Division of the Church

I Corinthians 1: 10
10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

Paul wrote the letter to the Church of Corinth because he had heard from several sources that the Church was in trouble. There was division among its members along with many reports of followers straying form the true teachings of Christ. It is believed that the writing was from somewhere between 55 - 57 AD. It is no wonder why the Church community is in the state it is now almost 2000 years later.

Today we see division throughout the Christian faith. Where the people of Corinth wanted to say that they held different beliefs according to who baptized them, people today want to say that they are Catholic, or Protestant, or Baptist, or...well you get the idea. We have become Faiths within the Faith. As I have posted before, we have let the traditions of man divide us, instead of letting the teachings of Christ bring us together. I am not going to go in to all of the differences between various Christian Faiths. Instead, I want to delve a little deeper in to the division of the Church at the individual Church level.

I believe that we should be united as a Faith, but at the very least we should be united at the church level. However at most of the Churches I have attended that is not the case. Each Church has what I think of as layers of members. You have the core group, you have the loosely affiliated, and then you have the major holiday attendees. This is where I see the most division. What I mean by that is these groups remind me much of high school. Within each group you have the "cool" kids that run the group, then you have the guys that just want to make sure they are in the "right" group. As a result the Core group tends to make it hard for the loosely affiliated to get in to their group, and let's be honest the holiday attendees don't figure in to the equation at all.

We should recognize this for what it is and do whatever we can to break the cycle. There is no "group” there are people doing the best they can to be the best Christian that they can be. We all do not start from the same line in our belief. Paul asks the Corinthians to recall this as well (1Corinthinans 1: 26-30) “26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” So when a person who shows interest is met with a laundry list of requirements to be part of a group they are typically left with a feeling of "why bother". The more your faith grows the more your acceptance of others shortcoming should grow as well. Remember where you starting point was. When Christ walked this earth he did not deny anyone who came to him with faith, why should we be any different?

When people make an effort in the church community, it should be met with excitement, and thankfulness, not with expectation, and pretensions. We have to make an effort to break down the barriers that divide us within the Church. When the barriers that man put up start to fall, is when you can see the open hand reach out in compassion, and love. Just as Christ patiently waited on us to come in to the fold, then rejoiced when we accepted him. We must do the same for our fellow brethren. There is but one group we should want to belong to, and that is the group of Christ. Any other "click" especially within the Church, does not matter.

I am sure you saw this coming but we should work to extend this same outlook in our daily lives towards people who are not part of our Church. Sunday is not for "saving souls" or “converting” anyone. Sunday is a recharge day, a day for us to come together as one group and reaffirm and offer encouragement for each other. That puts Monday thru Saturday on the list of days to reach out to others. We cannot effectively do that if we have built walls around our lives. We have to be able to reach out to those on the fringe, and offer them hope, and compassion. You can't do that if you are worried about being one of the "cool kids". Christ was not an elitist; Psalm 118:22 says: “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone” he came from humble beginnings and led a humble life. He accepted all that came to him for salvation, knowing that all were not perfect, but through his sacrifice all would become equal.
So in the Church community and in our everyday lives we should remember we are equals no better or worse. We will preach the good news to those who will listen, and accept them flaws and all, just as Christ accepts us.


Peace,
Rev. T