Finding Identity and Unity Beyond Comparison
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"So I can't speak for all of you. I don't know if any of you ever struggle like I do with comparing yourself with other people that trap. I sometimes find myself falling into that, which is silly, right? Because I mean, like we live in a nice house. We live in an awesome part of the country. It's beautiful here. And then yet every year, Christmas cards start showing up, right? And then you're like, oh, that guy that I haven't seen from college. Like, wow. They were so beautiful. They went on this fantastic, like, eight-month trip to Uzbekistan. You know, they go to these amazing places. You get pictures of that. And then you see, like, you know, the guy that you used to work with, and he has this massive new house that he just bought. And then you look at the card that you sent out, which is like your family in your living room with, like, hair going in every direction, like your aunt took the picture because you didn't go anywhere this year. And you look at other people's lives, and you just feel less." [00:28:12] (49 seconds)
"And the crazy thing about the comparison game, it's not just, like, I compare myself to people who are doing better, and I feel bad. Sometimes there's a real petty part of me where it goes the other way, too. Like, you look at people who aren't doing as well as you, and you get kind of proud, right? You're like, well, I mean, I don't have, like, the greatest job in the world, but at least I didn't get fired like Debbie this year. I kind of wonder what the back story is there, right? Or, you know, our kids aren't, like, all heading to Harvard, but, you know, at least our son didn't repeat second grade again, like little Timmy Johnson. You know? The thing about comparison, right, is it gets you coming and going. And, I mean, surely there's got to be some way out of that." [00:29:06] (36 seconds)
"So this is what's going on. In response to these problems, in response to this crisis, Paul writes this letter, what we know as 1 Corinthians, to try to address this long list of issues that we're facing. And we're gonna spend some time this morning to look at the first of the issues that he deals with, which is the fact that there are divisions in the church. This is a big enough deal for Paul. He takes about four chapters to talk about it. And in each chapter, he takes kind of a different approach to sort of talk about the issue. But today, we're gonna mainly be in chapter one. And we're gonna look at how he starts off this discussion about divisions, talks about why they're a problem and what's behind the problem and what they can do about it. So we're gonna start reading in verse 10, if you wanna read with me." [00:33:30] (37 seconds)
"So let's look at that just a verse at a time. So in verse 10, Paul gives a command, which he frames as an appeal. He says, there shouldn't be any divisions among you. And he comes back to this idea over and over again, all throughout the letter. His desire is that there not be divisions in the church. And that doesn't mean that people can't have different opinions about things or think about different things. They've got to be lockstep in everything. No. But when it comes to the essentials, they need to be perfectly united in mind and heart. And then even more importantly, when it comes to how they treat each other, maybe people who disagree on some of these non-essentials, they can't let divisions spring up. They can't put themselves in different groups where they compare and say, well, I'm better because I think about this more. And you're worse because you're on that side of the fence." [00:34:34] (41 seconds)
"And really just in this one verse, you kind of get a picture of the way that all these cultural values in Corinth are showing up in the church. I mean, think about those three names, Paul and Apollos and Cephas. They're all Jewish leaders who apparently came through Corinth and they all taught exactly the same message, right? They're talking about, it's not like they have a different version of what Jesus did and how that works, but the people respond differently. So Apollos was particularly appealing to some people in the church because he had a Greek background. And apparently he was a really gifted speaker, which was a high value in that culture. I would imagine that maybe, the Jewish people in the church, they kind of really sided with Peter in this because after all, Peter was from Israel and he had walked in the homeland with Jesus." [00:35:48] (41 seconds)
"Others maybe felt personal loyalty to Paul because of how he had invested in their life. So they're like, no, no, we're on Paul's team to the end. And again, remember in Corinth at this time, one of the ways that you moved ahead in the society, one of the ways you built up your social capital and your honor was by attaching yourself to a leader who had some clout, who had some gravitas and some reputation, right? You lift yourself up as you ride along with their coattails. And it looks like that's exactly what they're doing inside the church as well, right? The value that shaped them, the values of their culture shaped them. And instead of letting those values be transformed by the teaching of Jesus, they're just bringing those things into the church. And it's interesting, right? Something I always like to point out, you notice there's four different categories there. He says, you know, some say, well, I follow Paul, I follow Peter, I follow Apollos. And there's that other one, like I follow Christ, which on the one hand sounds like the right answer." [00:37:49] (51 seconds)
"But the fact that Paul lists it in this list of all these people who are having immature responses kind of makes you wonder if it's one of those things where they're giving the right answer, but their heart's not in the right place. Have you ever noticed that sometimes you can do the right thing with the wrong heart? Kind of the way I picture this is they look and they're like, oh, we're not stupid and immature like you people saying, I follow Paul. Like I would never do that. I, I follow Christ. You know, as they're like looking down their nose at the other people who are doing this, right? But here's the thing, right? Paul wastes no time in telling these different groups, isn't it? Right. So in the next verse, he asked them a series of questions and the answer that he expects to all these questions is no. So he says, is Christ divided?" [00:41:39] (40 seconds)
"And the crazy thing about the comparison game, it's not just, like, I compare myself to people who are doing better, and I feel bad. Sometimes there's a real petty part of me where it goes the other way, too. Like, you look at people who aren't doing as well as you, and you get kind of proud, right? You're like, well, I mean, I don't have, like, the greatest job in the world, but at least I didn't get fired like Debbie this year. I kind of wonder what the back story is there, right? Or, you know, our kids aren't, like, all heading to Harvard, but, you know, at least our son didn't repeat second grade again, like little Timmy Johnson. You know? The thing about comparison, right, is it gets you coming and going. And, I mean, surely there's got to be some way out of that." [00:29:06] (36 seconds)
"So this is what's going on. In response to these problems, in response to this crisis, Paul writes this letter, what we know as 1 Corinthians, to try to address this long list of issues that we're facing. And we're gonna spend some time this morning to look at the first of the issues that he deals with, which is the fact that there are divisions in the church. This is a big enough deal for Paul. He takes about four chapters to talk about it. And in each chapter, he takes kind of a different approach to sort of talk about the issue. But today, we're gonna mainly be in chapter one. And we're gonna look at how he starts off this discussion about divisions, talks about why they're a problem and what's behind the problem and what they can do about it. So we're gonna start reading in verse 10, if you wanna read with me." [00:33:30] (37 seconds)
"So let's look at that just a verse at a time. So in verse 10, Paul gives a command, which he frames as an appeal. He says, there shouldn't be any divisions among you. And he comes back to this idea over and over again, all throughout the letter. His desire is that there not be divisions in the church. And that doesn't mean that people can't have different opinions about things or think about different things. They've got to be lockstep in everything. No. But when it comes to the essentials, they need to be perfectly united in mind and heart. And then even more importantly, when it comes to how they treat each other, maybe people who disagree on some of these non-essentials, they can't let divisions spring up. They can't put themselves in different groups where they compare and say, well, I'm better because I think about this more. And you're worse because you're on that side of the fence." [00:34:34] (41 seconds)
"And really just in this one verse, you kind of get a picture of the way that all these cultural values in Corinth are showing up in the church. I mean, think about those three names, Paul and Apollos and Cephas. They're all Jewish leaders who apparently came through Corinth and they all taught exactly the same message, right? They're talking about, it's not like they have a different version of what Jesus did and how that works, but the people respond differently. So Apollos was particularly appealing to some people in the church because he had a Greek background. And apparently he was a really gifted speaker, which was a high value in that culture. I would imagine that maybe, the Jewish people in the church, they kind of really sided with Peter in this because after all, Peter was from Israel and he had walked in the homeland with Jesus." [00:35:48] (41 seconds)
"Others maybe felt personal loyalty to Paul because of how he had invested in their life. So they're like, no, no, we're on Paul's team to the end. And again, remember in Corinth at this time, one of the ways that you moved ahead in the society, one of the ways you built up your social capital and your honor was by attaching yourself to a leader who had some clout, who had some gravitas and some reputation, right? You lift yourself up as you ride along with their coattails. And it looks like that's exactly what they're doing inside the church as well, right? The value that shaped them, the values of their culture shaped them. And instead of letting those values be transformed by the teaching of Jesus, they're just bringing those things into the church. And it's interesting, right? Something I always like to point out, you notice there's four different categories there. He says, you know, some say, well, I follow Paul, I follow Peter, I follow Apollos. And there's that other one, like I follow Christ, which on the one hand sounds like the right answer." [00:37:49] (51 seconds)
"But the fact that Paul lists it in this list of all these people who are having immature responses kind of makes you wonder if it's one of those things where they're giving the right answer, but their heart's not in the right place. Have you ever noticed that sometimes you can do the right thing with the wrong heart? Kind of the way I picture this is they look and they're like, oh, we're not stupid and immature like you people saying, I follow Paul. Like I would never do that. I, I follow Christ. You know, as they're like looking down their nose at the other people who are doing this, right? But here's the thing, right? Paul wastes no time in telling these different groups, isn't it? Right. So in the next verse, he asked them a series of questions and the answer that he expects to all these questions is no. So he says, is Christ divided?" [00:41:39] (40 seconds)
