The centrality of Jesus Christ crucified corrects the divisions.

Greetings my friends of steemchurch today I want to share this small studio with all of you I hope you like it.

"I urge you, then, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in one mind and one mind."

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Notice that the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned again in this verse. Actually, this letter emphasizes the Lordship of Christ. In our day we hear many affirmations about His Lordship, but in practical life, we see very little. For this reason, churches and individual believers have serious problems. It is not enough to talk about the Lordship of Christ. There are certain questions that we can not avoid: Is He your Lord? Have you done your Lord and Master?

"To speak all the same thing" does not mean, of course, that each one must express himself with the same words. It means that believers should not engage in arguments, quarrels, giving rise to resentment.

When he says divisions, he indicates that there should not be a schismatic separation. That word suggests that there should be no fractures in the church, that she should not suffer ruptures, caused by the behaviors just mentioned. There was that continuous gossip, endless criticism, hatred and bitterness, as can be seen in some sectors today. Of course, these attitudes can not be present in our lives if we consider ourselves associated with Jesus Christ. Now, what is that of the same mind? Well, it is the mind of Christ, which we can see described in Philippians 2: 5-8. A connection with Christ demands, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to live in harmony, thinking and feeling in the same way.

"For I have been informed concerning you, my brothers, by those of Chloe, that there are contentions among you."

The word for contentions is eris. Now Eris was the goddess of strife, disputes. And that was the prevailing atmosphere in that congregation. Pablo received the information first hand and mentioned his sources, that is, those of the family of Chloe. Dear listener, if you have to make an accusation, you have to back it up with your name.
Now, in this verse we have Chloe. And we admire Chloe, because he said in Corinth what was happening and he made it public by saying: "There are problems in this church and it is necessary to face the situation". It's like when the doctor has to treat a serious illness. To prevent it from spreading through the body, it will act with maximum speed, without resorting to concealment or dissimulation to avoid alarming or disturbing anyone. Otherwise, evil spreads through the body and will no longer have a remedy. And so it is in the church, which is certainly compared in the apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesians as a body, as an organism. The problem in that Corinthian church was that it had a large group of new Christians who, because they were in their first phase of growth, had not yet reached maturity and could have compared themselves to children, who are the ones who mourn the most, complain and protest Notice now what verse 12 of this chapter 1 says about the First Epistle to the Corinthians:

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"I mean, each of you says: I am from Paul, and I from Apollos, and I from Cephas, and I from Christ."

The divisions in that church were caused by the diverse preferences of the believers by the different leaders of the congregation, with the result that groups were formed around each one of them. In one group were the proud students of Pablo. In another the admirers of Apollo. There were also others who were supporters of Simon Peter, or Cephas. Let's look for a moment at all these who have been mentioned here.

We believe that we can say that we know or know more about Pablo and Cephas than about the others. Now, Pablo was an intellectual. He was bright, brave, but maybe he was not physically attractive. But those who loved the Word of God, loved Paul. Simon Pedro, on the other hand, was a fiery, vehement man. At first he had been a little weak, but then he became a vigorous preacher of the gospel. He had a big heart, he was sentimental. Then we have Apollo. He was one of the great preachers of the apostolic church. He was not an apostle and never received much recognition. But he was an eloquent preacher. We believe that it can be called the Billy Graham of that time. All those men had strong personalities. But they never caused divisions. They all fought together for the faith. They sought to keep the unity of the Spirit, and they all exalted the person of Jesus Christ. It was the members of the Corinthian church that were causing the divisions.

And so, those small groups argued among themselves. Thus, some praised the spiritual depth of Paul, others, the expressiveness and evangelistic tone of the sermons of Peter and others considered that the eloquence of Apollo elevated them and made the crowds vibrate. But those immature believers were overlooking the fact that those three men were servants of God. So, the apostle Paul was going to talk to them about this matter. He was going to teach them that the centrality of Christ was the answer to resolve the factions and fractures that existed in that church.
Now, we also notice in this verse 12, that there was a fourth group; the group that said "And I am of Christ". But not because they were giving Christ the first place, but because they considered themselves the most spiritual. They formed a closed circle, manifested an attitude of sectarian superiority, and excluded other believers.

So, we have four groups and there was no reason for them to exist like that. Because we see even in our days, that these divisions only serve to destroy the church from within.

We are living in a time when the main problems of some churches do not always come from outside, but are internal and are caused by personalities, the desire for leadership, partisan spirit and destructive criticism. These factors, along with others that we will be discussing, explain the energetic pastoral attitude of the Apostle Paul in writing this letter to the Corinthians, as well as his emphasis on the centrality of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church.

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And thinking now of non-believers, we will say that when human beings are unaware of God's place in creation, or deny their existence, the situation of division, division, insensitivity, instability and aggressiveness that we observe in the world of our time takes place. . And when human beings persist in their estrangement from God and deny the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and His victory in the resurrection of the dead, the very nature and dominion of sin are destroying the lives of people in this earth, and depriving them of eternal life. Therefore, dear listener, we do not know your situation regarding God and his message of salvation. We invite you to receive, through faith, salvation, the liberation that God offers freely, to all those who, being unable to do anything else to save themselves, call him from their helplessness and failure. Perhaps others have disappointed you, have destroyed your trust, and for that we are saying goodbye today, reminding you of the words that St. Paul addressed to the Romans, in 10:11 and 13, quoting Old Testament prophets: "Everyone who he believes, he will not be disappointed ... He is rich in mercy to all who call on him, since everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.