God takes unity in the church very seriously. It was the subject of Jesus’ prayer for all believers on the night before he died. In John 17, Jesus prays that ‘all of them [those who believe in Jesus] may be one’, just as Jesus and the Father are one, ‘that they might be brought into complete unity’.

Tragically, Jesus’ prayer has not yet been answered – the history of the church is littered with arguments, disagreements, splits and factions. Our own experience of church may well include hurt, anger and upset, as people have fallen out with others and divided into ‘us and them’ groups.

The Corinthian church appeared to be divided into at least four factions and engaged in a sort of spiritual ‘one-upmanship’, claiming allegiance to Paul, Apollos, Peter (sometimes called Cephas)  – or Jesus. You can almost sense Paul’s exasperation as he tries to deal with this in these verses (vs 12,13). They are united in Christ! I wonder how his appeal for unity was received by the Corinthian church.

Grant, O Lord, that my personal ambitions may never conflict with your gospel nor harm the faith of others around me.

Modern and ancient writers attest to religious diversity in Corinth. Corinthian Christians, accustomed to competing ideologies, brought this divisive tendency into the church, characterised by rival loyalties to the evangelists from whom they first heard the gospel. A difficult problem for Paul was that Christians converted under the ministry of other evangelists did not recognise his apostolic authority. While some Christians were absolutely committed to Christ, some used their allegiance to Apollos or Peter as excuses for ignoring Paul’s guidance.

Loyalty to celebrated church leaders has been a mixed blessing. Inspired figures like Wesley or Luther were immortalised by their followers, who founded faith communities in their memories. In other cases, the modern cult of personality has led to groups too dominated by an individual, often only too pleased to lead an organisation bearing their own name. Paul wrote strong words about this. Preachers must never allow their personal ambition, charisma or skill to obscure the gospel. Too much dependence on contrived techniques can cause ‘the cross of Christ [to] be emptied of its power’ (v 17). 

Paul did not preach uniformity, often going to great lengths to encourage the acceptance of differences in the church.¹ But he did preach unity in Christ.² At their best, Christian denominations are necessary, like the independent Tongan church which met in our Anglican building, with people worshipping in their own language and style. At their worst, denominations have been ugly and politically aggressive, even resorting to physical conflict. Had these institutions striven to maintain unity in Christ, such ungodly behaviour would not have emerged in the church. 

John ‘O God … we pray for the unity of your church. Pardon all our pride, our lack of faith, understanding and charity.’³

¹ Rom 14,15  ² Eph 4:1–6; Gal 3:28  ³ Liturgy of the French Reformed Church