How to Divide a Church

The Wednesday feature of the Worldly Saints blog is a Scriptural meditation whereby I take a verse or passage I have been pondering lately and seek to edify my readers with it’s promises, encouragements, warnings, rebukes, etc.

As I am preparing to preaching on I Corinthians 3:18-23 in a few weeks, my thoughts a few months in to preaching this book have been heavy in the area of unity and division in the local church. It is clear this was a foundation problem in the church, as Paul’s 1^st line of rebuke was their preferring men over the Lord and causing jealousy and strife in their midst.

As a reprise for the members of Wichita Bible Church, I thought I would re-post a few words from the sermon I preached on I Corinthians 1:10-17, a sermon I titled “Divided We Fall.” In it, shared three ways that Paul addresses that divide a church.

When you don’t have a common agreement on the foundational matters in a church, you have division. You have discord. You have disunity. Jesus says it this way,

“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:24-25).

You must agree on the foundations and not create foundations out of things that are meant to be peripheral. And when you don’t do this, you have schism.

Satan loves disunity. He loves to see church splits, bickering, slander, etc. He loves to see evil used to erode the unity of God’s people. John MacArthur wisely said,

“What the Lord laments and opposes, Satan applauds and fosters. Few things demoralize, discourage, and weaken a church as much as bickering, backbiting, and fighting among its members. A few things so effectively undermine its testimony before the world. Quarreling is a reality in the church because selfishness and other sins are realities in the church. Because of quarreling the Father is dishonored, the Son is disgraces, His people are demoralized and discredited, and the world is turned off and confirmed in unbelief. Fractured fellowship robs Christians of joy and effectiveness, robs God of glory, and robs the world of the true testimony of the gospel. A high price for an ego trip!”[1]

Our unity and devotion to one another is meant to be a witness to the world. It is meant to be a reflection of the very precious, perfect unity in the Godhead. And when our unity is not genuine or non-existent, our witness is tampered and polluted.

So if you want to kill the unity of a church, here is how you would do it

1.   Fight over non-essentials.

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment” (vs. 10).

He says they should “all … agree.” In our English, this phrase doesn’t communicate well, because, no one agrees with everyone on everything, do they? It’s important to pay attention to every little phrase in this verse. Look at the phrase that precedes it: “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that …” In other words, the phrase “that you all agree” is referring back to “the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You could say, “Agree with everything Jesus taught,” or “the Gospel Jesus preached.” The context would suggest the Corinthians were arguing and dividing over non-essentials.

So the idea is simply this: we are going to have differences in opinion and even interpretation of Scripture, but one thing we cannot afford to debate or disagree on is the Gospel. We must agree on the essentials. The Gospel is not to be a smorgasbord of doctrine where we pick and choose what to believe or reject. It is a collection of essential truths that cannot and should be divided over.

A quick way to create a denomination or split into a dysfunctional, disunified church is to fight over non-essentials. Paul says, “Avoid people who are only interested in dividing the church” (Rom 16:17).

If you want to divide a church, find a non-essential, prioritize it, convince everyone else they should feel as passionately about it as you, and speak out against those who disagree with you. That is one way to create disunity in the church real quick.

2.   Give your loyalty to men (vs. 11-12).

“For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’”

People were “quarreling,” which points to hot disputes that ignited a rivalry between two parties. In the Corinthians case, there were four parties.

1. “I follow Paul” crowd – These people were loyal to Paul, because they had likely been in Corinth from the beginning when he planted the church. It was probably a group of Gentiles, since he was their Apostle. Paul functioned like their spiritual father – “… For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (I Cor 4:15). They were loyal to their beginnings – the way Paul set up the church – no matter what changes ever needed to be made.

2. “I follow Apollos” crowd – He was probably followed by this crowd because of his speaking ability. He was from Alexandria, which was an academic city that trained in rhetoric and came to Christ under Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:24-28). Thus, he was followed because of his preaching ability. Today, they might be the crowd who was more into what was modern or current. They were into style.

3. “I follow Cephas” crowd – This was the Apostle Peter, who was followed by a Jewish group. This means he likely visited Corinth at some point and was widely known as the leader in the universal church. Perhaps this group was more influenced by mentoring or pastoring from afar.

4. “I follow Christ” crowd – It might sound holy to say “I follow Christ,” but since they are lumped in with these other divisive groups, we have to assume Paul was calling them out as well. This group over-spiritualized the situation. They were the “holier-than-thou” crowd. It’s not really a Christly loyalty. They may have been the worst group of the four.

Every church has had people fitting into these categories. And when you have people whose loyalties are not where they should be, you have a divided church.

We idolize men too much in the modern church. We say, “I follow Francis Schaeffer”, “I follow John MacArthur”, “I follow Chip Ingram” or “I follow Billy Graham.” These men are just sheep of our True Pastor Jesus Christ (Col 1:18).

If you are quoting men as authoritative – no matter how holy they may be – more than God’s Word, your loyalty is in the wrong place and it will divide the church. If you start following a man’s blog, buying all his books, listen to all his sermons and then look down on anyone else who isn’t, you may be showing your loyalty to man and not to God.

3.   De-value the Gospel (vs. 13-17).

“Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.). For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

There is not one single Christian figure who can help you with even one of your sins and atone for it before God – not Martin Luther, not Charles Spurgeon, not Charles Wesley, not St. Augustine, no one. And to de-value the Gospel in favor of a man will divide your church. To do that is to de-value the cross.

Paul’s priority wasn’t to “baptize”; it was “to preach the Gospel.” He is not trying to empty baptism of it’s meaning but elevate the Gospel itself. He knew that the problem in the Corinthian church was that their divisions over baptisms and church leader preferences and non-essentials were killing this church. And all of these really point to the reality that the Gospel was not their central focus.

Any de-valuing of the Gospel will not only divide a church, but it will really un-church the church. A church with no Gospel is no church at all.

When Jesus was in the Upper Room, He left His disciples with critical lessons to take with them on their journeys making disciples, planting and pastoring churches, etc. He knew their temptation and fleshly desire would be to run off on their own whim and do their own thing. He knew they’d be tempted to do things in their own power and without support and accountability of the church. So Jesus prayed this way –

“²⁰ I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:20-26).

Jesus desired unity for His disciples and for the church today. Look back at vs. 20 – “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.”

As we draw this to a conclusion, I want to you take these three things with you:

1. Unity is possible. In the name of Christ, unity can happen in a church. Christ would pray for something that is not possible.

2. Unity is never automatic. Sin will disrupt it every chance it gets. Thus, it is going to take effort. It is going to take patience. It is going to take forgiveness. It is going to take putting aside your own agenda(s).

3. Unity comes with maturity. It should be set by the leaders of the church but it can and should be followed by the people. God establishes high standards for leaders so he can give the people to aspire to become … especially in their unity.

If we are divided we will fall; if united, we will represent Christ to the world and win people into His kingdom.

[1] MacArthur, 24