No.1 Amil baba in Pakistan amil baba in Lahore amil baba in Karachi
United in Christ 1 Corinthians 1
1. United in Christ
1 Corinthians 1:10-25
All believers share the same salvation and thus
should be unified through that confession.
2. BACKGROUND
• Paul preached the gospel in Corinth on his second missionary
journey
• He stayed in Corinth for 1.5 years
• Corinth was a key commercial city, known for immorality
(corinthianize)
• Paul received reports of internal divisions in the church
(PRIDE)
• Paul writes to answer their questions and motivate them to
submit to Christ’s lordship
3. PAUL’S OPENING
• Remember your calling (called as saints to live
holy lives under Christ’s lordship
• “grace & peace” to you from God
4. WHAT KIND OF UNITY?
• Agreement in declaration of allegiance
• Same care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:24-25)
• Interwoven fabric where one tear is felt all
over…feels what others feel
• Not an absolute criterion for how we relate to
professing Christians…the truth must be
• Unity of ideas (doctrine…view of God and of Christ)
5. WHY UNITY?
• Reflects the bond that exists within the
Trinity…let’s don’t look like the world (foolish)
• As believers, we have the same salvation, we
should “say the same” thing
6. OUR AIM
• Full doctrinal unity (know the word!)
• Heart unity
• Expect disunity in the visible church because of
non-genuine professors of faith (correct with
gentleness in hope of repentance)
8. 1 Corinthians 1:10
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that
there be no divisions among you, but that you
be united in the same mind and the same
judgment.
9. The Nature of the Disunity
1 Corinthians 1:11-12
For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people
that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
What I mean is that each one of you says, “I
follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow
Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”
10. Who do I try and line up behind
as an ego boost?
11. 1 Corinthians 1:13-17
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you
baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized
none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say
that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the
household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether
I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize
but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent
wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
12. Undermining Disunity & Building
Unity
• Christ is not divided (v.13)…we have ALL of Him!
• Paul wasn’t crucified for you; Christ was (v.13)
• You were baptized into Christ’s Name (v.13, 15)
• True Gospel teachers don’t rely on eloquence
(v.17)
14. The Cross that Divides & Unites
1 Corinthians 1:18-19
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is
written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the
discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
15. The Cross that Divides & Unites
1 Corinthians 1:20-21
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the
world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God
through the folly of what we preach to save those who
believe.
16. The Cross that Divides & Unites
1 Corinthians 1:22-
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we
preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to
Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of
God is stronger than men.
17. What or who are you tempted to
boast in besides Christ crucified?
Editor's Notes
Divisions:
Some in the church viewed themselves as more spiritual and knowledgeable than their fellow believers
Questions:
Marriage, Christian liberty, public worship, behavior at Lord’s Supper, exercise of spiritual gifts
Grace & peace…how he is going to address them…with gentleness and love, with the hope of repentance
Spiritual immaturity
Disobedience
Appeal/urge = there is an urgency in your situation, immediate repentance is needed
Agree = say the same…agree on Who the gospel is about (Christ) and what it says about Him
Divisions = tear, rip apart…schism
Not about always agreeing on every decision…Paul & Barnabas separation…made it through by keeping priority on the gospel, didn’t question the other’s faith in Christ or doctrinal integrity
The Corinthians’ schism is serious…working against each other…they are a house divided, focused on all the wrong things…
Be united = like the resetting of broken bones…perfectly joined together…
Quarreling = strife…Paul includes it in lists of sinful behaviors in several areas
They had no desire to treat each other with respect and humility
Paul = planted the church…the first…spiritual father
Apollos = eloquent preacher
Cephas = Peter…”rock”…lead disciple of Jesus
Christ…these people rejected the other groups and boasted of having a superior spiritual life…should be looking to restore…
Why is this bad? We start to look down on anyone who isn’t on the same bandwagon…riding the coattail of a leader to a vicarious glory
Or is my pride from the fact that I “don’t conform” to any leader…I do my own thing and am therefore better than all of you who have attached yourselves to someone else…
Did not send me to baptize…he is correcting their misplaced priority…they were focused on matters of baptism rather than the gospel (rooted in pride) and the result was disunity and division
Christ is not divided = why relevant to a people quarreling and forming factions behind different leaders? We are the body of Christ, and His body is whole, not dismembered…by trying to puff ourselves up, we are contradicting Christ…when someone is a believer, he has ALL of Christ…no need to feel inferior or superior if Christ is your great treasure…why would you boast about anything so small as a person when you have ALL of Christ???
Christ was crucified for you, not Paul…turning his attention on the faction behind him
Compared to what Christ has done for us, the distinctiveness in our teachers is nothing…when we elevate a person to the status only Christ has, we are shattering the body of Christ…
Our sin was so great, we needed to be saved by the death of Christ, and so did our teachers! If we are boasting in man, we have forgotten our condition without Christ…it’s the cross where it all boils down…that’s the basis for our unity…
Baptized in Christ’s name…it doesn’t matter who baptized you, but Who you were baptized into! The very meaning of baptism is death to self and life to God…if we are boasting in who baptized us, we miss the whole point
Eloquence…the Apollos party…eloquence can nullify the cross…the cross isn’t where we come to shine, but to die
Has to be on God…all the glory has to be His…all the rest is pride…
Now that he has rebuked their divisions, Paul is pointing them to the real source of unity, the cross of Christ, which unifies them together and separates them from the world
Word of the cross…refocus yourselves here…this is what matters…word = logos…in the beginning was the Word (Christ)
Folly…Christ’s ultimate revelation of grace and truth came by unlikely means – His death on the cross
Power of God…the cross is the power of God for salvation…can’t be gained through human wisdom, power, etc.
It is written…quoted from Isaiah…warning to these believers that they were headed down the same path of spiritual rebellion the Israelites had traveled…
They are prideful and because of that, spiritually immature, and they are more impressed with the “wisdom” of men than God’s wisdom demonstrated on the cross…
In the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom…in His wisdom, He breaks down every effort of ours to know Him through any other means than the cross of Christ…our boasting is only in Him because He alone saves us!
Folly of what we preach = the cross, Christ crucified! He is pleased to save us through the death of His Son…wow…
Signs (power), wisdom (eloquence)…y’all are so concerned with power and wisdom, there is no power or wisdom outside of God!
We don’t realize the power of God and the wisdom of God on our own…it’s only by His calling…again, can’t boast in self
My wisdom, my capacity, self-reliance, etc.
Can look explicitly like pride, or it can look like cutting yourself off from authentic relationships to avoid being “found out”…I don’t want to “bother” anyone with this, I’m ok…