Sermon Tone Analysis

It’s every church.

Every single church.

Without exception.

Every church has divisions, disagreements, disunity, quarrels, and sometimes, outright fighting.

At one church I pastored, it nearly came to blows—literal fisticuffs—over what the color of the walls, chairs, and carpet would be in the new sanctuary.

If you think I’m exaggerating, I’m not.

I wish I was.

I legitimately had to stand in between the angry parties and, along with a few others, do my best to defuse the situation.

“Please don’t punch!

I’m in the middle of you two and I bruise like a peach.

I bruise like a peach!”

That was the silliest of all quarrels I’ve been part of, at least thus far; I mean, really, who cares what color the walls are?

What kind of carpet?

What does it matter if we have chairs or pews or hay bales?

We get upset and divide over the silliest stuff.

I’ve still got a lot of years ahead of me, Lord willing.

And knowing the history of Christ’s Church, there may just be even sillier fights ahead.

Churches divide and argue and fight about everything from paint and carpet to music and ministry practice.

Some churches have split over the issue of coffee in the sanctuary and others over the issue of how money should be spent.

My home church experienced a split while I was off at college (I was 200 miles away, so no one can blame me!).

What happened was a few of the elders made it very clear that they did not believe in the inspiration and authority of the Bible, telling the pastor and others at a Board Meeting, “Don’t go throwing the Bible at us; we do not care what it has to say.”

And so the church split (those who believed and trusted the Bible as God’s Word on one side and those who didn’t on the other).

That’s a very good reason to divide, to leave and find a church that actually believes in the inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Bible—that’s a good reason to leave and find a real church, if I may be so bold (and I’m going be that bold, because it’s not a church if the Bible is not the sole authority for faith and practice).

There are plenty of reasons—Biblical issues, gospel issues—for which we must take a stand, for which we must, sometimes, split from one another.

However, a good deal of the time, what divides us is nothing that needs to divide us.

Most issues are not issues which must lead to division; most issues, if we really consider them for what they are are preference- and personality-based.

So it is today; so it was in Corinth.

After a brief introduction and a moment of thanksgiving to God for His grace and faithfulness shown to His church located in Corinth, Paul launches into the reason for writing this letter: there are some major issues in the Corinthian church that Paul needs to address.

First up: unity.

Word has reached Paul.

Paul has heard from Chloe while he was in Ephesus, and what he heard was troubling.

The news came to him of division in Corinth; factions in the Corinthian church.

Paul is pleading for unity.

Unity is the goal.

Paul’s appeal is for them to agree; that there would be no divisions; that they’d be united; that they’d stop quarreling.

Paul appeals to them as brothers and sisters.

He appeals to them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The divisions and arguments, the disunity and quarreling in Corinth don’t seem to be of a theological nature.

Paul, Apollos, Peter, are certainly orthodox; they’re Christian.

Jesus Himself has no theological deficiency.

What’s going on here in Corinth, the division here in Corinth is based on personality and preference.

Various church members are focusing on their chosen personality and their preferred patron, instead of focusing on Jesus.

Instead of focusing on Jesus…there’s always serious trouble afoot when a church loses their focus, when a church isn’t most concerned about the cause of Christ, when a church has “more pressing” things to deal with than the things of Christ.

The Corinthian church is all kinds of messed-up; theirs is a house divided.

And so Paul pleads with them.

He pleads for unity.

>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1.

If you are able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Word, out of reverence for Him. 1 Corinthians 1:10-17—

May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

>Paul is pleading for the Corinthian church to be united:

Because they’re family

Paul addresses the Corinthians in a very churchy way, and he addresses them as such more times than any other church he writes to.

In his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul uses the word adelphoi 39 times—far and away the most frequent use of this word in any of his letters; more than double any other letter.

Paul addresses them here in verse 10 and 11 as adelphoi, that is brothers and sisters.

Maybe your Bible uses the word brethren here, and that’s fine.

Just make sure you understand the entire church is in view here.

Brothers and sisters.

This is a good deal different than calling them “ladies and gentlemen” or merely “you all”.

Brothers and sisters is a family word.

This is meant to evoke in the church a family affection for one another.

This is meant to make clear to them that Paul is their sibling in the family of God and is addressing them as such.

This would soften his message to them a little.

He’s about to bring up some very difficult stuff; this kind of address helps.

Paul is pleading with them to be united, begging with them to stop fighting, and he appeals to their familial bond.

“You are family, for crying out loud!”

Now, this doesn’t necessarily ring true for everyone; sometimes family means more fighting.

Not everyone has a good relationship with their family.

But you can understand what Paul’s getting at.

He wants them to think about themselves as they actually are in Christ.

If you belong to God by faith in Christ, you belong to God’s family which means you have an enormous number of brothers and sisters.

“Would you say I have a plethora of brothers and sisters?”

If you’re a Christian, yes, yes I would.

Because they’re family

The Corinthian church, the Christians in Corinth, are supposed to relate to one another as brothers and sisters.

Our small part of Christ’s church is a family church in more than one sense of the word.

It’s family because most of you are related to someone else in the congregation.

But even more than that, more important than that: we’re family because we all belong to God by faith in Jesus Christ.

All this means that quarreling and divisions and arguments should be squashed out of our love for one another.

My sister Bethany drives me absolutely batty; the feeling is mutual, I’m sure.

I can push her buttons within 2.3 seconds of seeing her.

We might bicker and disagree…okay we will bicker and disagree.

We are very different people, Bethany and me, but underneath all of that is an immense love for one another—a love that supersedes all our disagreements.

The church is made up of people very different from one another, possibly people that drive you batty, people who can push your buttons.

But underneath all of that is a love for one another, a love that supersedes all disagreements.

Where the church is concerned, my preference about an issue is not as important as my brother.

My preference is not more important than my sister in Christ.

Paul’s appeal is for them to agree; that there would be no divisions; that they’d be united; that they’d stop quarreling—and all of this because they’re family.

Quarrels are one of the acts of the sinful nature (Galatians 5:19-21).

Quarrels do not belong among God’s people.

“Come on, guys.

You’re family.

This should not be happening.”

>Paul is pleading for unity

Because of Jesus

In the same breath that Paul appeals to their relationship to one another, he invokes the name of Jesus:

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ...

This is the authority behind Paul’s appeal.

It’s not that he himself has no authority; as an apostle by the will and calling of God, Paul does have authority.

The people just don’t really respect his authority (which is a problem we’ll see later in this letter).

Paul isn’t one to throw around his own authority.