Rev. Don Campbell
1 Corinthians 9-11
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, DECEMBER 1, 2019
“PARTISAN POLITICS IN THE CHURCH”
Paul told the church at Corinth that their assembling made them worse, not better (1 Corinthians 11:17, 34). The Lord’s Supper was the occasion of his rebuke, but the specifics of their error are corrected for us when Paul separated the Lord’s Supper from a common meal in which some stuffed themselves and others drank to excess. The underlying cause of the problem was factionalism, which is alive and well today.
Paul wrote, “But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
While the specifics of the Corinthian error have changed, the spirit of factionalism has been quite healthy over the years. Someone once said, “Factions are a magnet attracting unsound and unsettled minds.” Unsound and unsettled minds have broken fellowship with other believers over one-cup or multiple containers, fermented or unfermented fruit of the vine, blessing before breaking or breaking before blessing, to name a few of the issues that have led to spiritual bloodletting.
When we toss in the issues of acceptable translations, printed hymnals versus projected hymnals, acceptable pronouns in addressing God, and styles of dress, we discover that partisan politics (debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power) is alive and well in the church today.
