I Corinthians 1:10 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
The believers at Corinth had a problem, namely, other believers at Corinth. In I Corinthians 1:10 it says, “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.” Now, the only way to be likeminded is to be like Christ. Christ had a heart of humility and obedience to the Father, which is an incredible thing. That is what the believers in Corinth needed. Verse 11 says, “For it hath been declared unto me by you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.” So, the problem at this church is obvious; the problem is contention, and really the problem is comparison.
What follows are the divisions that existed. All of us have perhaps a favorite preacher and that is fine. However, even that can become a problem. In verses 12-13 Paul says, “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?” Sometimes we can be divided because this is my favorite preacher and someone else has another favorite preacher. Sometimes we can compare how many we have baptized, in our particular church. Paul says, “I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius; lest any should say that I baptized in my own name…For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.”
So, we can be divided about our favorite preachers or how many were baptized last year. Now, we should be aware of numbers. We count the things that matter to us. If we are going to count the offering, I think we should count the number of people saved and the number of people who are brought into the church. That is good. However, comparison often brings division. As an evangelist, the loaded question is, “Are you busy?” The correct answer is, “Oh, yes! We are busy, busy, busy. I preached in Indianapolis one Sunday and in Florida the next Sunday. I’m so busy.” Well, everyone is busy, but this is something else with which we compare ourselves.
Think about comparison. Only by pride cometh contention. Pride is largely a matter of “how do I compare to them.” It’s not that I’m rich or smart or gifted, but that I am richer than him, smarter than her, or more powerful than they are. It’s a matter of comparison. Even without comparison we all have a sin nature that can lead to pride, but pride has a lot less to work with when we are not comparing ourselves.
Pride says, “What do I want?” Six of the seven times the word “puffed,” as in puffed up, proud, arrogant, inflated, have a large head, is used in the New Testament it is in I Corinthians. But, the ethic of I Corinthians says, “What does God want?” That is humility. Humility is not thinking lowly of myself, but thinking of myself as God thinks of me. What does God want? It is amazing how liberating that is. If I am going through life thinking, “What do I want? How do I compare?” that leads to contention. When I go through life saying, “What does God want?” that is humility and that is liberating.
Throughout the book you find the call of God. Paul says in verse 1 that he was called to be an apostle. In verse 2 he says that these people were called to be saints. In verse 9 he says that we are called to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ. That word is used throughout the book. The idea is that of “what would God call for, what would He will or want.” Paul and Apollos were not in contention, the people who followed them were. Paul used his own case as an example of what we should be doing, showing humility by asking the question, “What does God want?” God gifted you differently and to complement other people in the body of Christ. You didn’t gift you; God did. What does Gods want?
God placed you. I Corinthians 12:18 says that God has placed us in the body “as it hath pleased him.” Now, God’s gifting largely indicates God’s calling. If God called you to do something, then God has gifted you to do something. Charles Spurgeon once said, “Gentlemen, if you cannot preach, God did not call you preach.” He simply meant that God will gift you to do what God has placed you to do. God gifted you, placed you, and God also promotes you. Promotion may come up from the east or the west, but God raises it up.
The bottom line is that we are liberated from all the contention that comes when we are thinking about ourselves and others when we simply say, “What does God want?”