LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Leaving Childhood (1)
T. Austin-Sparks has said that "ninety percent of the New Testament deals with the growth and maturity of believers". Now, the first epistle to the Corinthians is a letter that reveals some characteristics of spiritual childhood and, as such, shows us what we must leave behind in order to move toward maturity.
One of them is the division because of spiritual parents. The church in Corinth was divided between the followers of Paul, the followers of Apollos, the followers of Peter and others who maintained that they only followed Christ. They felt admiration for a certain leader to the point of separating themselves from the others. Almatic' Christians always look for points of sympathy with others, which may be based on certain aspects of character, emphasis, and anything else minor.
The fourth group consisted of those who followed Christ, and not men. These could be labeled as more spiritual, but they had the problem that they were probably unwilling to submit to the older brothers. For them there was only a vertical relationship between God and themselves, and they were not subject to men.
When Paul became aware of this situation, he reprimanded them severely. The whole argumentation of chapters 1 to 4 revolves around this question. They were not to bow down to one of the apostles, but to take the wealth that Christ had deposited with each of them for the equipping of the saints. The apostles were not the masters of the church, nor were they to seek followers for any particular cause, but they were co-workers, servants, and stewards of the mysteries of God to them. "They are all yours", exclaims Paul, "do not make them a cause of contention".
Children in Christ have a tendency both to idolize their spiritual parents and to be easily disappointed in them when they see any weakness. That is easily proven not only in the church in Corinth, but right there where you live and meet. Pastors and preachers, evangelists and prophets, have become a cause of dispute and division among the people of God. The children of God take sides, and there seems to be no voice raised to stop them. Many of those who could do so, either do not have the strength, or it is not convenient for them to do so.
Many denominations have sprung up around the leading figures of historic Christianity. What may have begun as a weak tendency, for apparently innocuous reasons, has strengthened over time to the point of becoming a great wall that reinforces the grave evil that the apostle Paul struggled uselessly to stop: the division of the people of God.