This morning has dawned bright, early, snowy, and very cold! And I love it! Why? It affords me the time to press into the Word of God, something I do not get to do very often. Most mornings, if I have time for devotions, they are quick as I hustle around to get myself and three children out the door. But this morning.....the call came at 5:30 am proclaiming that school had been canceled and just like that, time was given to me to do more than a quick read, but to dig. Something I love to do :)
What an encouragement I found as I opened up my Bible to begin reading in 1 Corinthians 1. These words jumped off the page at me:
"Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours"
and then in verse 11:
"For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, 'I am of Paul,' and 'I of Apollos,' and 'I of Cephas,' and 'I of Christ.' Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?"
First off, I think it is cool that even back in the time of the Corinthians that somebody had people! You know, my people will call your people? Well apparently, Chloe had people too! :D Sorry, I just found that humorous! I digress.
Paul opens up his letter talking to the local church in Corinth. These were not unchurched people. They were called, sanctified, baptized, saved, Holy Spirit filled believers in Jesus Christ. They were church people. And they had a problem. So early in the history of the church too, so close yet still to when Jesus had walked the earth, when he had died, when He had risen and yet they had a problem. They disagreed on who to follow. Same problem we have today, accept today, this problem has been distinguished by something we like to call "denominations". That's all denominations are. A group of people who agree with the teaching of a specific leader, pastor, teacher, prophet, or apostle. We could easily fill in verses 11-13 like this:
"For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, 'I am of Menno Simons' (Mennonites), and 'I of Martin Luther'(Lutherans), and 'I of the Apostle Peter' (Roman Catholics) and 'I of Christ'. Has Christ been divided? Menno Simons was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Martin Luther?"
As I read through these chapters, I was amazed at how early division came into the church. It completely mimics the present day church at large. Even within these denominations there is division. For example, cause I know this denomination the best, take the Mennonites (and I will add a disclaimer right now. Please hear me, I am not picking on the Mennonites or on any one denomination. Just hear me out for a moment.) There are Conservative Mennonites, Mennonite Brethren, Mennonite USA, and that is just to name a few. In other words, within each denomination, there are actually more division, each one slightly different based on who they are following.
Now on the surface, all of us would loudly stand up and proclaim, no matter the denomination, "We SERVE JESUS CHRIST!" But I think the early church would have said the same thing. "serve Jesus Christ", and under their breathe would add, "but we follow the teachings, theology, thought process of *fill in the blank*". Do we not do the same thing today? "We Serve Jesus Christ", we shout this out boldly, and under our breathe, "but we follow the teachings, theology, thought process of *fill in the blank*."
I am NOT at all saying we should have one global church, cause some might go there with this. What this passage of Scripture did for me, though, was caused me to ask this question:
What would happen to the Body of Christ if we stopped the division and simply followed Christ? What would happen if we no longer followed the teaching of a specific teacher, leader, apostle, preacher....all mere men....and instead followed the teaching only of Jesus Christ? It seems so simple and yet it proves to be incredibly difficult as we all have our own idea of what that means.
So, how can we get to the place that Paul was calling the Corinthian church to, which was unity in the wisdom of Jesus Christ through the revelation of the Holy Spirit and not through the wisdom or revelation of man? How do we bring the church into unity?
At this point in my devotional time, I stopped, opened up my laptop, and began the process of emailing my pastor to ask him my questions...
And then.......
I stopped myself.....
dead in my tracks.
I shook my head at my own actions.....
and I chuckled a little.
In the midst of my discovery this morning, I found myself falling into the very same temptation the early church fell too. I was just about to turn to a pastor, a leader, seeking wisdom from a man to help me discern the revelation of God! Good Grief! (Disclaimer: I talk about this a bit later. I'm not saying to not seek counsel! Our pastors are GIFTS to us as are apostles, evangelists, teachers, and prophets. We need them!)
As I stopped myself, I began to instead, talk to God. I often forget. I am His temple. His spirit lives inside of me. And the Holy Spirit was given to us as a helper, an advocate:
John 14:26
"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
I asked my heavenly Father, "How do we bring the church into unity? What is the answer? Because you have definitely given us teachers, preachers, prophets, apostles, pastors, and evangelists for our good. To teach us, to build us up, to edify us. We do need them and they are definitely a gift from you!"
And this is where my Jesus led me:
Ephesians chapter 4:
"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the UNITY of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is ONE body and ONE Spirit, just as also you were called in ONE hope of your calling; ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all."
and then further into chapter 4....
"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors, and teachers, FOR THE EQUIPPING OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WORK OF SERVICE, TO THE BUILDING UP OF THE BODY OF CHRIST; until we all attain to the UNITY of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love."
Wow! In there lies the answer.....
Mere men, praised God He is able to use us mere men!, are gifted by Jesus Christ to be pastors, evangelists, prophets, teachers, and apostles in order to equip the saints, that's us :), for the work of the service, to build us up, and to call us into unity, BUT NOT TO FOLLOW THEM PERSONALLY! This is what Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians as well.
"Paul didn't save you, neither did any of these men! And you were not baptized into the name of Paul or of anyone else OTHER THAN JESUS CHRIST AND JESUS CHRIST ALONE!"
The answer is so simple and inside of the answer is the encouragement I found this morning. I pray it encourages you as well. There is hope for unity within the Body of Christ, there is hope for unity within our local churches, there is hope for unity between the different churches dwelling inside of our communities.
Unity in Christ comes from all of us pursuing, not the mere men who have been gifted, called and sent to edify us, (though they are needed, beneficial, and desired inside of the body of Christ) but in the Giver of those gifts. Unity will be found in our pursuit of Jesus Christ and in Him alone and in our relationship with Him. My heart cries out to be in tune with His very heartbeat so I may understand His wisdom and His revelation! It is only through my continued pursuit of Him, learning to listen to His voice, and to know His heart that I will begin to have His revelation revealed to me. Not because I am anything great, but because He is great! Each of us have this opportunity to press in deeper and deeper into who He is. To know Him intimately.
So, I hear the question askers, but what if what He reveals to me is different than what He reveals to you? Don't worry, I asked the question as well. I am a question asker to the core....this verse was brought to my mind:
Matthew 10:16
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of the wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves."
And how do we obtain this shrewdness and this innocence? Only through the pursuit of Jesus Christ. It is only through His wisdom that He can reveal Himself to us and fill us with His wisdom so we are not tossed to and fro by different doctrines or men. Just like the people of the church in Berea...they pressed into the scripture, into Jesus Himself, to see if what the Apostle Paul was telling them was truth. It is only through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit the Jesus is revealed to us. It us through His revelation to us that we will be able to discern what is from Him and what is not from Him. It is through His revelation to us that unity will come.
I was impressed so much today, how important it is to press into Jesus. To rely on Him to reveal Himself to us, to bring us together unified, to send us out to the nations, and to be his light....not divided, but united.
