Battles Among Christians Part 2

In 1 Corinthians, the church of Corinth was in conflict.

The City of Corinth was located on the Mediterranean, it was a wealthy trading center, also known for its wickedness, it was hard for the Corinth church to not act like society. In fact, they were taking sides against each other in the church.

Paul’s letter to the church of Corinth was to scold them and teach them how Christians should act. He wanted them to know right from wrong. Each view begins with the truth, but excludes the other truths, thus leading to over extensions of all the three truths. They began right, but end up being wrong.

Corinth was a very intellectual city, so the church of Corinth was no stranger to intellectual debates. These people had a passion for Christ, to the point that they were willing to die for their faith, but shortly after the church was begun, the people began dividing into three groups. 1. Those who were radical about the Christian view of freedom. 2. Those who believed that Christianity was a life of joy, and should be celebrated as such, although they went a little overboard in their celebrations. 3. Those who believed in strict rules and church discipline. There were also those who were not part of any of the groups. They simply wanted to go to church, learn the Word of God.

Paul begins as he usually does in his writings, teaching theology for the first few chapters, then in the last chapters, he applies this to their lives. I realize I am repeating this, but the Bible repeats many things, the reason, because it’s important. To know Paul’s pattern, which is done for a purpose, is important to remember.

He begins by starting from scratch in the teaching of theology. First, with divisions in the church(1 Corinthians 1: 10-17), then he speaks of the power and wisdom(seeing things through God’s point of view) of Christ (18-2:16), then speaks again on the divisions in the church.(3:1-23) He goes through all the doctrines he has previously taught them, concluding that all three views are correct, but also wrong.

1 Corinthians 13 is an important, albeit very quoted chapter among Christians. Paul says that they could all have the gifts, the education, the right doctrine, but without love, it means nothing.

Verse 12 however is the key to solving church conflict. “Now we see through a” poor reflection”(NIV) We interpret scripture based on our finite human understanding. “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully as I am fully known.”

He was telling the church of Corinth that they only have part of the picture, yet they are fighting as if they have the full picture. They were fighting as if they were right and everyone else was wrong, the truth being that they were all right, yet all wrong.

I believe this can be applied to those who would battle today. We don’t have the monopoly on truth. There are two many things not essential that are not clear in scripture, and as we aim to get it right, as we all love God equally, the truth is, we are right and we are wrong just like the church of Corinth, and we are foolish to believe any of us have the monopoly on truth. According to 1 Corinthians, the opposit is true, we don’t.

We can learn from each other, we can agree to disagree on matters such as alcohol, how to dress, music, worship styles, where to hold church, Reformed faith, non-Reformed faith, and thousands of other things we as Southern Baptists have been fighting about for a couple hundred years. Kindness and treating each other with the respect due to every human being should be our behavior. This too according to Paul in 1 Corinthians. We are brothers and sisters in Christ if we have the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, not because we agree on every jot and tittle of doctrine. Something the church of Corinth didn’t even do.

After 1 Corinthians, Paul then begins to teach the people how to apply the things he has told them in the earlier chapters, to their lives. He talks about how a local church should conduct it’s services, how the people are to act. We would do well as the people of God today to read these chapters over and over again.

Look throughout church history, it is a history of battles, wars, against Satan? No, against other Christians. The trend continues.

Yet, we are to be different, we have something the world does not, but no one would know this by our battling all the time, just like the world.

We say we believe in ierrancy and infalliblity of the Bible, not just certain parts, but all of it from Genesis to Revelation. Isn’t it time we behaved as though that were true? Studying all of the Bible and not just become an expert in one book, or select passages?

Yes, we could study a lifetime and not know it all, but we need to begin to behave as who we are in Christ. The new creation Paul speaks of.Battling each other over non-essentials, which takes time away from study and giving of the gospel, is miles away from who we are. It’s the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us, who causes us to persevere, not each other hounding one another.

We, the church of Christ,  need to begin to be a model for the world, not model the world.

Something more to think about.