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MAINTAINING UNITY IN THE BODY OF CHRIST - THE DAILY FOUNTAIN DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE OF THE CHURCH OF NIGERIA (ANGLICAN COMMUNION)

THE DAILY FOUNTAIN DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE OF THE CHURCH OF NIGERIA (ANGLICAN COMMUNION)


DATE: TUESDAY, 11TH JANUARY, 2022 

TOPIC: MAINTAINING UNITY IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

TEXT: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-17

1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2. To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

3. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 

5. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 

6. God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 

7. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 

8. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

9. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10. I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,[a] 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. 

11. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 

12. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow CEPHAS”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

13.  Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 

14.  I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 

15. so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 

16.  (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 

17. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.


MESSAGE:

The concept of unity appears early in the scriptures. In Genesis 1:26, we read, "And God said, 'let us make man in our image." This shows that unity is important to God. One can understand why it appears that Paul was in a hurry to talk about it, denouncing disunity in the strongest terms, and making a strong case for unity, among the Corinthian Church of his day.

The question, "Is Christ divided?" continues to beg for answers, even more in our time. Doctrinal matters have so divided the Body of Christ that the multiplicity of denominations within Christendom is at the highest. S.J. Stone put it succinctly in his Hymn, A&M 255, "With scornful wonder men see her sore opprest, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distrest." 


Paul enjoins the Corinthian Church to shun all forms of divisions and maintain the same unity as found in the Godhead, who called them "unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (v.9). God Himself also testified to the efficacy of unity in Genesis 11:6.

 

Prayer: 

May the love of God reign supreme in my heart, and may I receive the grace to pursue peace and unity among the brethren. Amen.

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