Your Daily Bread – Sins That Deestroy the Unity of the Church

Sins that destroy the unity of the church. Perhaps there may be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. All of those sins folks strike at the unity of the church. That’s part of his commission. Do you remember the text I read you in Ephesians chapter 4? For the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith. The church is to be one. The Lord wants a church of people who are looking on each other and not on their own things, considering others better than themselves, serving and ministering to one another where there’s harmony and love.

And Paul is saying, I’m afraid I’m going to come and find sins that destroy the unity of the church. And he gives a typical list of the kinds of sins that do that. Paul is good at lists. He’s involved in giving lists many times in his letters, lists of sins such as 1 Corinthians 6, Galatians 5. But here is a little list that has to do with what disrupts the unity of the church. And these are the kinds of iniquities he fears could exist. Now why would he fear this? Because they were part of pagan culture.

They were part of pre-Christian Corinthian experience. The very sins listed in verse 20 were typical of pagan behaviour in Corinthian society. And they had already been carried into the church by the Corinthians when they were converted. And they’d already been acting out these sins in the church. You say you mean those very sins were already a part of the church? Absolutely. In fact, you will find every single one of those sins addressed in 1 Corinthians. In Paul’s letter, he addresses every one of those sins and says to the Corinthians, you’ve got to stop doing that.

I mean, their culture was that way. It was argumentative. It was a culture of debate. The people picked their teachers and their leaders, and they were always embroiled with each other. It was a selfish culture. It was an arrogant society. There were all kinds of tumults and upheavals and anger and disputes and slanders and gossips. That was a way of life, as it is today. And they dragged it right into the church, and Paul had to confront it all. Strife, for example, he already spoke to them about in 1 Corinthians 1.11. It means rivalry, discord, debates, literally battles.

And then the word jealousy, xelos, envying. He confronted that in 1 Corinthians 3.3. And then angry tempers, thumos, outbursts is the word, fits, sudden explosions of anger, out of control hostility. He addressed that in 1 Corinthians 6.1 and following, and then disputes, erythea, factious attitudes, divisiveness, partisanship. He addressed that in 1 Corinthians 1.11, and then slanders, which is open, loudmouth criticism, public insults, public vilification. He spoke of that in 1 Corinthians 5.11 and 6.10. And by the way, that’s an onomatopoietic word, catalaleo, la-da-la-da-la. Gossip is another word used here. That, too, he had to address in an indirect way in 1 Corinthians 11.18.

Gossip is quiet whispers of criticism. That’s a word I the Greek that’s even hard to pronounce, cytharismos. It’s like shh, shh, another onomatopoietic word, whispers of criticism. Arrogance, that’s another word that is sort of onomatopoietic. It starts out with a phu, blowing sound, hot air, puffed up, overblown. He referred to that in 1 Corinthians 4 and 5 and 8. And then he closes with disturbances, disorder, tumults, anarchy. They may have been trying to exercise congregational rule, where everybody does what’s right in his own eyes. And 1 Corinthians 11.20 and following, 1 Corinthians 14.26.6 and following, deal with that.

Every one of these sins had been dealt with in 1 Corinthians. They were a part of pagan culture. They got dragged into the church, and Paul’s afraid he’s going to come there and find they’ve all sort of come back again. Because if people are following error, they inevitably are going to follow sinful behaviour. And these are the things he fears he’ll find. Familiar sins. They were part of the habit patterns of these people before they came to Christ. They had even been dragged into the church, and some of them even showed up at the communion table, you will remember, according to 1 Corinthians 11.

They could have risen their ugly head again under the destructive influence of the false teachers. And Paul is afraid that he’s going to find that kind of stuff when he gets back into the church. Those sins that destroy the unity of the church. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the sins that destroy the unity of the church. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way.