose to begin very graciously. He affirms the church people and notes the things they were doing well. He references their good beginning in the faith. And he declares his confidence that they will keep the faith till the end. His confidence comes from his belief that God will keep them strong and blameless.

We too are people who mess up. We sin. We fight. We get carried away. We are sexually confused. We're too connected to our stuff. We don't share. We think we're the best. We are mess-ups.

But God believes in us and wants us to have a glorious future. He has plans for us beyond our wildest imagination.

If God believes in the wild and crazy Corinthians, then he surely believes in you.

Check out these supporting scriptures:

Acts 18.1-17
Romans 7.7-25
Matthew 16.17-19