give them occasion to use baptism by him as another means of divid ing the body of Christ. The problem of divisions at Cor inth was standard practice for the ;day. The Creeks were used to di viding up into schools of thought las divisions. There was conflict be tween the Stoics, Hedonists or Epi- curians. There was conflict between the followers of Plato's school of l thought and Aristotles. The ten- | dency is ever before us. As Chris- I tians we need the counsel of Paul | as much as the Corinthians. Paul has a threefold plan of at tack. First, minimize all activities that would build up man. His con cepts on a right perspective of the performance of baptism illustrates this. Next, he emphasizes the unify ing factor. Notice in verse 17, "For Christ sent me not to baptize," . . . but to what? To "preach the gos pel." The unifying factor was Christ and the message of salvation in Him. Where there is a potential for divisions, there must be a greater unifying factor in Christian circles and that can only be Christ Him self. But this is also emphasized back in verse nine. Paul says, "God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord." Here is the anti dote for divisions. The fellowship, this relationship, is to be found in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Many people are name droppers. They like to say, "I heard Pastor so and so and even had dinner with him. I think he is the greatest!" Well, the word that is used here for fellowship is one that many churches use for youth groups or other church groups. It is "koin- onia." It is the idea of communion
or association. Verse nine says that the common bond of our fellow ship is Christ Himself. The bond of our fellowship is Christ, let us clus ter around Him and not man. And finally there is the positive counsel to unity in verse 10. "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing." Some people use the same words but their ideas are really quite differ ent. The scholar Burke has dis cussed a special kind of identifica tion that is more than a surface identification where we dress the same way or use the same words. Sometimes people who appear to agree by dress, actions, or words, really do not. Burke suggests that true agreement or identification is not found in surface agreement but in our basic commmitments. Now, the actual words we use may be different, but we may have fellow ship together because they are prompted by the same Spirit, the Son of God, dwelling in our heart. I am suggesting here that verse 10 is telling us that the common bond of all Christians is not simply the language we use, the pattern of our prayers, nor the way we dress; it is the person of Jesus Christ who dwells in our hearts and prompts us to reach out to other believers. It is the Spirit controlled product of our words, of our lives, of our actions, of our varied judgments in all areas of life. A common bond then for the Christian is Jesus Christ. He is the antidote to divi sions. Looking beyond the surface elements that may cause us to shun other Christians, we poke behind that and seek to love this believer in Christ. Page 15
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