For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.
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?
I Corinthians 1:10-13
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?
Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
I Corinthians 2:10-16
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
I Corinthians 3:1-17
1 Corinthians was a letter written by the apostle Paul to address the issue of divisions within the church of Corinth, which were caused by the Christians following a particular leader rather than Christ. Paul said the reason they did this and the reason for the division was because they were carnal, not spiritual. They were "babes" in Christ, lacking maturity. Because of this, they were still not able to feed on "solid food".
By the time that Paul wrote this, the Corinthians should have possessed the knowledge given by the Spirit and therefore they should been spiritually minded because of the Spirit. They should have been solely dependent upon the Spirit to guide, lead, and teach them. They should have had the mind of Christ by that time. However, even though they had received the Spirit, they behaved as natural men who are unable to receive or know the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to them.
But Paul planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase.
The Corinthians totally missed this. They misunderstood what the purpose of the church was and who the church belongs to. They were following after the minister through whom they believed because they did not understand 1) that Paul and Apollos were fellow workers, working together (as opposed to working against each other) to sow seed in God's field, and they were the field in which they were sowing, 2) that now being believers themselves, they were fellow workers with Paul and Apollos to work in God's field and 3) that they were both individually and collectively God’s building which was being built on the foundation of Christ. This building is His temple - the place where God dwells and resides - and therefore they were not to defile it by partaking in carnal things, otherwise Paul said that God would destroy them.
Interestingly, about fifty years later, Clement of Rome wrote another letter to the church of Corinth which addressed similar issues as Paul did. The church seemed to have existed for possibly centuries, but it is uncertain how Biblical it was. Today, the church does not exist, so it appears that God's testing fire did in fact reveal the poor quality construction of the building that they built and destroyed them.
Just as Paul and Apollos were fellow workers in Corinth back then, the church (Christians) today is supposed to work together to build on the foundation that Jesus laid. However there is a lot of carnality in the church which prevents this from happening.
If the church doesn't work together, but instead divides over leaders or denominations, then there is likely a misunderstanding of what the purpose of the church is. Based on what Paul said, it is because churches contain carnal babes who are still feeding on milk and who are unable to feed on solid food. They contain and are sometimes led by natural men who do not possess the Spirit and who are unable to receive or understand the things of the Spirit. It may also be that they have received the Spirit but they behave as if they have not - their behavior is carnal.
According to Paul, these churches who are operating carnally rather than spiritually, are not working to build on the foundation that Jesus laid because they are following after men rather than Christ. Christ has a purpose for the church which men often do not adhere to. Their work oftentimes becomes more focused on feeding their individual flock or tending to their own individual kingdom rather than building God's temple which is the global church. But our eyes need to remain fixed on Jesus, the chief cornerstone, building on His foundation and doing His will, not the will of men who are guided by their own ideas.
The quality of our work will be revealed and made clear through God's testing fire. If it endures, we will receive a reward, but if it burns, we will suffer loss because that will prove if it was of God or not.
God, Jesus and the Spirit are one, therefore God's people have been given a model to follow after. God has given His people His Spirit to guide them so that they will be one in heart and mind. If the church is divided it is not because of the Spirit, but because of carnality, or the flesh. Someone in the mix is not following the Spirit, but something else. A house divided will not stand (Mark 3:25). God's house is the church and it will not stand if it is divided. Therefore those Christians and churches who defile the temple by behaving carnally (causing division) will be destroyed because they are not working on the foundation of Christ to build God’s temple.
This is an extremely important matter that Christians within churches need to take much more seriously than they do. Oneness among Christians is not optional. Churches either work together as the church, or God will make it so they can't work at all.
Note: in this article, "the church" is intended to mean the people of God, and "churches" are the institution where people go to hear about God.
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