Factions and divisions in the church

²⁹ Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³² And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:29-32

Moving on, there are other things happening. You have divisions within the church. In the Corinthian church, you had factionalism, people divided over things like which man they would follow.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 it says,

¹¹ For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. ¹² Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” ¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 1 Corinthians 1:11-13

And I’ve seen Christians falling out over which preacher to follow, falling out over minor points of doctrine and ending up fighting each other.

We’re called to follow Jesus who was crucified for us and the church which is founded on Him. Not to follow preachers.

Another thing which can come into the church is immorality. 1 Corinthians 5 says,

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 1 Corinthians 5:1

Then, in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 Paul says,

 ⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Notice that it says ‘Such were some of you but now you are sanctified by the Holy Spirit. You’re new creatures in Christ.’

In one sense, it doesn’t matter what you were before you became a Christian if you turned away from that you repented and you confessed your sin, you asked God to forgive you, then, you’re a new person in Jesus Christ.

I really don’t want to know about your past history. If you want to tell me, you can, but I’m not concerned about that. What matters is what you are now.

And, if you continue in the things which are not of God and you call yourself a Christian then, that is wrong in the eyes of the Lord.

And Paul is saying here that some of you are carrying on sinning after your conversion.

Now, praise God! We haven’t had any instances of that kind of sin happening in this church which I give thanks to the Lord for.

But we see that in much of the church today, particularly in the Church of England. Things are being sanctioned there which should not be. I quote here from the former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby speaking to the BBC. He said,

Do you get the point of that? The only thing that matters is that you’re in a committed relationship, but whether you’re married, whether it’s heterosexual (it can be anything) does not matter to the Church of England. This means that sexual intimacy is no longer limited to marriage. It’s okay in gay relationships and it’s ok that the church should even bless sexual relationships outside of marriage.

That is going right against the teaching of the Bible and it means a clear departure from the doctrine of the New Testament church even from the doctrine of the Church of England itself. It’s the opposite of Paul’s teaching where he says

¹⁸ Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20

So, these issues are there in the New Testament church and they’re still here in the church today.

There are numerous other issues you could speak about: gossip, slandering one’s neighbour, pride in leaders who puff themselves up as something great and exploit and oppress the people they should be serving. And, I would add, antisemitism and harmful behaviour towards the Jewish people from whom the Lord Himself came and the apostles too came and which Paul warned against in Romans chapter 9 through to 11.

³⁰ What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; ³¹ but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. ³² Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Romans 9:30-33

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. ² For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. ³ For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. ⁴ For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans 10:1-4

All of these things can grieve the Holy Spirit and cause Him to depart from the church. In Ephesians chapter 4 Paul writes,

³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³² And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:30-32

That’s how you should behave in the church of God, Be kind to one another, forgiving one another even if go as God in Christ forgave you be kind and forgive one another even.

If someone in the church does upset you (sometimes Christians very easily take offense), if you say a wrong word to someone and they’re offended sometimes, they never return. We shouldn’t be like that. If we do grieve the Spirit and offend our God or our neighbour, we should apologize, put it right, but we shouldn’t just fall out and separate.

And that’s what happens sometimes in churches. People are offended and they leave that’s the end of it.

We are called to repent and to be reconciled in Jesus Christ and, if we do grieve the Spirit, if we do grieve our God and our neighbour, there’s always a way back. 1 John chapter 1, one of the most important passages in the epistles says in verse 5,

⁵ This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:5-9

That’s a wonderful passage which just tells us how to have right relationships with God and with one another in the body of the Messiah. ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins’. He is always going to do that because, that’s why He came.

The blood of Jesus is powerful and able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so these are a few thoughts on how we behave in the church of God.