Unity vs Uniformity
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One of Paul’s core convictions was that our behaviors are a manifestation of who I think I am.
He stressed that being a Christian is of primary importance over any cultural or ancestral identities I may have. (Scott McNight: A World of Differents)
Paul spent 18 months starting up this church. Corinth was a center of trade including a significant sex trade centered around the temple of Aphrodite and its 1000 prostitutes. They also hosted a forum for intellectual exchange which fostered loud and insulting debates.
1Cor 1:10-12. Paul’s plea for unity was pointing out the division caused by this contentious and argumentative culture.
Acts 18:24 Apollos was a good teacher and orator and people contrasted him with Paul, causing divisions. The church was struggling with spectator arrogance and divisive debates.
Paul hits hard with the question 1Cor 1:13 ,Are your differences and your arrogance about your “rightness” more important than the gospel message?
He urges the church to focus on unity (not uniformity) with the intent that ministry would be other-centered.
This is a difficult challenge especially when surrounded by a contrary culture.
Acts 17:16-17 Paul dialogued/discussed/reasoned with the church members to find ways to bring unity.
“Early Christianity served as a revitalization movement in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social bonds that were able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with homeless and impoverished, the Christians offered charity and hope when no other social institutions existed to help the poor. To cities filled with strangers and newcomers, Christianity offered and immediate basis for social attachment. To cities filled with orphans and widows, the Christians offered a new expanded sense of family. To cities torn by ethnic divisions, the Christian communities offered a new basis for social solidarity…it was not simply a new urban movement, but a new culture, capable of making life in Greco-Roman cities more tolerable.” Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity...