According to the Scriptures

Damian Kyle: You say, "Are you a Christian?" and somebody says, "Yes, I am a Christian." And then the first word is, "What kind of Christian are you? Are you a Methodist, Presbyterian? Oh, we hate those Presbyterians. We hate those Methodists." And Jesus, in terms of sectarianism, he was not interested in it at all. Campbell Morgan had it right, and not to elevate a denomination or any other identification in a church or in a local body.

Guest (Male): It's great to have you in our listening family, and welcome to According to the Scriptures online at accordingtothescriptures.com. Today, we're going to jump back into our study of 1 Corinthians, which addresses many of the problems going on in the church at Corinth. One of them being contentions and divisions. A problem in our day to be sure, so there's a lot here for us to take in and apply. Here's Pastor Damian Kyle starting us off with this thought-provoking question.

Damian Kyle: Am I a contentious and divisive Christian? And they exist. They're always stirring the pot, always stirring the pot. "You know, that's a good church, but... And that's a good Christian, but... Or that's a good home fellowship, but..." And they're always stirring things up. So to ask ourselves whether we're the source of that kind of division, of that kind of contention within the church that we attend.

Now, it is important to mention at this point that not all division within a church and all contention within a church is carnal or that it's wrong. Sometimes division and contention is absolutely necessary. Sometimes it is a characteristic—well, it is always the characteristic of a healthy church when something unhealthy has been introduced into it.

For example, if a church has to rise up, for instance, their leadership and oppose those who are introducing false doctrine into the church. Now, there's going to be a contention there. There's going to be a division related to that, but it's necessary. It's what pastors are called to do.

Or if church leadership has to rise up and firmly address Christians attending the church who are willfully and deliberately, habitually, lifestyle-practicing sin, and a life of sin contrary to the word of God. And now they're soiling the reputation of God in the community, soiling the reputation of a local church within the community.

And so, we're not talking about struggling sinners. We're not talking about Christians who struggle against sin, join the crowd, or resist sin or are tempted. Not talking about that kind of person that leadership has to deal with, but someone who has just settled in and willfully engaged in a lifestyle of sin. They want to deliberately engage in sin and yet enjoy the blessings of Christian fellowship.

But the division and the contention at the church at Corinth was not spiritual. It was carnal. And he tells us, thankfully, he tells us the cause of their division and their contention. And you have these cliques or you have these sects within the church were being formed based upon the personality and the style of the various leaders within the body of Christ, various leaders within the church.

So we talk today, and people lament it, about secular culture. They'll talk about the cult of personality and how terrible the cult of personality is in the world today. But it's not a new thing, and it certainly isn't a new thing concerning Christians. It has been around for a very, very long time. It's as old as the church at Corinth.

Now, Paul is not condemning denominations within the body of Christ as a whole or non-denominations within the body of Christ as a whole, as long as we do not make our denominational identification more important than our identity as Christians. Or we make our denominational or non-denominational affiliation a badge of pride or a badge of superiority.

And so that we possess the importance of possessing the maturity to recognize that there are churches all over the world and churches in this community and different church associations that exist that are necessary because of the diversity within the body of Christ and the diversity of Christians within a community that are looking for a church to attend and to grow in.

And that diversity, because of the differences in churches and church associations, allows individual Christians to then find the best place for them to grow as Christians. And so based upon the Christian's personality, based upon their temperament, based upon where they are in terms of their growth in spiritual maturity and their Christian life.

Sometimes I'll see someone, usually on a Sunday morning—if you're falling asleep, I'm not talking about you—but sometimes on a Sunday morning, they'll come in and they're a visitor, and they are clearly looking for a church that they want to attend and they've made dropping in on us as a part of their search. And they are sound asleep in five minutes.

I know they're looking for a different church. I'm not offended by that at all. So somehow this doesn't click for them on some kind of a level, and I'm willing to accept that. I say to the Lord from the very beginning, "Lord, whatever there is, as long as somebody thinks this is helpful in the body of Christ in the city of Modesto, I'll be very happy with that."

I know as much as anybody knows that this church isn't for everyone. It isn't for every Christian. You have to have a special grace in your life to attend this church. I'm joking, but it's true. It's true about any church. And so we are what we are, but we are not the right thing for everyone else.

And so somebody says, "Well, you know, I try to go over there and blah, blah, blah." Okay, it's not for you. Where'd you land? "I landed over here." Great. Are you growing in the Lord? Hallelujah. That's fabulous. And so that's going on all the time. You know that from our own lives.

So you have some people, they have as a part of just how they are made and where they are in their Christian life, they want a more doctrinal kind of church that emphasizes the teaching of the word of God. Then there are other people, based upon where they are presently, is they want something that's very emotional.

And so they want to be moved emotionally. They want stories, they want to hear the Bible taught, but they want illustrations about puppies and about kittens and these kind of things and then sad songs and people getting hit by trains and all whatever kind of a deal that it might be that gets that emotion for them.

And then you have people, as Pastor Chuck taught us a long time ago in terms of the diversity of people, you have people that are very liturgical in nature. So they like the churches that are what are referred to as the "smells and the bells" churches. There's a lot of ringing of bells, there's incense going on, all of that. They like the fact that I go to this church and that service hasn't changed in that denomination for 1,600 years.

You go there and you get the same thing, the same words every single week. And they love it and they grow under it, and there's nothing wrong with that if that's where they're supposed to be.

Now, it appears here in verse 12 that there are four rival cliques that exist in Corinth. You have one clique made up of, "I am of Paul." So you had a group within the church that said, "I like Paul best. I like him, he's a pure teacher, he's a content guy, and just a no-nonsense plow forward, change the world personality, and I like him. I like that kind of a man."

And then somebody else says, "No, I don't want to join that camp. I'm of Apollos." And so there were those that said, "No, not Paul. Apollos is the best. He's the best one in this church." And they liked him best. And Apollos was a very, very gifted speaker, very, very articulate, very gifted orator, and no one would ever fall asleep during one of Apollos's sermons.

And then there was a group that said, "I am of Cephas," that is Peter. "I like Peter better than Paul and better than Mary even, and so I like Peter better than Paul. He was one of the original apostles. He was with Jesus for three and a half years and knew him personally. And I like Peter. He's a little more conservative than the apostle Paul, a little less prone to adopt change and a little more old school."

And then you had a group within the church that said, "No, I am of Christ." Well, of course, that's very commendable, but here we're talking about the super-spiritual person. And of course, all of us are of Christ, but somehow they were making this claim to say, "I am of Christ." Every bit as sectarian as "I am of Paul" or "I am of Apollos" or "I am of Cephas."

And I would guess that those who formed this group within the church were kind of unwilling to speak favorably of any man. It doesn't matter what his giftings or accomplishments or calling is, out of some fear that saying anything nice about them at all would rob Christ of his glory. And so sometimes a person can get a chip on their shoulder in this regard and they're determined to disrespect any and all leadership in a local church.

And yet Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, which we'll get to in three years, he said, "And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly and love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves." And so there's nothing wrong with keeping Christ first and then appreciating his servants.

So in this kind of sectarianism was something that existed in the church at Corinth because it was something that they brought into the church from the outside. Sectarianism very much dominated the Greek culture and the culture there in Corinth, where people would identify themselves as followers of Socrates or Plato or Aristotle or Epicurus, and you go right down the line.

And so now they just said, "Well, that's what we were doing when we were in the world. Now we'll carry it into the church, and we will be followers of these groups within these leaders within the church." But our supreme identification in the body of Christ, of course, is Jesus, not any of his servants, not any of his instruments.

And if we make a servant of the Lord more important to us than the Lord himself, then that is taking a personal preference for their style or their personality too far. But having said that, I do want to say that there's nothing wrong, for instance, with calling a church office—certainly this church office—and saying, "I would like an appointment with a particular pastor."

Now, schedule-wise, that may be difficult—certainly be difficult to see me, but I'm an old man. I've got to spend my time in other things presently for the most part. But there's nothing wrong with saying about a pastor on a staff that I can connect with that person, and I trust that person, and when he speaks to me from the word, I understand what it is that he's saying. There's nothing wrong with having that kind of a preference within a local church. We all do that.

There's nothing wrong with having favorite Bible teachers. We all do that. There are Bible teachers—we all have our favorites. We're somebody says, "This guy's the great, you've got to listen, right here," and they hand you the link or whatever it is, and they're all excited about it. It's the word's not going to return void, but it's not your cup of tea.

And it's too emo or it's too this or whatever, and there's nothing wrong with that, with saying, "You know, I hear God's voice and his truth speaking to my heart best under the teaching of this person or this person and that person, and that's why they're my favorites." And that goes the same thing for women Bible teachers as they teach women. There's nothing—that's not being forbidden here in any way.

The key is to recognize that the preference for someone else over one person over someone else may indeed be different, and that's great. It's just how God intends it. Every member of the body of Christ, we have our place. We're all different. But it doesn't turn into division like it did here.

I think G. Campbell Morgan has the quote, at least that I've heard in this vein, on not being sectarian. He's quoted as saying, "I have found that the more spiritual a man is, the less denominational he is." And it's true. The more spiritual a man is, the less denominational or even non-denominational that a man will be.

So we've all run into, I think, and it's certainly gotten a lot better in the 40 years that I've been a pastor. It was really bad back then compared to how it is now. But back in those days where the denomination, the identification with a denomination, and defending a church denomination as being better than these other people, "This is better than the Baptists and these are better than the Presbyterians" and all of that.

And you had this thing where a denominational affiliation was more important to people than Christ and identifying with him and identifying with him would supremely mean understanding the unity that exists between the body of Christ.

And so this thing where somebody find out somebody says something and you say, "Oh, are you a Christian?" and then they'll say, "Yes, I'm a Christian." And then today, more so than ever in my lifetime, then people will say, "Wasn't the Lord good to you, and isn't he so fabulous?" and all of this kind of thing.

And then it might go over to "What church do you attend?" and that kind of a deal. But where you somebody you say, "Are you a Christian?" and somebody says, "Yes, I am a Christian." And then the first word is, "What kind of Christian are you? Are you a Methodist, Presbyterian? Oh, we hate those Presbyterians. We hate those Methodists."

And Jesus, in terms of sectarianism, he was not interested in it at all. Campbell Morgan had it right, and not to elevate a denomination or any other identification in a church or in a local body. We're affiliated with Calvary Chapel movement around the world, but I never elevate that affiliation above Christ. You never hear me do that.

Because as important as it is, it doesn't even remotely approach the fact that we are about Jesus Christ. And so Jesus, of course, being the definitive voice related to this, you remember he rebuked this sectarian spirit in his disciples. And Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side. Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. We forbade him because he doesn't follow us."

He's casting out demons. I mean, how happy is the person that had the demons cast out of them? Now you're going to rebuke them and tell them to stop. That's where it can go. And Jesus rebuked it in the apostles. We're told in verse 11 that all of this was made known to the apostle Paul by those of Chloe's household.

In other words, all of this sectarianism, these divisions, the contention that was going on, it had grown and bloomed into being very well known within the community. It was widely known that this was dominating the church. And I say three cheers and utmost respect to the household of Chloe for making this known to Paul.

They had a high view of the church in the household of Chloe. And so they felt strongly enough about the health and the future of that local church in Corinth and the importance of a local church period that they recognized that this is a danger to the very existence of the future existence of this church, and they brought it to someone's attention. They brought it to Paul's attention.

And they didn't just bring it to anybody's attention. They brought it to Paul's attention because Paul was a part of the solution. We are never gossiping when we involve someone in a situation that needs attention, when we involve someone who is a part of the solution. It is gossip when I speak these things to someone who has no need to know because they're not a part of the solution.

And so they spoke to Paul because he's a part of the solution to this. The letter comes out of it, in part, and it really takes courage for someone to do that. And the thing we notice too concerning Chloe is that he was willing to then be identified with the information. He didn't say, "Listen, Paul, this is an anonymous source. You can never tell them where this came from."

I mean, sometimes it has to be that way. There's complications related to it, and then that creates additional work for Paul or any leader to deal with that, but sometimes something like that is required. But he told Paul concerning himself and his household, "We are willing to be identified as the source of this information to you, and we stand by it." It's amazing how many Christians can remain silent when you've got these kind of dangers going on in a church and not say anything until it's kind of engulfed in flames and in real trouble.

Guest (Male): We're talking about the damage of contentions and divisions today on According to the Scriptures, as we continue through 1 Corinthians with Pastor Damian Kyle. Hey, thanks for hanging out with us.

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