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Helpful Divisions

By: Phillip Ross

Paul said that various divisions in the church were normal because sin was both universal ("for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" -- Romans 3:23) and lingering ("If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" -- 1 John 1:8). There will be no perfect church this side of heaven, "for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized" (v. 19). The factions ("heresies" in the KJV, "schisma" in the Greek) are used as a foil to prove, sharpen and recognize genuine believers.

False beliefs "must be" in the churches, according to Paul, because "God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass" (Westminster Confession of Faith 3.1). God's purpose is unalterable, and since there were false prophets during Old Testament times, it must be expected that false teachers would arise in the Christian churches. Satan is always busy sowing the seeds and tares of false doctrine. And human nature, being both weak and wicked, is gullible to the lies of Satan, and is easily deceived. John Gill wrote that "it cannot be thought that it should be otherwise." Why would God allow falsehood to exist in His churches? For the teaching and training of the saints, for their sanctification and growth in grace, knowledge and understanding. Though God is not the author of evil, He uses evil as a backdrop from which to set apart holiness and to bring about its own destruction to the glory of His justice.

1 Corinthians 11:20 provides an example of how this process works: "When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat." The example comes from the worship experience of the Corinthian church. Interesting. They probably thought that they were eating the Lord's Supper, but Paul tells them otherwise. Here we learn that we are not always doing what we think we are doing, that we -- human beings, and even Christians -- are susceptible to self-delusion. Here we learn that it is possible to go through the motions of worship -- eating the Lord's Supper -- and still miss the point, purpose and experience of genuine worship. This same principle is found in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"

Paul continues, "For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk" (1 Corinthians 11:21). Notice that not only did Paul tell them that they were not eating the Lord's Supper, but here he told them that they were eating their own supper. They were substituting God's thoughts and desires with their own thoughts and desires. They were not worshiping God, they were projecting themselves, substituting their own likeness for the likeness of God.

The human mind is able to both perceive and to project. It can both perceive patterns of information that exist objectively in its environment, and it can project organizational patterns onto its environment that exist subjectively in itself. We can read meaning from data, and we can read meaning into data. And it's not that the one is right and the other is wrong. Both are important. People do both all the time. Discerning order helps us understand. Projecting order helps us create. What is important is to know when to do the one and when to do the other, to know when we are engaged in the one and when we are engaged in the other.

The worship of the Corinthians, including their use of the Lord's Supper, failed to engage the objectivity of God's Word (thoughts and desires) in worship because they were projecting the subjectivity of their own words (thoughts and desires) in worship. Worship is one place we want to discern God's order and not project our own.

Verse 21 is a difficult verse, but at root Paul alludes to three problems with what they were doing in their celebration of the Lord's Supper. First, there was a kind of selfishness where each worshiper focused on taking rather than receiving. By taking the Lord's Supper the central actor was the taker. By receiving the Lord's Supper the central actor is the Giver -- God. Do we take what is ours? Or do we receive what is given? It's an attitude thing. Secondly, they were neglecting those who were hungry in their midst. It's another example of the wrong attitude, an example of self-concern and the neglect of others. And thirdly, some were drunk.

All three problems were the result of their focus in worship being on themselves and not on God. The focus was subjective, not objective. They were self-concerned and self-focused when they should have been God-concerned and God-focused. They were more interested in getting than in giving.

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False beliefs "must be" in the churches, according to Paul. God's purpose is unalterable, and since there were false prophets during Old Testament times, it must be expected that false teachers would arise in the Christian churches. Satan is always busy sowing the seeds and tares of false doctrine.

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