The danger of disunity (guest post by Logan Wolf)

Today’s post was written by Logan Wolf. Logan is the pastor of New Morning Church, a church plant in Provo, Utah. I met Logan via Twitter quite a while ago, and asked him to write a post because of his different perspective. Actually, from a glance, you would see that Logan and I probably would not choose to do many things (anything?) the same way in the church. Yet we both want to see the gospel go forward, so we collaborate the best we can. I enjoyed reading his post, and I think you will as well.

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The Corinthian church was diverse, composed of both Gentiles and Jews. With diversity always comes the danger of disunity. From Paul’s letter to the Corinthians we know that is exactly what had happened. He writes in 1 Corinthians 1:10-13:

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. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

Divisions and contentions, literally splits and quarrels, had arisen and were hindering the work of this church. These believers rallied around different men and, from what we know of these men, different styles of teaching and ministry. You can imagine Gentiles proudly labeling themselves Paulians or Apollonians, pointing to Paul’s authority as the founder of the church or emphasizing Apollos’ eloquence and speaking ability. Doubtlessly Jews gathered around the name of Cephas, or Peter, and Christ, Cephians pointing to long standing Jewish tradition and Christians boasting in the purity of their faith.

This labeling and classification, and the resulting splits and quarrels, is implicative of today. I’m conservative; I’m liberal; I graduated from Southeastern; I graduated from Free Will Baptist Bible College; I’m pro-International Missions department; I’m a local church missions guy; I’m KJV only; I use the ESV; and the list continues ad nuaseam. Designations and distinctions such as conservative, liberal, or even the title Free Will Baptist, may seem like the most important things in the world. The Corinthians certainly thought so. However, rather than give his stamp of approval to one group and elevate it above the rest, Paul emphasized the unity of Jesus and His headship.

It’s clear that these factions resulted from a failure to recognize Jesus as Lord, the ultimate authority and standard, in that Paul saw fit to emphasize that title 59 times throughout the letter. This too is implicative of today. Like seems to have been the case with the Corinthians, today preferences get more attention than is due them. As such, they overshadow the teaching of the church being Jesus’ unified body specifically and the authority of the Bible generally. A quote from Trevor McIlwain is extremely applicable here:

The majority of Christian teaching emphasizes individual doctrines of the Bible rather than presenting the Bible as one complete, interdependent revelation of God. Heresies, misinterpretation, overemphasis of certain Scriptures, and denominationalism can, in most cases, be traced to this lack of chronological and panoramic Bible teaching.

If I allow Jesus to be Lord and the Bible to be the standard and you do the same, then from what I see in Paul’s letter everything that divides us will begin to shift from the center of our focus to the periphery. Those things won’t disappear, but they won’t hinder us from working together as a unified whole for the cause of Christ.

Don’t miss your chance

I took our dog outside recently so she could do what needed to be done. Lucy is a 50 lb black lab / cocker spaniel mix. I leashed her up and walked her outside, but left the front door open. As I stood on the porch, and Lucy was walking around, our cat sneaked out the front door and paused on the porch. Lucy loves our cat–so much that she would eat her if she could. But Lucy didn’t see her. The cat slowly crept past her until she was out of harm’s way.

I couldn’t help but think that Lucy missed her chance and she didn’t even know it. Then I wondered, “How many times have I missed an opportunity because I wasn’t paying attention?”

Work. You get wrapped up in the duties of the day and just hope you can survive until tomorrow. Or worse, you were wasting time on your phone because you knew you get finished, but your work was not done well. Did you miss the chance to make a positive impression on your boss?

School. You’ve thought about taking some classes or going back to finish your degree, but you just haven’t done it yet. Have you missed the chance to increase your knowledge?

Home. You really want to lead your family and be the right Christian example, but instead of having family devotions, you spend your time on Facebook. Or you love your spouse, but you’re not doing much to show it. This may the scariest of all. Have you missed the chance to train up your children in the way they should go? Have you lost the opportunity to build your family’s legacy?

Witness. If losing the chance to be right husband and father is the scariest, then losing the chance to witness is the most common. In all the areas above, how many people in your life (not strangers) need to know how Jesus has changed you? How many people will not accept the gift of salvation because you didn’t share it with them? I hope that sobering question guides your and my actions today.