{"id":2820,"date":"2007-04-02T17:09:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-02T17:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=2820"},"modified":"2007-04-02T17:09:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-02T17:09:00","slug":"is-christ-divided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=2820","title":{"rendered":"Is Christ Divided?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m going to be providing notes to the house groups in Mersea, so that all the different groups, though separated, are working through the same material. We&#8217;re going to be working through 1 Corinthians for the next few months. This is the material for week one (click on &#8216;full post&#8217; to read).<\/p>\n<p><span><br \/>Is Christ Divided?<br \/>Notes for the house groups on 1 Corinthians.<\/p>\n<p>Week One, beginning Sunday 15 April: 1 Corinthians 1.1-17<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Corinth is in central Greece. Sacked and destroyed by Romans in 146BC; rebuilt and repopulated by Julius Caesar in 44BC. Wealthy outpost of Roman civilisation; a seaport; cosmopolitan; an &#8216;international crossroads&#8217;; looked down on surrounding area. What might this tell us about who Paul was talking to? Any parallels\/contrasts with Mersea? What might Paul need to be aware of if he was talking to the people of Mersea today, in terms of cultural assumptions and processes?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Paul founded the church in Corinth, 50\/51 AD (Acts 18.1-7); the letter is written from Ephesus a few years later, before 55 AD.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Paul mentions Jesus in almost every verse &#8211; what conclusions can be drawn from this?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Paul&#8217;s principal concern is for unity, and the avoidance of faction. What are the criteria for unity in a church? Consider:<\/span><\/li>\n<ul>\n<li><span>verse 2 of this passage (&#8216;all who call on the name of the Lord&#8230;&#8217;)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Romans 10.9<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Matthew 7.21<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li><span>What is the origin of the factions? Culturally the Corinthians were accustomed to &#8216;choosing&#8217; amongst different philosophical debaters &#8211; a sort of classical &#8216;pop idol&#8217; contest. What does it say about their understanding of the gospel that it was incorporated within those cultural assumptions? Are there ways in which we do the same today?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Who is Apollos for us today? (Or Paul, or Peter, or whomever) Does the success of certain teachers (eg Rick Warren) or certain models of church (&#8220;mega churches&#8221;) raise any dangers for a church community? What are the divisions within the church on Mersea? Across churches (CTIM itself isn&#8217;t comprehensive); by worship style or time of worship &#8211; compare 8am congregation to 9:30am; by belief? How can these divisions be minimised or overcome? A useful word: adiaphora: &#8216;things indifferent&#8217;, or &#8216;this is not worth dividing a church over&#8217;; Richard Baxter: &#8220;In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity&#8221; &#8211; adiaphora is that which is not necessary for salvation. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>What does it mean to be &#8216;sanctified&#8217; in Christ Jesus (v2)? or &#8216;called to be holy&#8217;? Consider:<\/span><\/li>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Matthew 5.13-16<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>the &#8216;pure church heresy&#8217; (technically called &#8216;Donatism&#8217;), that only the morally pure could be ministers or members of a church<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>how far should Christians be involved in a local community; how far should they (we) be a separate society?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>many of these questions will recur throughout this letter<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li><span>What does Paul mean (v6) about his testimony being confirmed in the Corinthians? Can the same be said of our church?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Whose faith is emphasised? (v9) Does faith achieve salvation (Rom 10 again) or is it the faith of Christ which achieves salvation? (Gal 2:16 in KJV, in Greek &#8216;pistis Christou&#8217; &#8211; a genitive; NB this is a highly debated question. You might like to compare the verse from Galatians as presented in the KJV and NIV)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>What does Paul mean in saying &#8216;Christ did not send me to baptise&#8217;? Compare with the Great Commission at the end of Matthew&#8217;s gospel. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>What does this passage say to the present crisis in the Anglican Communion? Can we use Paul&#8217;s analysis helpfully? Again, this issue will recur as we work our way through the Epistle.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m going to be providing notes to the house groups in Mersea, so that all the different groups, though separated, are working through the same material. We&#8217;re going to be working through 1 Corinthians for the next few months. This &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=2820\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-theology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3npsc-Ju","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}