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# One Foundation
This passage begins Paul's first major line of thought in this epistle.
This line of thought will stretch from 1:10 to 4:17.
This passage explains the occasion and is the launching point for a three and a
half chapter treatment on how we should think about our teachers.
The occasion for this treatment is division in the Corinthian church.
Paul begins this section with a simple appeal to the Corinthians to be united.
The appeal is almost bafflingly simplistic.
"be united in the same mind and in the same judgment."
When was the last time you resolved a disagreement by simply telling the
parties involve to agree?
## Do Not Divide Over Teachers
But as we read on, we see that these are basically just really dumb
disagreements.
The Corinthians are dividing over different *faithful* teachers.
Now, when someone is teaching dangerous things, depending on degree, we might
divide over it.
And we should note that Paul is rebuking all divisions, but specifically
division over faithful teachers.
### Good & Bad Division
There are times when division is absolutely necessary.
Later in this letter, in chapter 11, Paul speaks of an unfortunate necessity of
division, saying that "there must be factions among you in order that those who
are genuine among you may be recognized."
In chapter 5, Paul instructs the Corinthians to divide from an individual who
is living in flagrant sin.
And we here at Park Hills Baptist Church divide over teachings.
We have a confessional standard for membership in the form of the Baptist Faith
and Message 2000.
If someone is unable to subscribe to that, we do not receive them as a member.
This is not an alien idea to Paul either.
In Galatians, he does establish that there are categories for orthodoxy and
heterodoxy.
In Galatians, he rebukes the teaching of a faction in the Galatian church that
advocated for teaching that was so bad that you cannot believe this and be a
Christian.
In Galatians 5:3-4, Paul writes this:
"I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated
to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be
justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace."
All of that to underscore the point that there is good division and bad division.
We absolutely do divide over teach-*ing*.
Taking the Bible as a whole, this text should not at all be used to say that we
should never divide over anything.
But the division over teach-*ers* that we see here is bad division.
I have known very faithful believers who have avidly listened to very bad
teachers.
When I point out the dangers, they agree wholeheartedly that those are
serious deficiencies.
I don't know how these friends could listen to this teacher believing what they
believed, but they don't believe as he teaches, so we went on to have great
fellowship around all of the teachings that agree on.
I imagine many of you have similar stories.
This is not to say you should not have serious concern if someone is listening
to a bad teacher.
It might be wise to warn them away from that teacher.
But if they remain firmly rooted in God's Word, we should be slow to break
fellowship over who they listen to.
Wisdom may dictate that we need to create some separation at a certain point,
simply over the teachers, regardless of the teaching that someone accepts, but
we should be much slower to divide teachers than teachings.
And certainly, we should not divide over different faithful teachers.
Now, I'm going give a warning here.
I need to start dropping some names and drawing controversial contrasts to make
this real for us.
I don't want to divide with these names, but this is where the this passage
speaks to us and hopefully brings unity amidst unspoken divisions.
We must touch the wound to tend to it.
I also want to focus on teachers that teach mostly the same things here.
We want to think on divisions over teachers, not teachings.
We'll start with the easy ones.
We should not divide over our preference for John Piper over John MacArthur, or
vice versa.
In the Reformed Baptist world today, we have factions around the likes of Mark
Dever and Tom Ascol, generally teach very similar things.
These two men run ministries, 9 Marks and Founders, with a great deal overlap,
and there is some tension between them.
There are some differences in their teaching to be sure, but the overlap is far
bigger than the difference and they would generally be far more charitable
toward each other than many of their followers are to the other camp.
If they both, by in large, serve Christ faithfully and would be joyfully
claimed by Him, we should wish them both well and rejoice when our brothers are
helped by them.
## Christ Is Not Divided
In verse 13, in response to the teacher oriented factions of the Corinthians,
Paul asks, "Is Christ divided?"
If someone is claimed by Christ and commissioned by Christ, if they teach
Christ faithfully, then to set Him against another that teaches Christ
faithfully is to divide Christ.
Now, notice that among Paul's list of factions in verse 12, there is a faction
that says it follows Christ, and yet Paul still rebukes them.
We might be inclined to sidestep such disagreements in this way.
But if we receive Christ and do not receive those who are His, then we set Him
against His own.
By saying I follow Christ and I do not follow Paul, we set Christ against Paul.
We set the Head against the Body.
Saying that you learned from a particular teacher as opposed to another is
fine.
We all have teachers who have influenced us more than others, but we are united
in the truth of the gospel.
I would not say that I follow Josh Hayward.
He just hasn't had much influence in my life and I've spent very little time
listening to him.
With that said, he seems to be a faithful teacher and I would not have any beef
with the members of Kinney Avenue Baptist Church over the fact that they follow
him.
We should and generally do recognize Josh Hayward, and happily greet those who
sit under his teaching, because he teaches and they receive Christ.
We should happily commend him and Kinney to our visitors.
Where we lack unity in under-shepherds, we are united in the Great Shepherd.
## Christ Is The Teaching
In verse 13, Paul asks, "Was Paul crucified for you?"
Paul points us to what Christ has done, in turn points us to who He is.
Paul then asks, "were you baptized in the name of Paul?"
Which is to ask, did you profess faith in Paul in baptism?
Is it by the name of Paul that you entered the church?
No.
We have one baptism, which is in Christ.
It is by professing the name of Christ that we enter the church.
Thus far, we have compared Christ to other teachers, and it is true that Christ
is the ultimate teacher.
Christ is the great fountain from which all of this flows.
All teachers, when faithful, teach in accord with what Christ taught.
But Christ is more than merely the pedagogical ancestor of all other faithful
teachers.
A fully trained teacher cannot ever become a substitute for Christ Himself.
Many people today like to talk about the message of Christ, usually His
teachings on love and giving to the poor.
Those are good things that Christ did speak to, but the real message of Christ
is Christ.
Christ did not pass on ideas that can exist apart from Him.
Without Christ, there would be nothing to teach.
Many philosophers and mathematicians have systems of thought and formulas named
after them.
There can be Platonism without Plato.
The Pythagorean theorem exists apart from Pythagoras.
God could have used anyone to convey what we know as the Mosaic Law.
But without Christ, there is no Christianity.
These other systems could have been invented by anyone, but that simply
cannot be said of Christianity.
Where Aristotle taught logic, Christ taught Christ, and no other man would do.
Christ did tell us how we should live, but we do not derive our life from these
things.
Christ taught more than mere principles by which we should live.
We do not have life because of how we live, we have life because of Christ.
We have life because of who Christ is and what He has done.
And there is simply no other person who could do what Christ has done.
No one else's death could have accomplished what His death has accomplished.
Every other man already owes his life for his own sin, and even if he did not,
he simply is not worth what the Son of God is worth.
Christ is the one and only God-man.
The one and only truly righteous man.
The Son of God, in the flesh of man, giving His life.
The just for the unjust.
The Creator for the created.
PAUSE
No other teacher is the great fountain from which life springs.
If someone claims to offer you something you cannot get from any other teacher,
run.
The only one who offers what no one else can is Christ.
All faithful teachers are united to Christ, and thereby united other faithful
teachers.
Christ died for members of Park Hills Baptist Church and for members of Kinney
Avenue Baptist Church alike.
He died for 9 Marks followers and for Founders followers.
We have different under-shepherds, but we share the same Chief Shepherd.
God can take away our teachers or assign us to other teachers at any time.
But whoever He assigns to us and to those we love, we should receive warmly as
gifts from God so long as they remain faithful to the gospel of our Christ.

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# Analysis
1. Structure
* 10-11: Opening appeal for unity in the face of division - just agree!
* 12: Examples of specific category of divisive behavior.
* 13: Is Christ divided? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
* 14-17: Thankful he baptized a only small number of people.
* 17: Paul was sent to preach the gospel, but not by his own prowess.
2. Context
1. Before: Greeting, After: The power of the gospel is not in man.
1 Cor. 1:10-4:21 basically makes one long argument about how we should
regard teachers, for the sake of speaking against dividing over
teachers.
2. Christianity is not highly regarded in Roman or Jewish society.
Christians represent a small minority.
Christianity is seen as a sect of Judaism started by a band of
uneducated commoners.
3.
4.
* 1 Cor 10:12-31 - divisions issuing from pride over gifts
3. Argument of author?
Christ died for us, so we center on and agree in him.
Christ is the focal point, thus we are united with all who unite with him.
4. What aspect of the gospel is here?
* Christ's death is explicitly talked about.
* The word gospel is used.
5. My argument.
Following author.
6. Application
* Don't identify with teachers over Christ.
* Don't divide over faithful teachers.
7. Title and Outline
The Unity of Christ
* Christians ought to be united in and agree in Christ.
* The form of division being addressed here is quarreling over teachers.
* Side note: unity in Christ requires unity in belief, as tested through
our lives. Grave sin is cause for division.
* Setting the Body against itself divides Christ, as does setting the Head
against the Body.
* Christ is our focal point, not lesser teachers.
# Manuscript
## Intro
This passage begins Paul's first major line of thought in this epistle.
This line of thought will stretch from 1:10 to 4:17.
Paul's argument through these chapters revolves around how we should regard our
teachers.
The occasion for this is an early instance of a pattern behavior that would
repeat itself countless times between his writing this letter and now.
To our sorrow and to our shame, the history of the Church is replete with
unnecessary division.
We are no strangers to cults of personality.
In our own church here, we know various people who like and dislike the
teachers that we listen to.
We can form an affinity for someone from knowing that they listen to the same
people that we listen to the same people, that they think like us.
On the other hand, we can have a tendency to regard our brothers as foolish or
even as adversaries when we hear that they listen to people that we do not
like.
## The Corinthians should be in agreement.
Paul starts this section of this letter to the Corinthian church with a
bafflingly plain admonishment.
On the surface this admonishment sounds rather naive.
"Agree. Be united in one mind."
It's a bit like asking a sick person, "Have you tried not being sick?"
My initial reaction as I approached this passage was, "Paul, don't you
understand that they disagree? They can't just snap their fingers and agree!"
Disagreements can take much effort and contention to resolve.
On what should we agree?
How about telling them how they should resolve their disagreements?
Now, we do have other places in Paul's writings where he addresses how to
handle disagreement.
In Romans 14, Paul instructs us to show grace with regard to differences of
conscience.
There are some issues, with examples given, that we should not divide with a
brother on.
Not every conviction that we hold should be regarded as essential to a credible
profession of faith.
We should have unity in Christ amidst certain disagreements.
Calls for unity are not simply unbounded either.
Later in this same epistle, Paul tells the Corinthians to expel one of their
own for sexual immorality.
But Paul gives no qualifier here.
He is not telling us to, tolerate our differences on Pentecost or foods or
yoga.
Where in Romans 14, Paul tries give some sort of instruction for navigating
disagreement, here Paul simply says to agree, be of one mind, and be united.
I think plainness of Paul's admonishment here directs us to look at the nature
of the disagreement.
This is not an appeal for unity that can be applied to any division in the
church.
Paul is able to make such a plain and simple appeal here because the
disagreements that Paul is addressing have no substance to them.
These disagreements are baseless, and Paul is about to spend the next two and a
half chapters explaining why they are baseless.
## The Corinthians are dividing over faithful teachers
So, what is it that the Corinthians are dividing over?
They are fighting about which teachers they like best.
That might be a matter of substance in some circumstances, but we know from
other parts of the New Testament that Paul happily partnered with both Peter
and Apollos in the gospel.
The Corinthians are fighting about teachers who all more or less teach the same
things.
These teachers in fact happily commend one another.
And if you think you can side step all of these disagreements by simply saying,
"Well, I'm of Christ", then Paul has something for that too.
If we cannot affirm Paul and Peter and Apollos as all being of Christ, then we
set Christ against his faithful servants.
You cannot preserve the unity of the church by throwing faithful men under the
bus.
It can seem godly and enlightened to try to transcend conflict by saying that
both sides are wrong, and we just follow Christ.
But what if Christ is actually pleased with the person that we are throwing
under the bus?
If a teacher is faithfully doing what God, through his Word, has told him to
do, and we indict him as unfaithful, then we are sinning.
For one, we are sinning against a faithful brother with false charges.
Two, we undermine his good work by saying that it is not of God, and thereby
hinder our hearers from benefiting from it.
So, we sin against those who might benefit from his work.
Three, we besmirch the name of Christ by setting him against something
legitimately good and lie about his loving regard for a faithful servant.
We are allowed to have our favorite teachers.
I could certainly name some well respected teachers that I think are overrated,
and I could name others that I wish were more highly regarded.
Even among faithful men, I think some of the big names are just overhyped.
And I don't see anything wrong with me holding that opinion.
But if I set Christ against them, either directly or through
other faithful men, then that harms the Church.
So, this sinful division can manifest in a couple of ways:
1. We can singularly associate following Christ with a particular teacher
or institution.
Looking at history, western Christians made entered into this error
rather strongly 1000 years ago when we allowed the Pope at the time to
anathematize all who do not recognize the Papacy.
Within our circles, we might look upon with suspicion anyone who is not
explicitly a proponent of John Calvin.
Or we might be more narrowly only want to associate with those who
follow John MacArthur or 9 Marks.
2. We can be overly dismissive of other believers for who they do follow
and associate with.
Now, there is prudence in teachers choosing to only work closely with
those with whom they share fairly close agreement.
And if someone is following teachers with radically differing teachings,
there can be real challenges to unity.
If someone listens to the likes of Andy Stanley, then most of us would
probably find meaningful disagreements with that person.
But if our factions revolve around pitting the likes of John Piper
against John MacArthur, then we are probably making mountains out of
molehills.
Factions within evangelicalism do exist around these two individuals,
despite the fact that the have happily worked together as recently as
last year.
## Setting the Body against itself divides Christ.
Our focal point should be Christ.
Our unity should be set on Christ.
But simply saying that we are united in Christ is not enough.
## Christ is our focal point, not lesser teachers.
The Church is defined by her union with Christ.
Other than Christ, there is no unifying head of the Church.
We are not all united in Peter, who is listed here with the name Cephas, as
among those who are not the focal point of unity.
The supposed first Pope receives no special mention as a uniting head of the
Church.
Peter's name shows up right along side Paul and Apollos, as nothing particularly
special.
Unity with Christ means unity with others who are also united with Christ, and
so dividing with them divides Christ.
Now, thus far, we have compared Christ to other teachers, and it is true that
Christ is the ultimate teacher.
All teachers, when faithful, teach in accord with what Christ taught.
But Christ is more than simply the pedagogical ancestor of all other faithful
teachers.
Many people today like to talk about the message of Christ, usually His
teachings on love and giving to the poor.
Those are good things that Christ did speak to, but the real message of Christ
is Christ.
Christ did not pass on ideas that can exist apart from Him.
Without Christ, there would be nothing to teach.
Many philosophers and mathematicians have systems of thought and formulas named
after them.
But Platonism could exist apart from Plato, and the Pythagorean theorem could
exist apart from Pythagoras.
These systems could have been given invented by anyone, but that simply cannot
be said of Christianity.
Where Aristotle taught logic, Christ taught Christ.
We unite in Christ not merely because of his teaching, but because of His deity
and because of He died for us.
And His death carried a significance that no other death could.
...

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Now, thus far, we have compared Christ to other teachers, and it is true that
Christ is the ultimate teacher.
Christ is the great fountain from which all of this flows.
All teachers, when faithful, teach in accord with what Christ taught.
But Christ is more than merely the pedagogical ancestor of all other faithful
teachers.
Many people today like to talk about the message of Christ, usually His
teachings on love and giving to the poor.
Those are good things that Christ did speak to, but the real message of Christ
is Christ.
Christ did not pass on ideas that can exist apart from Him.
Without Christ, there would be nothing to teach.
Many philosophers and mathematicians have systems of thought and formulas named
after them.
There can be Platonism without Plato.
The Pythagorean theorem exists apart from Pythagoras.
God could have used anyone to convey what we know as the Mosaic Law.
But without Christ, there is no Christianity.
These other systems could have been given invented by anyone, but that simply
cannot be said of Christianity.
Where Aristotle taught logic, Christ taught Christ.
As Paul says in verse 17, he brought nothing to give power to the gospel
through eloquent wisdom.
There is nothing that man can devise that will truly turn man's heart to God or
make man acceptable to God.
We must go to the cross of Christ.
Some teachers are well spoken, and we appreciate that, but the gospel is of
Christ.
It is more than a man's instruction on how to live.
It is about the God-man who lived and died and lives again for us.
Philosophy and ethics are laughably hopeless endeavors to set man aright.
Stoicism will not save us, neither will someone's 12 rules for life.
Those things may do some worldly good, but they will make for a pitiful defense
on the last day.
Christ did tell us how we should live, but we do not derive our life from these
things.
Christ taught more than mere principles by which we should live.
We do not have life because of how we live, we have life because of Christ.
We have life because of who Christ is and what He has done.
And there is simply no other person that could do what Christ has done.
Christ is the one and only God-man.
The one and only truly righteous man.
The Son of God, in the flesh of man, giving His life.
The just for the unjust.
The Creator for the created.
No one else's death could have accomplished what His death has accomplished.
Every other man already owes his life for his own sin, and even if he did not,
he simply is not worth what Christ is worth.
PAUSE
No other teacher is the great fountain from which life springs.
If someone claims to offer you something you cannot get from any other teacher,
run.
The only one who offers what no one else can is Christ.
Christ died for members of Park Hills Baptist Church and for members of Kinney
Avenue Baptist Church alike.
He died for 9 Marks followers and for Founders followers.
We have different under-shepherds, but we share the same Chief Shepherd.
God can take away our teachers or assign us to other teachers at any time.
But whoever He assigns to us and to those we love, we should receive warmly as
gifts from God so long as they remain faithful to the gospel of our Christ.