God’s Word for You

1 Corinthians 1:10 One doctrine

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, October 26, 2022

10 Brothers, I urge you through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, all of you: confess the same thing and do not let there be any divisions among you, but mend your divisions in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Every group of human beings suffers on account of one another’s faults. Whether this is a marriage, an office, a school classroom, a dad with a houseful of sons, or just two guys on the same softball team, there will inevitably be things I do that irritate you, and the same can be said of you and everyone else. But those things don’t have to cause a division in a group. At the same time, a Christian congregation can learn to forgive each other their quirks and their foibles, without severing their fellowship.

Paul urges the Corinthians (the word can also mean “appeal, exhort”) to remove the problems they were having, beginning with each member’s own heart, mind, and judgment. Their divisions were not on account of quirks or snoring, but on account of faulty doctrine. The faulty doctrine that caused the divisions was not the only problem, or the worst case of bad or false doctrine, but Paul must begin here.

The first thing to remember when there is any kind of strife or division is: what brings us together in the first place? In a church, this is the love of Christ. He is the unifying power, the magnet onto which we all snap. Like a magnet, the longer we are connected to Christ, the more like him we become, so that we are naturally drawn together as well. But Christ is the heart of everything, and the Word of God is the Word of Christ (Revelation 1:2; Romans 10:17). Jesus said: “I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (John 12:49). And, “Whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say” (John 12:50).

In the opening of the letter (1:1-9), Paul brought several teachings of the gospel to the attention of his readers, things such as these:

1, The will of God (1:1)
2, The doctrine of Jesus Christ and our salvation (1:1-4)
3, The doctrine of being Christ’s apostle (1:1)
4, The brotherhood of Christians (1:1)
5, Sanctification (1:2)
6, The call to be holy in Christ (1:2)
7, The grace of God through Christ (1:3)
8, The peace of God through Christ (1:3)
9, The riches of God’s word in us (1:5)
10, The gifts of God lavished on his people (1:7)
11, The declaration of our blamelessness on judgment day (1:8)
12, The faithfulness of God (1:9)
13, The Christian’s fellowship with Christ (1:9)

We want to take these teachings to heart and believe and teach; we want to be certain of them to the very letter and with every word and syllable. If someone refuses, then their teacher is the devil, the father of all dissentions. “For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33), and Christians will make every effort to be of one mind, “to make every effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Those who follow their own ungodly passions are the ones who cause divisions (Jude 1:19).

Now, how will we deal with such divisions? First, we must identify the division. Is it between two pastors, or two or more groups in a congregation, or between multiple congregations? One is not more or less serious than the others. Is it a matter of conscience but not doctrine? If this is the case, then Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 will guide us. Is it a matter of doctrine, where some teaching can clear up the matter? Then we will teach. Do we need to change something we do to make a point and to make our grasp of God’s holy doctrine clear? This is the case, for example, with churches that insist that immersion is the only acceptable manner of baptizing. There is no command about that in the Bible and so as a rule we don’t immerse. Shortly before I came to my present church, there was a controversy in the area (not in my church) about the moment of the real presence in the Lord’s Supper. Since someone foolishly insisted that Christ’s body and blood were truly present “when the pastor makes the sign of the cross over the elements,” I asked where in the Scriptures there is any command or even any single reference to such a sign being made with the hand at all. Did Jesus wave his hands over the elements when he instituted the sacrament? Did he not simply speak? That’s the testimony of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 26:26-27; Mark 14:22,24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25). For this reason, I changed my practice and stopped making the sign of the cross over the elements; today and for the past twenty years I have stood with my arms at my side, speaking the words of institution without moving a muscle, on account of some of the people who were involved in that controversy, some of whom have become members of my church.

When it comes to doctrine, we should all confess the same thing: “one faith” (Ephesians 4:5). This is the beginning of fellowship. Our confession begins:

“The primary requirement for basic and permanent concord within the church is a summary formula and pattern, unanimously approved, in which the summarized doctrine commonly confessed by the churches of the pure Christian religion is drawn together out of the Word of God. For this same purpose the ancient church always had its dependable symbols. It based these not on mere private writings, but on such books as had been written, approved, and accepted in the name of those churches which confessed the same doctrine and religion.” (Formula of Concord)

We hold together under one Lord and one common doctrine. We must not let other things come between us. The love of Christ is what unites us, and the love of Christ is what sent him, our Lord, into the world to save us from our sins.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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