It’s amazing how often Christians treat other Christians like they are the enemy. I heard about a church meeting where people disagreed with one another so strongly, it broke out into a fistfight! The police were called in, and the story became public throughout the region. How does that represent Jesus to the world? How do denominations, with all these different churches on every corner, represent Jesus to unbelievers?
The Apostle Paul ran into this type of mess when he got a letter from a family who was part of the church he started in Corinth. The congregation was deeply divided—so much so that Paul asked the hard question: “Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces?” (1 Corinthians 1:13).
Those who would look at Christianity today would see a faith “chopped up into little pieces.” So, what should we do? Neglect the study of this complicated faith? Abandon our convictions about how we interpret Scripture and come out with different conclusions?
Could it be an ego issue? Are we so full of our arrogant selves, we actually believe our way, our denomination, our approach is, in every respect, 100% correct, and everyone else is wrong?
Christianity is both simple and complicated. Someone once said, “God’s Word is so shallow a child can wade in it and so deep, an elephant must swim.” So, it’s likely we Christians don’t see eye to eye on everything. But on the main things of faith, we agree to call each other “Christians.” Most would agree that we are Christians first and Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, etc., second. Isn’t it true that we, like the Corinthians, have “chopped up Christ into little pieces”? What if every church was just called “Christian”? What if we kept our distinctions, but we manifested the respect we actually do have for one another, other churches, and other denominations? Paul could have said, “United we stand; divided we fall.” If we’re supposed to win the world, how united are we?