Kyle Kauffman

The church has struggled with unity from it’s very beginning. Anytime a group of people starts to gather together there is going to be the threat of division. Paul sees this as a threat not only to the harmony of the church but also to the truth and witness of the gospel. In a church that is full of different problems and issues, it’s instructive that Paul begins by dealing with the issue of division in the Corinthian church. The things that may cause us to divide at times today look different than they did for the Corinthian church, but division remains a constant threat to the church and our witness to the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 1:10-31 Paul shows us what source of our division is often rooted in, and he shows us how the message of the cross unites us together. And the more united we are around the cross of Jesus, the more effective we will be in our witness to the gospel in our world.

1 Corinthians 1:10-31

Kyle Kauffman

God saves us in order to also set us apart. As Christians, we are called to live holy lives as God’s people in the midst of whatever culture or context he has placed us in. We see in Corinth that the temptation to be conformed to the culture rather than transformed by God is an ever present struggle for God’s people. But we also see that the same grace that saves us in the past, present, and future is also the grace that enables us to live holy lives. God does not save us and then leave us on our own. Rather he gives us all we need to live lives of holiness that distinct from the culture and pleasing to him. We are all people who are a work in progress in this area, but we are also people who held fast by God. As a result we can confidently work out our salvation while continuing to be daily dependent on God’s grace to us in Jesus. The more we seek to do this the more we will live as those who are set apart by God’s grace in the midst of a confusing culture.

Acts 18:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9