Thoughts from I Corinthians, Part 1: Unity and Theology

This morning as I was reading in 1 Corinthians, the Lord was bringing to mind memories of the past and adversely more of a vision for what I would like to see Him do in the future.  It's getting me excited!!

That will be in my next entry though.  Before I get to that, another thing seemed to come up among the first few chapters of this book.  I don't fully understand all that Paul is getting at, but unity is very clear.  Not only does this unity cover one church family, or even one city.  He says of the church in Corinth, "...called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours" (1:2, emphasis added).

We, as believers in Christ, are called to be united (i.e. overcoming division) with all believers.  Seem impossible?  Without God, inevitably so.  As I hear more about the desire for unification between Protestant and Catholic believers here in Granada though, it increases my hope in Jesus for this type of unity.  

My last comment on that subject has to do with theology and the way we tend to cling to certain theologians and promote them, at times, perhaps above Christ.  Paul elaborates significantly how the Corinthian church was claiming to follow Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or Christ.  He goes on to say, "What then is Apollos?  What is Paul?  Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.  For we are God's fellow workers.  You are God's field, God's building" (3:5-9).

It seems that Paul always places the importance on Jesus.  Often I think we get caught up in the idea of following John Calvin, Jacobus Arminius, John Piper, Dr. Mohler, Mike Bickle, etc.  Maybe we even want people to be exactly like us.  In the end, we are not going to completely agree theologically with many, perhaps even one person.  The way the Lord has worked in and grown each of us is uniquely different, and this appears to draw us to different conclusions at different times.  At least in my own life, my theology has changed throughout years of studying the Bible, hearing the Word preached, classes, and experience.

The most important thing is that we believe Jesus is the only way to the Father.  I believe scripturally, by Jesus words in fact, this is non-negotiable (John 14:6).  There are other things that fall into this category, but instead of arguing and blowing secondary things out of proportion, perhaps we should pray for unification in the primary.  The Lord is at work in many peoples, some of it we are more comfortable with or agree more with than others, but we cannot deny the fact that HE IS AT WORK.

May we pursue the power of God through the work of the cross in our lives and in the lives of others.