Today’s Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 04/28/2024
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Diversity and Divisions
“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.” I Cor. 12:4,5
Let’s take a moment to consider the great diversity in God’s creation. It’s a wonder how Noah got two of every insect on the ark. The vastness of God’s creative capacity is an aspect of His character that we seldom consider even though we are surrounded by it.
The ancient Greek philosophers were mindful of diversity. In an effort to codify the universe, they narrowed it to four essences; earth, water, fire, and air. The fifth essence, (quintessence) was what they believed bound the four together. In their search for unity within diversity, they formed the university with that aim in mind.
In the above verse, Paul is about to embark on a teaching about diversity in the church. He begins with a list of nine Spiritual gifts, emphasizing that they all emanate from one, or “the same Spirit.” There are more than nine, but Paul’s point is about unity and diversity. Church would be boring if we were all the same, however, most people secretly wish such was the case and many whole churches gravitate toward that end. For instance, Sunday morning, from 9 am to 12:00 is the most ethnically divisive time in America.
In ch. 12:12 and on, Paul uses a human body as a metaphoric example of unity and diversity. In vrs. 17 he says, “If the whole body were and eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?” His point is that we are one body with many members and this one body is the body of Christ. We represent Christ and are His hands and feet in the earth. Vrs. 27, “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
Let’s keep the “in Christ” part in it’s rightful place of importance. Earlier in the epistle he says, “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’” 6:16
James writes, “friendship with the world is enmity with God”
Therefore, though the body of Christ is one, it is divisive from the world – meaning the world system; “principalities and powers…rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.” Eph. 6:12 Over whom Satan rules, called the “prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” Eph. 2:2
It is one matter for the church to be divisive with the world. There is good divisiveness and bad divisiveness. If it were not so then we would all be speaking with British accents. It’s a whole different matter for there to be divisiveness in the church. This is Paul’s overarching point that he is still hammering all the way into ch. 12.
In ch. 1:11 he says, “For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.” (contentions can also be translated as “quarrels”) And in 1:13 he says, “Is Christ divided?”
Where do quarrels come from? For that answer, we can fold back to James 4. “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” Js. 4:1-3
I should make some comment, at this time, about divisiveness in “The Church” en mass, over issues of doctrine. Sound doctrine is important. Paul is a big doctrine guy. In II Tim. 4:3 he says, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;” Boy are we there!
The bigger issue, I believe, is, can a church fellowship, that is divisive within itself, be unified with or in the body of Christ?
The unifying force, which Paul finally gets to in I Cor. 13, is love. Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jn. 13:35
I wish this was easy. Love can be complicated. Back to I Cor. now ch. 5, Paul counsels the church to put a man out of the fellowship who is sexually immoral to the extent that he, “has his father’s wife!” We may consider this mild by today’s standards where we cringe to call any act “sexually immoral.”
In Mt. 18:15-17 Jesus speaks of enforcing church discipline toward a brother who sins and is not repentant. Vrs. 17, “…But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.”
Of course we must keep this in the context of Jesus overarching teachings. How are we to behave toward heathen and tax collectors? Love them! For Jesus said, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
Paul goes on to say, “Love never fails” I Cor. 13:8
God’s heart is always toward reconciliation. In the scope of offenses we move, in a healthy fashion, from Godly sorrow, to confession, to forgiveness, to repentance, to reconciliation. This is God’s order. He set the example, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” II Cor. 5:18,19
Just imagine if we sought to reconcile within. That’s powerful! That will captivate the world for Christ.
I can’t help but to continue briefly in closing. Gal. 3:26-28, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Consider the ways we divide within the church. Socioeconomic, ethnic, by virtue of position, by virtue of common interests. It’s not possible to be BFF’s with everyone in the church. Last week we looked at friendship. Love ratchets up friendship. Someone has said, “we’re called to love everyone, but we’re not called to like everyone.” This is where love gets complicated, as I said.
As true ambassadors for Christ, let us love like Christ.
Suffer long, be kind, do not envy, do not parade yourself, do not behave rudely, do not rejoice in iniquity, rejoice in the truth.
“(love) does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” I Cor. 13:5
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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