Kevin Alan Wells

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree together and end your divisions. Be united by the same mind and purpose. For it has been reported to me by members of Chloe’s household that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. I’m referring to how each of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Peter,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided?! Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1.10-13)

Two thousand years ago Christians living in Corinth were misunderstanding how to be the Church. Believers were dividing themselves along the lines of who they were baptized by or discipled under, and by the preachers they preferred listening to. It so alarmed and disgusted the Apostle Paul that he began his first letter to them with a rebuke of it, and spread his condemnation of the behavior over four chapters.

Later, in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul doesn’t write a word about the issue. Thankfully, it seems the Corinthian Christians got the message. But sadly, the error did not end with them.

Today we commit the same blunder, only now instead of “I am of Paul” and “I am of Peter,” we say, “I am of Luther;” and “I am of Calvin;” “I am of the Southern Baptist Convention;” “I’m Anglican;” and so forth to such a degree that the Christian Church now divides into 39,000 denominations.

The Corinthian believers were separating the Church into four divisions and Paul responded with this rebuke:

“Do you not know that you all are united together as God’s temple and that the same Spirit of God dwells in you all?” (1 Cor 3.16)

What words would Paul have for us today?

My dear brothers and sisters of the Way, whichever of the 39,000 clubs you are a part of, we are all united together as God’s temple. Whatever our doctrinal differences, if we are believers, the same Spirit of God dwells in us all. God chose you to believe just like he chose me. Every denominational difference must defer to this common bond. The only church we must never divide is the Christian Church, the only Church there is.