Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 1:1-17
I was out running the other morning and Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard’s 2021 song Undivided started to play. I don’t know enough about either artist to know whether they are Christfollowers or not, but the song has a catchy tune and an uplifting message.
I think it’s time to come togetherYou and I can make a changeMaybe we can make a differenceMake the world a better placeLook around and love somebodyWe’ve been hateful long enoughLet the Good Lord reunite us‘Til this country that we love’sUndivided
In our scripture for today, Paul was writing to the Corinthian Church to encourage them and address a few problems he heard they were having, one of which was divisiveness. The Corinthian church was a diverse group of Christfollowers that included wealthy merchants, common laborers and even former temple prostitutes. They found themselves quarreling about a lot of things from loyalty to certain leaders (Paul, Apollos, Peter, Jesus) to which spiritual gifts were more important.
After an opening greeting and thanking God for the gifts he had given the Corinthian Church, Paul began his message by calling his audience “brothers and sisters”. This was likely to emphasize that, despite their varied backgrounds, members of the Corinthian church were all part of the same family – the family of God. Paul asked them to stop arguing and focus on what truly mattered, rather than the small differences that were taking them off course and driving them apart.
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought (1 Corinthians 1:10).
Paul’s message to the Corinthian church is very timely for us 21st century Christfollowers. We come from a lot of different places, some of us grew up in the church and some of us didn’t. We don’t all look the same, sound the same, or share common experiences. But even if we don’t agree on every detail, we can be united and work together in harmony if we agree on the one thing that really matters – Jesus Christ is Lord.
...yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live (1 Corinthians 8:6).