Of One Mind
(1 Corinthians 1: 10-18)
After I lost my first election Teresa and I relocated to Tyler, Texas where I landed a job as an Assistant District Attorney for Smith County. We decided to attend First Baptist in Tyler because one of Teresa’s family friends went there and we had been going to the Baptist Church in her hometown anyway. We didn’t even think about church shopping. Tyler was considered by many to be the buckle of the Bible Belt because within a few minutes of being introduced to someone they would inquire as to what church they went to. Not were you a Christian, but what church did you attend? Church attendance was assumed if you lived in Tyler. They wanted to know what church you owed your allegiance to and there were a lot of churches and denominations in Tyler to choose from along with a variety of non-denominational evangelical churches. It was not hard to tell how the inquiring person felt about your choice of church by the look on their face as they proudly told you what church they attended, as if being a member there gave them the inside track on eternity and the size of the room or mansion they would receive upon entering the pearly gates.
Nevertheless, we were steered to an age-appropriate Sunday School Class led by a retired pastor and settled into our new church. It wasn’t long before we learned that many in the class did not approve of the new minister and refused to attend the services after Sunday School let out. Mike, the pastor, had replaced the previous pastor who had been there a very long time and had recently passed away. We liked Mike and his sermons were some of the best messages we had ever heard, you know, the ones you remembered long enough to discuss over lunch. When my Sunday School teacher realized that I had some knowledge of the New Testament and had taught Sunday School in my previous church, he bailed out and had me appointed as the Sunday School teacher for the malcontent class.
And that’s the problem the Apostle Paul was having with the church in Corinth. They had become split and fractured with divisions among the believers as to whom to follow or what doctrine to believe. They were not of one mind, and it was adversely impacting the calling of the Corinthian church Paul had planted on his second missionary trip.
After setting them up with his flowery introduction as to how blessed they are, how spiritually gifted they are, and how he thanks God for them Paul gets right to the issue at hand saying: Now I encourage you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Agree with each other and don’t be divided into rival groups. Instead, be restored with the same mind and the same purpose. Whoa! Hey Paul, where’s this come from? It would be kind of like me getting a phone call from the District Superintendent or worse yet, the Bishop regarding an issue here at the church. They’re probably thinking that judging by the beginning of his letter that things were going pretty well. It’s at this point that Paul lets them know that he’s received some information regarding some infighting that was becoming a real issue. He says: What I mean is this: that each one of you says, “I belong to Paul,” “I belong to Apollos,” “I belong to Cephas,” “I belong to Christ.” It is important to remember that this isn’t just one brick and mortar church that Paul is addressing. As I said last week, the church in Corinth was composed of several house-churches that would gather in the home of a believer and then at certain times all get together in one larger location, probably the large home of a wealthy believer for the sharing of the Lord’s Supper and worship. So, just like modern-day church shoppers these believers gravitated to a preaching that best suited them, a preaching that was within their comfort zone and probably not that challenging. Preachers even two thousand years ago didn’t want to lose followers, so they tended to tell them what they wanted to hear, not what they needed to hear. Paul then asks the rhetorical question: Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in Paul’s name? He thanks God that he didn’t baptize that many people as that seems to be the common denominator in who follows who. Paul is not saying that you can’t have a favorite preacher, one that you feel comfortable with and can trust what he or she says in their preachings. What he is saying is that preachers were not sent to specifically baptize people but to preach the good news. And, he says, Christ didn’t send me to preach the good news with clever words so that Christ’s cross won’t be emptied of its meaning. He’s talking about keeping the good news simple because it is simple and to beware of anyone who tries to complicate it or attach a meaning to it that isn’t supported by the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The Corinthian people had a reputation for jumping from fad to fad and it was Paul’s desire to keep the Corinthian believers and Christianity itself from degenerating into just another fad. And, according to Wesley, the divisions in the Corinthian church went beyond mere disagreements constituting a “alienation of affection from each other.” A painful divorce with irreconcilable differences was looming on the horizon. These divisions were making it easy for the opposition to use these superficial differences to divide and conquer the church.
The problems weren’t so much a difference of opinions as divided allegiances, pitting one teacher/preacher against another. This was complicated by the fact that there was no written New Testament yet, so the believers depended heavily upon preaching and teaching for spiritual insight into the meaning of the Old Testament which made it easy for believers to gravitate toward their favored preachers. Sadly, it didn’t get any better once the printing press was invented and the Gutenberg Bible began its mass production in the 1450s. Today we’ve found different hairs to be split when it comes to misinterpreting the simple teachings of Jesus Christ. I won’t even ask for a show of hands to see how many of you have gone through at least one church split or falling out over something so trivial you can’t remember it. Mike Massar, the Baptist preacher Teresa and I liked so much at First Baptist Tyler didn’t last long before the powers that be, those who held the purse strings, succeeded in running him off. And once he left it didn’t get any better. They were still not of one mind in Christ.
I am of the opinion that any preacher who proudly proclaims never having lost a parishioner isn’t really challenging the flock. Whenever two or more pastors are gathered in Jesus’ name this is what we talk about. Problems, issues, and disharmony in our churches. I usually come away thinking that I’m pretty fortunate not to have to deal with the discord they are wrestling with. You just hope that when it occurs that you will be guided by the Spirit who will bring you out on the other side no worse for wear. Unresolved differences between Christians work like brick walls and barbed-wire fences to undermine the effectiveness of the message that believers are to proclaim.
Paul wondered whether the Corinthians’ quarrels had “divided” Christ. The problems in Corinth painted a graphic picture of what happens when the church, the body of Christ, is divided into factions. And when you think about it, with the many churches and styles of worship available today, we too could get caught up in the same game of my preacher is better than yours or my denomination is closer to God than yours. To do so would be to divide Christ again.
Christian ministry should be a team effort. No preacher or teacher is a complete link between God and people, and no individual can do all that the apostles did. As 21st century Christians who are confronted with 21st century challenges to our faith, we need to be of one mind.
Let us pray.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; naught be all else to me, save that thou art. Yes, gracious and loving God, be our vision, show us by your Spirit your will and your way that we, your redeemed children, can be of one mind. We pray for the unity of all believers in the mission of your church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, a world transformed as you would have it with the restoration of your creation in accordance with your master plan. This we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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