Week 44 1 Corinthians 1
A couple of weeks ago I saw how Luke described the NT church: all the believers were together and had everything in common…Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. So there’s quite a bit of harmony. Oneness.
But in Corinth there’s disharmony. Divisiveness. The conflict was between what I’d call Baptism Coalitions (today it seems like a quirky & baffling dispute but there’s no rule says arguments have to be sensible). Paul’s advice was pretty straightforward: I appeal to you…that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. So three main goals are spelled out: a) agreement & b) no divisions & c) unity.
If I’m in a group with ten guys (who all believe in the Lord) then – according to Paul – there should be some evidence of concurrence & consensus & coherence.
But ten guys sitting around and we all agree? What are the chances?
One of the places to start is for the ten of us to have a bottom-line short list of fundamentals. A few essentials that don’t need to get rehashed. Meat-and-potatoes values that we agree on. No doubt our “Baptism Coalitions” remain in place. But we try not to take them too seriously.
Note: quotes from Acts 2:44-46 & 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NIV)