What Doesn’t Mix

What Doesn’t Mix

1 Corinthians 3:3 (NASB)

3 “For you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?”

    Some things in life don’t go together: oil and water, nuts and chewing gum, love and hate, and criticism and unity. Constructive criticism can lead to greater unity. But when the criticism is motivated by selfishness, envy, or anger, it can never lead to unity.

    What can lead to unity? Service. Take the church at Corinth for example. The apostle Paul wrote stern rebukes to the church about their lack of unity. Men like Paul and Apollos came among them as servants (1 Corinthians 3:5) to build up a church characterized by unity.

1 Corinthians 3:5 (NASB)

5 “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.”

    But the immature Corinthian believers ignored the model of servant leadership and created cliques in the church based on “envy, strife, and divisions.” The other model of service they could have followed was that of Christ who came into the world to serve, not to be served (Mark 10:45; Philippians 2:7).

Mark 10:45 (NASB)

45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Philippians 2:7 (NASB)

7 “But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”

    Servants look first to the interests of others rather than their own interests (Philippians 2:4), and unity results.

Philippians 2:4 (NASB)

4 “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

    Unity comes when individual Christians submit their will and agenda to the Lordship of Jesus Christ—it’s the best way to begin every day.

 Richard Baxter “In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.”