A Good Place to Start

The church in the city of Corinth was a mess. People were fighting with one another. Some were taking others to court. Sin and dissension had crept in so far that they could not even agree on what their worship times should look like. They even fought during a friendly meal that they called “The love feast” (ironic huh?).

It is no wonder then that as we read the letters that we call 1 and 2 Corinthians, we see the apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, trying to sort out one issue after another. The surprising part, though, is the problem that Paul deals with first.

In the first ten verses of 1 Corinthians chapter one, the name of Jesus is used ten times. In these verses, Paul reminds them that they have been “called by Christ” (verse 2) and they have received “grace” and “mercy” from Christ (verses 3 and 4). He underlines the fact that Jesus is the one who will keep them “strong to the end” and that he is the one who makes them “blameless” in God’s sight. In fact, he tells them that the only hope that they have of finding unity and agreement is for each and every one of them to be focused on and following Christ. “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought” (1:10).

Before he deals with their specific problems, he refers them back to Christ. Before he attempts to fix anything else, he reminds them of who they all should be following. As he talks about the divisions and the things that are tearing that church apart, ten times in ten verses he mentions the name and the purpose of Jesus.

Could that be a message to us? Could it be that if we all really focused on Christ, many of our other issues would automatically disappear? If church was not about “getting my way” but “following Christ’s way”, would things be different?

It is certainly worth a try!

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