What About Divisions?

We know the Scripture says that all believers in Jesus Christ are all one in Him, and constitute one body, the body of Christ. They are members one of another. It was God Himself (not man) who made that oneness. See Acts 5:14; I Cor. 12:12-14. Yet, divisions are inevitable and will continue to exist. I Cor. 11:18,19, “For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” Strange though it may seem, truth divides.

I Cor. 1:10, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” There were contentions among the saints in Corinth. See I Cor. 1:12; also 3:3,4, “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?”

Though contending for what they believed was right, they were not walking uprightly according to the Word of God. They were preventing their oneness with Christ and one another from being manifested, and were virtually dissecting the Body of Christ. It is possible that they did not realize what they were doing. But be that as it may, in order to enable them to see and understand the destructiveness of carnality and what it was causing them to do, Paul asked these sobering questions: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” It was in the name of Jesus they were baptized and it was He who was crucified for them. It should have influenced their conduct one toward another in a godly way.

Their oneness in Christ was not changed, but it was not manifested. The unity was being broken up because saints were allowing themselves to be influenced and governed by thoughts and ideas that were not according to the mind of God, but according to carnal (fleshly) reasoning. Though the epistle is primarily addressed to Corinth, Paul was moved to address it also “To all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” The divisions that existed in Corinth were just the beginning of the far more numerous divisions that exist among Christians today. Divisions are cause by and stem from heresies. One phase of God’s purposes for the church—namely, that those of us who are approved may be made manifest among us — will be accomplished thereby.

Though that may at first seem contrary to the truth that no divisions should exist among us, it really is not. Though God does not approve of some things, He does make use of them sometimes. He will use heresies that some of His beloved people believe and teach to make manifest by contrast those who are approved. In Christ, according to the exceeding riches of His grace, God made provision for all Christians, that they may be presented to Christ as “A chaste virgin,” (undefiled spiritually by anything that is of the flesh or the world). But inevitably, only those who avail themselves of the full benefits of that provision can possibly be recognized and approved as undefiled or chaste. So to be of that number we must make use of the provision God has made in Christ for our benefit, or we shall miss the mark.

In I Cor. 9:24 Paul encourages us all to so run that we may win the crown. But he explains not all win the race. There must be some losers who did not conform to His plan and trust His grace. Some will quit running when they encounter difficulties, trials, testings, dangers, heartaches, losses, misunderstandings, false accusations, etc. If one doesn’t run at all or does not follow Paul as he follows Christ, nor run in the way God has prescribed; how can he possibly win the crown? Rev. 3:11, “Let no man take they crown” (not even your own old man). Those who keep trusting God and His grace will triumph through Christ.

Salvation and getting to heaven is not in view here, but running or not running in a race, winning or not winning a crown, and being approved or not approved. Especially in regard to the doctrine we believe and contend for, the one and only true doctrine of God. Of course the way we walk, the life we live and the works we do are also included. To be tainted with heresy of erroneous doctrine will disqualify us.

What are Heresies? According to Webster, heresies are doctrines, opinions, or sets of opinions or principles at variance with established or generally accepted principles; opinions or doctrines that tend to cause divisions. That closely coincides with the meaning of the Greek word translated “heresies,” which is “hairesis” and singular rather than plural. It means “a taking for oneself, a choosing” and refers to personal and private opinions, principles, ideas.

Seeing, then, that it is according to Paul’s gospel that God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ; that a curse is pronounced upon anyone, angel or man, who preaches any other gospel. Paul instructed Timothy to charge would-be teachers to teach no other doctrine. He instructed Titus to reject from being a teacher anyone who is a heretic (one who believes and holds heresy). See Rom. 2:16; 16:17; Gal 1:6-9; I Tim. 1:3 & Titus 3:10.

To understand why the church is so deplorably divided as to its outward aspect and why, flesh being what it is, divisions are inevitable and will continue to exist till the end of the church age. It is because doctrines, opinions or principles at variance with the doctrine given to and proclaimed by Paul (the Lord’s Apostle to The Church), have been introduced and accepted by members of it. But those who accept, believe, submit to, and walk by faith in the light and power of Paul’s gospel will be both approved and rewarded when we all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. See II Cor. 5:10.

Though intended to unite, TRUTH ALSO DIVIDES. In Luke 12:51 Jesus asks, “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” Truth accepted by some, and rejected by others, inevitably causes division. And the deeper that saints who seek to attain to perfection in Christ delve into and appropriate truth, the less they are understood and appreciated by other saints. I Cor. 2:15. Many turn from them and divisions increase rather than decrease as a result of their growing in Christ.

If we desire to attain to the very highest heights by means of the gospel and the exceeding riches of God’s grace that is possible for all Christians to attain to in Christ, we may even find members of our own households becoming our foes. See Mt. 10:34-36. For you see divisions are cause by truth as well as by error. But those who hold, contend for and defend truth (the Word of God’s grace) will be approved and rewarded. That Word stabilizes every one who receives it gladly. Heb. 13:9.

prepared by E. J. D.