1 Corinthians 11 NLT
First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it. But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized! (18-19)
Paul was quite critical of the Corinthian church on many fronts; one, in particular, was their lack of unity. There were divisions among them—disputes, jealousy, and factions. Unity is a hallmark of the church and Jesus Himself said that unity would be something that would draw men to Him and would prove to the world that we are genuinely His children. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is setting up to even chide them for their lack of unity in the Lord’s supper and worship. When churches squabble amongst themselves and get their eyes of Jesus they are not pleasing to the Lord.
Having said that, though, I often get questions like, “Why are there so many denominations today?” If unity is so important in the church then why isn’t there just “One Church?” That is a tough one because while God wants His children to be of one heart and one mind, does this means that we have to sacrifice everything for the sake of unity? I don’t think so. God wants us to be unified, but it is not unity for unity’s sake. Instead, He wants us to be unified around the truth and the gospel, and there is a place for healthy debate and even distancing ourselves from those who claim to be Christians but who do not hold to the truth. Contrary to popular belief, everyone is not “right” and not everyone has God’s approval.
These two verses in the middle of Paul’s discourse on unity are very helpful. While Paul criticized them for their lack of unity, he makes the concession that some divisions must exist so we can know who has God’s approval. God wants us to get along and love one another, but He never asked us to sacrifice the truth for the sake of unity. Today, unity is often valued more than the truth of God’s word and that is wrong. We should extend grace to all and we should overlook our minor disagreements in the grey areas in order to focus on the things that matter. However, when it comes to the plain teaching of Scripture, we cannot give in to lies just to promote some misguided sense of ecumenical unity. There is a time to stand and be counted and some things are important enough to draw a line in the sand and refuse to cross it; even if it means we cannot go on together.
