divisions – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

The divisiveness that comes from pride and selfishness

In this passage, Paul once again addresses divisiveness in the Corinthian church.

We have already seen one example of this from chapter 1 where the Corinthians were arguing about which leader they were following. (1 Corinthians 1:10-15)

But here in chapter 11, we see the divisiveness that springs up from pride and selfishness. Paul writes,

In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.

In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.

No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. (1 Corinthians 11:17-19)

Many Bible teachers seem to take verse 19 as teaching that we need all our disputes over scripture (leading to all the denominations we have) in order to understand the truth as it really is in the Bible.

While there may be some germ of truth to that, I have always tended to think that Paul was being quite sarcastic here.

“Of course you HAVE to have differences among you. After all, you need to show which of you have God’s approval over all the others.”

In other words, I believe he was scathing them for their divisions because it was springing up from their pride. In trying to prove their own spiritual superiority, they started looking down on others.

Part of that perhaps went back to the old way of thinking the Jews had which said that riches were a sign of God’s blessing.

And so during the communion feasts they would celebrate as a church, the rich would charge in ahead of the poor and gorge themselves on the food, probably because they were the ones who had bought it in the first place.

Their thinking probably was, “Hey, I bought this food, so I should be able to eat it. If there are any scraps left after I’m done, then these others can take those, but I’m getting mine first.”

But Paul wrote,

Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this?

Certainly not! (1 Corinthians 11:22)

Paul was saying, “What are you guys doing? You are despising the very body of Christ that you’re supposedly celebrating by humiliating those of you who are poor.”

How were they despising Christ’s body? By their pride and selfishness.

How about you? Are you by your pride and selfishness causing division in Christ’s body?

Do you look down on others because they have less than you?

Do you despise others because they are less spiritual than you?

Are you always comparing your gifts to the ones others have, and selfishly hold on to “your territory?”

These kinds of attitudes can tear apart a church.

How do you see the people in your church?

Elevating people over Christ

I suppose it’s natural for people in the church to look up to Christian leaders as their example, and as the ones they admire.

After all, these leaders have been following Christ longer, and presumably have more wisdom and knowledge than we do. More, we can actually see them, and have face to face conversations with them.

By no means am I saying that it’s bad to look up to people within the church as role models. But the danger comes when we elevate them over Christ.

Instead of following Christ, we follow these leaders. Instead of making Christ our example, we look solely at our leaders.

One problem that can come from this is divisions within the church, as the Corinthians had. Some people were saying, “I follow Paul.” Others said, “I follow Apollos.” Others said, “I follow Cephas (Peter).”

And Paul gets very sarcastic saying,

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:13)

In other words, “Who are you following anyway?”

Later, he would tell them in chapter 3,

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe–as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)

In short, “Stop elevating people over God. The people are merely servants of God.

No one seeks to elevate the servant in the household, but the master. So why do we elevate the leaders in the church when they are merely servants?”

But so many people do. And we have seen it lead to divisions within the church today.

The other problem with elevating people above God is that they are merely human, and because of that, they will inevitably let us down.

And if our faith is based on the lives of these people rather than God, then when they fall or disappoint us, our faith will fall as well.

So let us not elevate people, no matter how godly they are, above him who died for us and rose again. Let us not get into fights over this pastor being better than that pastor.

Each has their own work as God has assigned it to them. It’s not our place to judge them, and we especially have no right to judge them compared to other pastors.

Leave the judgments to God who alone knows what he has required of them.

And let us not rest our faith on the faith of others. Rather let us rest our faith and hope in God alone.

If we rest our faith on others, we will inevitably be disappointed. But if we put our trust in Christ, we never will be put to shame. (Romans 10:11)