1 Cor in relation to Mat 18?

[In_His_Love]

Hello friends,

I am facing a personal delima at our church and am trying to sort it out biblically and would like a bit of help talking it out.

In the first chapter of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth he addresses the division among the people of the church and exhorts them to agree so that they would be in "unity in mind and thought." (1 Cor 1:10) He goes on to say that the reason there is a lack of unity is because man is worldly (1 Cor 3:3). He then says that he understands that there are divisions and those differences separate those who have God's approval and those who don't (1 Cor 18:19). So we can conlude that a wordly man, one who is lacking God's approval, can be the cause of division in the church, which would be in contrast to those who are spiritualy "united in mind and thought." Simple enough. Paul tells us that we are to be united. There's no doubt about that. What he doesn't tell us is what to do when we are not. However, Jesus does. If we can agree that the cause of division is sin then we can follow Jesus direction found in Matthew 18. Which leads me to where the discussion opens up...

There are good spirit filled people who disagree within the church. Is one side, or both, being worldy when we disagree? Is it possible to disagree without creating division? Are we in sin when we're not "united in mind and thought?"

Maybe my understanding of this scripture is way off base. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

[oldsage]

Hello friends,

I am facing a personal delima at our church and am trying to sort it out biblically and would like a bit of help talking it out.

In the first chapter of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth he addresses the division among the people of the church and exhorts them to agree so that they would be in "unity in mind and thought." (1 Cor 1:10) He goes on to say that the reason there is a lack of unity is because man is worldly (1 Cor 3:3). He then says that he understands that there are divisions and those differences separate those who have God's approval and those who don't (1 Cor 18:19). So we can conlude that a wordly man, one who is lacking God's approval, can be the cause of division in the church, which would be in contrast to those who are spiritualy "united in mind and thought." Simple enough. Paul tells us that we are to be united. There's no doubt about that. What he doesn't tell us is what to do when we are not. However, Jesus does. If we can agree that the cause of division is sin then we can follow Jesus direction found in Matthew 18. Which leads me to where the discussion opens up...

There are good spirit filled people who disagree within the church. Is one side, or both, being worldy when we disagree? Is it possible to disagree without creating division? Are we in sin when we're not "united in mind and thought?"

Maybe my understanding of this scripture is way off base. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

My principles are to united on the essentials and tolerant on what isn't essential.

In other words, not everyone will come to a consensus on certain ideas like what a person should wear and that should not be something which divides us, but something which is essential like Jesus being God is something which can and should divide us.

Now if I were to have a community of like believers I would expect them to agree with me on some non-essentials such as being Arminian. I don't think if someone is Reformed or Arminian disqualifies them from being Christians but the leadership of my assembly will be Arminian and not Reformed. Now I can come together with someone who is Reformed and study and have some sort of fellowship with them, but they will not be part of the leadership of the assembly I am a part of.

This is how I see the principles at work.

Chris

 

[Crazy Liz]

Wow, big topic. There are whole books written on this, some better than others. A good basic text is .

Let me see if I can begin to address some of your specific questions.

Hello friends,

I am facing a personal delima at our church and am trying to sort it out biblically and would like a bit of help talking it out.

In the first chapter of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth he addresses the division among the people of the church and exhorts them to agree so that they would be in "unity in mind and thought." (1 Cor 1:10) He goes on to say that the reason there is a lack of unity is because man is worldly (1 Cor 3:3). He then says that he understands that there are divisions and those differences separate those who have God's approval and those who don't (1 Cor 18:19). So we can conlude that a wordly man, one who is lacking God's approval, can be the cause of division in the church, which would be in contrast to those who are spiritualy "united in mind and thought." Simple enough. Paul tells us that we are to be united. There's no doubt about that.

1 Corinthians discusses factions in the church, and demonstrates several methods to use individual and group discernment to find the right answer when there is one, and to live together peacefully when Christians disagree on matters that may not have the same answer for everybody. In that sense, it very much expands on Matthew 18.

However, I do not think 1 Corinthians says that ALL divisions result from one or more people being "worldly." 1 Corinthians gives a laundry list of the kinds of issues that divided that church, and the methodologies (there are several of them) it demonstrates for resolving disputes are very useful.

So both Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians give a lot of good guidance for dispute resolution among Christians.

But 1 Corinthians and Matthew 18 do not deal with all the various kinds of conflict there can be in a church. Philippians deals with a kind of conflict not represented in 1 Corinthians. You might want to try reading Philippians from a conflict management POV. There are hints throughout that the church is full of conflict. If you reread it a few times after noticing that, you may even detect sarcasm in certain passages. For example, in the first chapter Paul seems to say people in Rome (or Caesarea, or wherever Paul was imprisoned) are preaching Christ out of selfish ambition, implying that would NEVER happen in Philppi! (yeah right)

What he doesn't tell us is what to do when we are not. However, Jesus does. If we can agree that the cause of division is sin then we can follow Jesus direction found in Matthew 18. Which leads me to where the discussion opens up...

There are good spirit filled people who disagree within the church. Is one side, or both, being worldy when we disagree?

I think 1 Cor. 14 and the last chapter of Philippians answer that question pretty well.

Is it possible to disagree without creating division? Are we in sin when we're not "united in mind and thought?"

Maybe my understanding of this scripture is way off base. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

You're not way off base at all. 1 Corinthians teaches various ways to discern whether the dispute is one that really needs to be resolved, or if it is a conflict that can be charitably recognized and not interfere with Christian unity. Reread 1 Corinthians in 1 sitting, and look at the ways Paul walks through the thinking process for resolving various kinds of disputes. It is fascinating.