“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may
be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and
thought. My brothers, some from Chloe’s
household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I
follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow
Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?” (1
Corinthians 1:10-13)
Can you imagine anyone arguing over which
preacher was better? They actually did
that back then, in Paul’s day. Apollos,
Cephas, Paul -- they were all great preachers.
They were each different. God
used one to reach certain people and another to reach other people. It’s strange how that works. And then there was that group of people who
refused to put any man on a pedestal.
They thought they were better because they refused to be known as followers
of any man. But their pride was just as
bad as the other groups. Each thought
their group was better. Each thought
they had been taught more correctly.
Each group looked down on the other groups as somehow inferior.
Amazing that people could be so shallow back
then. It’s a good thing people today are
so much more mature. Or are we? Seems like we still do the same thing. Some people put their current preacher on a
pedestal … he’s the best one -- the one with the right teaching. Others put dead preachers in the place of
honor! We’ll call ourselves by the name
of someone from the past and develop pride that our group is better than those
others. And, of course, there’s still a
group or two that refuses to say they follow any man. But their pride still gets in their way.
Oh, if we could just learn that it’s not
about pride. It’s not about exalting
ourselves, our leader, or our group.
It’s about all of the followers of Jesus working together, each in his
or her own corner of the Kingdom. All
getting along, all complementing each other’s work and cooperating with each
other to accomplish more.
That’s God vision of His Kingdom. It’s mine, too! I hope it’s yours.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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