Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to take a look at some scripture from 1st Corinthians chapter 1 before we do that I wanted to tell you a story.
In the last 15 years Andrew and I have hauled a of a lot of scrap iron. It’s not a job for those who want to be rich but it does support a family with food, clothes and basic needs. When we haul scrap we have to figure out what is steel or aluminum or other precious metals. We knew many years ago that we needed some good magnets to be able to do this.
One day my son got some microwave ovens ready to go to the scrap yard. He tore them apart and discovered that there were some really big circular magnets inside. Ever since then, he’s taken the magnets out of older microwaves and stuck them to the back of our truck box to be used when recycling items.
Magnetism is really neat and most of all, because God created it. Magnets are like a husband and wife who stick together through thick and thin. Magnets are like the best of friends who will never separate. Magnets are like a bird that is inseparable from her nest, or a beaver from its dam.
In my own life I think God created magnetism as a lesson for each of us to subliminally learn from, that he doesn’t want us in the church to be divided or separated from each other.
Have you ever tried to pull two large magnets apart from each other? It’s hard isn’t it, but it can be done if one is going to exert enough effort in the opposite direction. Magnetism is kind of like God’s holy scriptures. It is the thing that holds us and binds us all together when we believe the truth of what it says.
If one tries hard enough they certainly can separate two magnets from each other but when you think about it, they were always meant to be together, weren’t they? Magnets hold on to each other. It’s similar to the way that we need to be in the church.
God doesn’t want division in the church. God wants us to stay together, like a marriage. He wants each of us to grow together in the church through forgiveness, mercy, grace and reconciliation. Ultimately the things that join us together and bind us forever are the teachings of Christ Holy Word. God wants us to be United in the teachings of scripture together, rather than pulled apart by disbelief and disunity.
1 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.
The Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament that we have today did not want there to be any divisions among the church. Division is the action of separating something into parts or the process of being separated. God gets very upset when people purposely get involved with dividing a church group.
Pro 6:19 teaches something that the Lord hates… he that soweth discord among brethren.
Division is something that divides, separates, or marks off. It’s the act, process, or an instance of separating or keeping apart : seperation.
Discord in the archaic is to disagree, to be at variance; to fail to agree or harmonize or to clash.
In the church what brings unity are the teachings of scripture. It’s Christ’s teachings on love, forgiveness and reconciliation with each other. I really feel that division happens because people don’t accept scripture anymore. When they turn away from the things that Jesus taught, they try to take as many people with them as they can. They try to lead others astray and to believe their heresy.
God does not want division in the church, or contentions for that matter. Remember when we were five years old we didn’t know how to speak the entire English language yet. In the church there are things we do not understand yet, but they are for our benefit. The church is a spiritual College to learn what God wants us to do.
1 Corinthians 1:11 – For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
The main teachings of Christ Jesus are to to apologize and to forgive one another and reconcile. After all, this is what He taught when He teaches to confess our sins and admit them.
Each of us have our own problems, but if you’ve sinned just once in the eyes of God, without Christ’s forgiveness, you won’t see eternal life.
Rom 16:17-18. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
When people won’t forgive, make sure you take a good note of them because that’s the essence of the Christian Life. God forgives us through Christ and if they don’t forgive they’re denying everything that Christ stands for and accomplished at the cross.
1 Corinthians 11:18 – For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
A schism is basically the same as a division in the church. It is a division,separation, discord, or a disharmony. It is a formal division in, or separation from a church or religious body. It’s a split or division between strongly opposed sections or parties, caused by differences in opinion or belief.”
1 Corinthians 12:25 – That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
A schism is a split or separation within a group or organization, typically caused by discord. Division in the church is not of the spirit it’s of the flesh.
1 Corinthians 3:3 – For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
Instead of division and things that separate us, we are all supposed to be of the same mind.
Romans 12:16 – Be of the same mind one toward another.
Philippians 1:27 – Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
2 Corinthians 13:11 – Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
Think on those things for today and Lord willing, we’ll talk to you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye-bye everybody.♥️
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