Thoughts from The Bible

Thoughts from the Bible

Tuesday, 15 October 2024 09:09

Digging Out of Division
If you read the article last week, you know that I left you in a terrible state. Unfortunately, it is the very same state the Lord found you in when He called you to Himself. A state in which you lived by “I” and for “I.” The basis for all of your life was very self-centered – in all your thoughts, your opinions and your judgments. But when you came to faith in Christ, you began to understand that your old way is certainly not the Lord’s way. And so, you began a life-long journey of repentance as you turned from your way of thinking and began walking in the wisdom of God’s Word.
1 Corinthians was written as a response to a report that the Apostle Paul had received from a lady named Chloe and some people associated with her. The report was not good. The church had turned back to that old way of living where their behavior was determined by their own opinions. The result of that self-centered, self-exalting behavior was causing division in God’s church at Corinth.

If you have been an active church goer for any length of time, you may have endured the incredibly painful experience of division in a church. The pain associated with that is second only to the experience of division in a marriage or with one of your own children. In other words, it is excruciating. It leaves a mark on your life that sometimes never goes away.

But, there is good news! God has given us a remedy in His Word that will cure the illness of division well before there is ever separation. The remedy is found in 1 Corinthians 1:10. “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment,” (NASB). What wonderful news! The way to prevent divisions in the church is by agreement with one another. All we have to do is have the “same mind,” which means to think the same things and have the “same judgment,” which means we should have the same opinion about things. So when we the same mindset and same opinion about a matter, everything will be as Paul says “made complete,” which means repaired or mended like a broken bone that is reset and bound for healing.

Well, wait just a minute! Whose opinion and whose judgment wins out? Is it the pastor’s opinion that wins, and everyone else needs to change their views? Is it the deacons or trustees? Is it the oldest family, largest family or most influential family in the church? Is it the wealthiest? Or is it simply the squeaky wheel gets the oil, so to speak? Whose opinion wins? Sadly, every scenario in many churches have won the war of opinions. But as Christians there is only one thing that stands above each and every person, and it is not the most powerful church member or church leadership. It is the Word of God.
One of the most frustrating things for me in life is the silly response that so many use in regard to the Word of God when they say, “Oh, that’s just how you interpret it.” In every area of our lives we use the same rules for interpreting information. Every text, every conversation, every workplace rule, and every law of the land we interpret literally and grammatically. The problem is never interpretation or understanding of what is being said – the issue is always obedience. The very same rules of interpretation apply to the Bible. Likewise, no matter what excuse you have, your problem is not the interpretation of the Bible, but obedience to it.

When Paul tells the church at Corinth, the way to dig out of division is to think the same things and to have the same judgments, he is telling the church that it is the Word of God that is supposed to shape our every thought and judgment in life. And when we allow that to happen, we experience the joys of unity – unity with each other in the church and unity with God.