Are you of Paul; Apollos; Chephas or Christ?

"Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul,” or "I am of Apollos,” or "I am of Cephas,” or "I am of Christ.”
"Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?"
(1 Cor 1:12-13)

The Corinthians were dividing over who they claimed to follow, Paul; Apollos; Cephas and get this... even Christ!

This takes some thinking about, but even claiming to just follow Christ and not another can be a carnal spirit of pride and division.

If this is how it was in the beginning of the church, then today, 2000 years on we could be guilty of saying the following:-
'I'm a Reformed Baptist, I'm a Pentecostal; I'm an Anabaptist', or get this....'I'm not part of any denomination, I just follow Christ!'.

Back in 2008 I went to the SI conference in Scotland. The thing that impacted me the most was the fellowship I had with the other believers there who were from a wide range of different denominational backgrounds to myself. No one tried to say 'come out of your denomination and join mine' or 'let's all come out and start a new independent movement'. We just accepted one another in Christ and respected (or overlooked) the different traditions we held to as being of lesser importance to our unity in Christ.

Amen.

Without humility, even Jesus is just another idol. Another call to abandon "religion" and come into relationship!

"Without humility, even Jesus is just another idol."

That is powerfully so.

When I fail to guard my tongue and bring my heart captive to obedience to Jesus, Jesus has become to me a powerless thing, and my naming Him is no more or better than the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel.

When my heart is frustrated and I turn to earthly delights to relieve my stress, Jesus is no more than wood I use to burn to heat up my plate of pleasures.

When I am unloving, conceited, mean, short tempered, full of worry, I wear Him as my accessory to my glory when in truth His name is pure and I am shamed.

I need thee, O I need thee. I need thee ev'ry hour.

Dave i saw that last week that some people use the im of christ as a faction point ,but felt i wont bother posting that becasue no doubt it wont go down well with those who who creat a division useing the term ;i am of christ; .I wanst expecting any one to post that as you have ,, maby just maby the spirit is trying to say somthing ....

The Corinthians were dividing over who they claimed to follow, Paul; Apollos; Cephas and get this... even Christ!

This takes some thinking about, but even claiming to just follow Christ and not another can be a carnal spirit of pride and division.

I do not think it is following someone that Paul wrote against. Paul himself asked Church to follow him as he followed Christ. It is to divide over men and exhaulting men above them instead of exhaulting Jesus that Paul is against. We can respect men and even long for the life that we see in them.

When people in India here ask me which Church I attend, I tell them that I attend a Church planted by Zac Poonen. I make sure I say that as humble as possible. The Church I attend is neither a denomination nor does it bost a big building. There are more than few hundreds that attend but we meet at 3 different places to reduce over crowding, each place with local elders. Hence no one recognizes my church by name. Zac Poonen is the only identity that I use to connect with the Church I attend.

Gary, yes maybe. I have seen this wrong attitude in myself at times and it is normally a reaction against something, rather than being moved toward something. When we react it is often from the flesh. The Spirit moves us in a positive direction of action. To react is not a normal function of the Spirit.

Sree, yes I agree with what you say. It is not the name or the person, but our prejudices that is the problem.

I believe what the apostle Paul is getting at is that we can even be so "Jesus" oriented in our causes that we are divisive. Sometimes we use Jesus as nothing more than a trump card.

Hey brethren,

I came across this thread and have really liked the spirit (attitude) that is displayed in this thread. Thank you all for your participation in this thread!

I also have had to repent of having a wrong attitude coming against someone I disagreed with and I'm very thankful the Spirit of the Lord revealed this to me!

We all need to have mutual respect and love for one another in striving to edify and encourage one another in the faith of Jesus Christ.

I believe more people will want to post and comment if our attitude is to encourage one another in the faith and desiring to learn from one another...and if we disagree about something let's show the other person respect and love... in showing another way of looking at it without attacking the person for seeing something differently.

Let's be kind to one another...and when we truly disagree...after being kind in our dialog presenting our understanding without harping on the same thing over and over again...let's respectfully agree to disagree and move on to something else. I believe this will help us grow more in Christ and in love toward one another!

Now if someone is promoting their own agenda, being very divisive, or teaching false doctrine that is clear from the scriptures...then it is the moderators place to warn them in love and if they will not listen to reason (and the moderators are and have been very patient in love toward every one) then eventually they will have caused themselves to be removed. Leadership has a tremendous responsibility to the cause of Christ!

Anyways, just a few things I was thinking of...blessings to all!

Years ago as my mother explored different bible study groups, doctrinal discussions, and prayer groups. So many of the tangents and tangles we discuss here have all been hashed out before by previous generations- you would think we might profit from their hard work- but no, we like to pound out our stuff fresh in our own time!

I do recall her speaking of the frustration she had with one friend who was eager to bow out of any discussion where she would have to genuinely seek God for an answer. She would say, "Well, it's all Jesus Christ."

But what she was really saying was that she was too lazy to think, reason, and respond to others. One might say she was using the name in vain- as a conversation stopper. And her faith never matured. She was a church goer, content with that, a woman who never came into the joy that Mom and a lot of her other friends received as they pushed toward the Kingdom.

Pls i will have to say that what really or majorly causing division amidst denomination are really on doctrinal coviction in some places. Persecution sometimes allow by GOD so as to purify and purge the church.