1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you... For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you... Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?... For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

The ancient cure for a divided church—and a divided world—is a faithful God who has called us into fellowship and a gospel we dare not dress up.

A Church Full of Problems

Paul is writing to a church he founded in Corinth, the chief city of Achaia—a church with many problems. We can identify with them, because there are many problems in our modern churches just as there were twenty centuries ago. The carnality and immorality Paul confronts in Corinth are very much things we deal with today. One great Bible teacher used to call the book of 1 Corinthians "the book of 1 Californians," because the problems they faced are so similar to what we see in our day and in our state.

Last week we covered the first eight verses, where Paul brought the church back to the foundation. With all the problems they faced, he reminded them they had received grace and peace through the Lord Jesus Christ, that they had been enriched by Him, and that they had a testimony because of Him. Verse nine forms a great bridge between that opening section and Paul's first exhortation.

God Is Faithful

Circle those words in your Bible: God is faithful. That is a great reminder for us today. The Bible reveals God. Yes, there is general revelation—when you look at the moon, the stars, and creation, you know that God is. "The heavens declare the glory of God." Creation cries out that there is a Creator. But the full revelation of His will, His nature, and what He is like is found in the Scriptures.

The Scriptures reveal many things about God. When Moses stood before the burning bush and asked God's name, God answered, "I AM THAT I AM," revealing Himself as the ever-existing One. He is revealed as the Provider (Genesis 22), as a Shield (Genesis 15), as a Healer (Exodus 15). God is love (1 John 4). God is merciful and gracious (Exodus 34). God is just, eternal, and salvation itself. And here in 1 Corinthians 1:9, we see that God is faithful.

I am thankful for this, because even when we are without faith, God remains faithful. When we have little strength, He continues to work faithfully in our lives. Though the Corinthians had drifted, God would still be faithful, all the way to the end. Paul told the Philippians he was confident that "he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

One great Bible teacher noted that when a people lose sight of God's faithfulness, they fall into a sort of feverish activity: "If only we pray more, if only we sing more, if only we sing hymns, then the church will be better." That gets us into a works-based relationship, as though God's power depended on whether we did things a little bit better. Remember—God was faithful when He first called us and saved us out of darkness while we were still dead in trespasses and sins. He has not changed. We must rely on the Lord.

Called Into Fellowship

"God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son." Paul reminds this divided fellowship what their common bond was: God had called them. The Corinthians had foolishly separated into groups, but Paul points them back to their first calling. We become enamored with our particular callings—"I'm called to be a pastor," "I'm called to missions"—but our first calling is to fellowship with God and with one another in Christ. Paul was called to be an apostle (verse 1), and the Corinthians were called to be saints (verse 2), but at the most basic level they were called to fellowship.

This was one of the prime reasons God created man. When God placed man in the garden, He looked and said, "It is not good that man should be alone." God created man as a relational being—for earthly fellowship and for a heaven-bound relationship with Himself. In Genesis 3, sin entered, and both relationships were diminished. Throughout the Old Testament, God pursued this fellowship; He instituted the tabernacle of meeting, where man could come into contact with Him—yet a veil still separated man from God because of sin.

The Greek word translated fellowship is koinonia—not only a beautiful word but a beautiful reality, because God desires communion with us. It has become cliché in the evangelical church to say, "I don't have religion, I have a relationship." But what do we mean? When Jesus died on the cross and cried His final words, the veil in the temple was torn in two, and the way into the Holy of Holies was opened. Through His work on the cross, we now have fellowship with God, and through that, restored fellowship with one another.

Yet we are good at disrupting fellowship. God tore the veil, and we have a tendency to stitch it back up with religious formality—saying you cannot approach God unless you fill in some blank. That is not what Scripture reveals. Our approach to God is secured by God, not ourselves. Because of Jesus' work on the cross, we have access by grace through faith and can boldly come before the throne of grace.

Speak the Same Thing

I am not advocating a wholesale ecumenicalism—a "can't we all just get along" in the words of that great philosopher Rodney King. The problem at Corinth was not denominational division. People will attend a more traditional church than a Calvary Chapel out of preference, and that is fine. The problem here is divisions within the local body—the way we divide ourselves and destroy fellowship. The church should be a community of believers in fellowship with God and with one another.

So Paul says in verse 10: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." We were called into fellowship by that name; now, by that same name, Paul exhorts the church toward unity. As he wrote in Ephesians 4:3, we are to "endeavor to keep the unity of the body in the bond of peace."

A Divided Society

We live in a divided society. Division is not new—history is full of it for millennia—but today there seems to be a stirring up of people toward division. In the 2008 campaign Barack Obama was put forward as a racial unifier, which is something we should hope for. Yet now, two years into his presidency, to disagree with him politically gets you accused of being a racist, and that is dreadful.

After the 2008 economic collapse, the socio-economic divisions in our society have become even more sharply defined. There seems to be a push to look at those more wealthy than us with disdain and suspicion, as though they must have done something bad. But to look at others with disdain over their success is itself a form of greed—just as the greed we point at them. We are divided on immigration reform, on climate change and ecology. Such divisiveness has a way of finding its way into the church.

Here is the problem: God is a united, relational being, and His body is to be an example of that on earth. When the world looks at the church—the ecclesia, the gathering—they should see the greatest example of united community. I am blessed by what I see in our own church: people of every ethnic background and all kinds of diversity. Though the world desires diversity, the only place you truly see it is in the body of Christ, because it is God who breaks down the middle walls of separation between slave and free, Jew and Gentile. We should be the greatest example of community in the world.

Not Mimicry, Not Syncretism

Paul's exhortation must be understood in context. He is not telling the Corinthians to be mimics—where one says "I like Life cereal" and everyone echoes it. That is a mark of a cult. Nor is Paul saying they should toss out anything they disagree on simply to maintain unity. Many new-age philosophies today are syncretistic, wanting to mesh everything together: "All the major religions agree on love, peace, and the golden rule, so let's throw out everything that divides and have a big kumbaya moment." That is not what Paul is calling the church to. He is speaking to the church, not to society as a whole.

I was confronted with this recently. A woman in our fellowship asked me to look into a group her family member had joined—the Agape International Spiritual Center. Their FAQ asked, "Is Agape Christian? And what about the Bible and Jesus?" Their answer was "no and yes." Yes, some members are Christians whose encounter with the spirit of Jesus "as the embodiment of the Christ consciousness" informs their spiritual lives. No, if by Christian you mean accepting Jesus as the only Savior and Christianity as the only path to God. Essentially they said, "We don't believe the gospel"—because that is exactly what the gospel claims.

You can be a Christian New Ager, a Buddhist New Ager, an Islamic New Ager—gather together, it's fine. But as soon as you say, "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved," you have committed the only crime for which there is no pardon in America today: espousing absolute truth. We who hold a Christian worldview believe there is absolute truth, which means someone is wrong—and our society doesn't like to tell anyone they're wrong. We've even changed how we educate children, afraid to say a word is misspelled lest we hurt some inner core. But I would suggest that inner core is wicked and needs to be dealt with. That is what the gospel reveals—God deals with the heart, because the heart is the issue.

Unity in the Essentials

So "speak the same thing" does not mean discarding everything you disagree on for the sake of unity. It does not concern secondary issues of preference; it concerns doctrinal essentials. On the essential doctrines of the faith—especially the gospel of Jesus Christ—we ought not to be divided. That is why Paul told the Galatians twice, in Galatians 1:8–9, "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed." He said it plainly, twice. We cannot do away with the difficult claims of Christ simply because we want unity.

The gospel is an offense. Verse 18 calls it foolishness to those who are perishing and an offense to those against God. We cannot dumb down the gospel to make it less offensive to sinful man. The church must speak clearly about sin, the atonement, regeneration, faith, and baptism. On such things we cannot be divided. On preferential things—organs versus guitars and drums—do as you like. But on the view of salvation and the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we must speak the same thing. If you hold a different view of regeneration or the atonement—like the Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses—you are divergent from orthodox Christianity and in error.

The House of Chloe and the Four Factions

Verse 11: "For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you." Paul is in Ephesus, teaching at the school of Tyrannus, when visitors from Corinth bring word of what is happening. We know nothing about Chloe except that she was prominent enough that Paul assumes everyone knows her. She likely hosted a house fellowship, and it is probable that Sosthenes—mentioned in verse 1—came from her home and carried this report to Paul.

What did the divisions look like? Verse 12: "Every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ." The people divided along lines of personality—but this was more than preference. If you listen to Bible teaching on the radio and you like Bob Coy, or Greg Laurie, or John Courson, that's fine. That is not what was happening here. The Corinthians said, in effect, "Anyone not of our man is just wrong, in error, less spiritual."

The Paulians were loyalists—Paul had led most of them to Christ, and when someone is instrumental in your conversion, in your mind he can do no wrong. The Apollos party followed Apollos, an eloquent, dynamic, Alexandria-schooled intellectual; they felt he had made the faith more mainstream than Paul, who was always "the cross, the cross, the cross." The Peter party admired Cephas—the man who walked with Jesus, walked on water, and was used in miraculous signs; some of them leaned toward a Jewish, traditionalist, even legalistic form of Christianity and felt superior.

Then there was the fourth and most interesting group: those who said, "We are of Christ." Weren't they all Christians? Yes—but this group said, "We don't need any party of man; we get our cues straight from headquarters." They're the ones who say, "The Lord told me, the Lord told me"—and how do you argue with that? These four groups weren't merely expressing preference; they were declaring everyone outside their camp wrong.

Is Christ Divided?

So Paul asks in verse 13: "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" Of course not. He goes on: "I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius... And I baptized also the household of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other."

Most of Paul's letters were written by dictation. Picture Paul pacing the room at the school of Tyrannus, with Sosthenes holding the quill. Paul says, "I thank God I baptized none of you—well, Crispus and Gaius." And Sosthenes reminds him, "You also baptized the household of Stephanas." "Yes, those too. Beyond that, I don't recall."

Verse 17: "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." This does not mean baptism is unnecessary or unimportant. We are commanded to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28). Peter said at Pentecost, "Repent, and be baptized" (Acts 2). Baptism is important—but it is not essential for salvation. Consider the thief on the cross who said, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus did not say, "Time out, let's get some water." He said, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Baptism would have been the forefront of John's ministry, not Paul's—Paul says God did not send him to baptize. We baptize in obedience and in identification with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 6), but it is the gospel God sent us to preach.

Not With Wisdom of Words

Notice how Paul finishes: "not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." Does this mean Paul did not speak clearly and intelligently? No—we ought to speak the gospel clearly, intelligently, and eloquently. The temptation today is for churches to talk about everything but the gospel: a better life, better families, better relationships, better kids—even better political candidates. All of that is good, but we weren't sent to do that. Better families and godly children are byproducts of the gospel; the gospel itself is the prime product.

The fact is that we are sinners in rebellion against God. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." We are on the wrong road. But God became a man to show us the way. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me." We are to preach this good news—that the sinless One died for sinners that we might be saved. Verse 18 says, "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." Paul writes in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel... for it is the power of God unto salvation."

Romans 10 says, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved... For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?"

Don't Dress Up the Gospel

We do preach intelligently and seek to speak the word so people can understand it—including culturally. We grasp the idea of contextualizing the gospel overseas in the Philippines, but we forget that we no longer live in a Judeo-Christian culture here in America, especially in California. Many of our friends are believers, and we assume everyone is like us; but when we speak of sin, righteousness, and being filled with the Holy Spirit, the world says, "What?" So we speak in a way they can understand.

But we do not use human wisdom to market the gospel to make it less offensive or more palatable—because in dressing it up to be palatable, we dress down its power. The gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing and offensive to the sinner; it will always be so. In a world that doesn't want to offend, we are tempted not to speak the truth. But when the church departs from the gospel of God, it invents another message—one that makes man feel fulfilled and happy and unwilling to feel condemned. Yet in trying to keep man from feeling condemned, we prepare him for eternal condemnation.

A young Anglican minister wrote his bishop before his first sermon, asking what to preach. The reply came: "Preach about God, and preach about twenty minutes." You may wish your pastor understood that second part—he clearly doesn't. But I was reminded this week, even among a thousand Calvary Chapel pastors at the conference, of the importance of preaching the gospel. This is still the primary place where people will hear it. Bring your unsaved friends here that they might hear the gospel, put their faith in Jesus Christ, and be saved.

All humanity abides under the curse of sin. Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin. God, the Lawgiver, not only has the right but the obligation to judge man for his sin—and there is only one way to receive a pardon: Jesus Christ, who on Calvary said, "It is finished." If you trust in any other thing—your own works or another man's word—you will be condemned. He is rich to all who call upon Him. There is no national debt in heaven when it comes to grace; God will never tell a repentant sinner, "The last one needed a lot of grace, and I haven't got much left." He is rich to all who call upon Him.

Closing Prayer

Father, we come before You and thank You that You are the Savior, that You came as Christ, the Anointed One, to save us for that specific task. We thank You that in You we can have a right relationship—fellowship with You and with one another. Lord, today, if there is anyone here who has not put their faith in Christ, I pray that You would stir their heart to step out, even though the enemy tries to hinder them, and draw them to Yourself. As we close, I thank You that everyone here who is saved will be with You eternally. Continue to stir us to speak boldly the truth wherever we go. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.