SPEAK THE SAME THING

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians introduces godly order into what was a most disorderly assembly. The different kinds of disorder, the remedies and the priorities which the apostle adopts in dealing with them are all highly instructive. His first priority is to direct their hearts to Christ because, if He is not given the pre-eminence amongst His people, an assembly of Christians cannot function for God. The appeal for unity in speaking the same thing comes ‘by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’, the highest and only authority for local assembly practice. Just as Barnabas, when he reached the newly established assembly at Antioch, ‘exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord’, Acts 11. 23, so Paul now begins the complex task of establishing order by calling the believers to allegiance to Christ, and Him alone.

A factional spirit had already reared its ugly head and the assembly was divided as to whose teaching was to be paramount. That of Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, or Christ? Ironically, the teaching of the first three men was in complete harmony with that of each other and that of the Lord Himself, so the divisions were not based upon doctrinal but personality grounds. How sad that such division can still be seen today!

Where there is unity in allegiance to Christ and unity of doctrine, true fellowship and effective witness will result. Paul speaks in verse 10 of ‘the same thing’, ‘the same mind’ and ‘the same judgment’. If we all speak the doctrine of Christ and all let the mind of Christ be in us, our counsel will be one and the assembly will be powerful in its ministry both to God and men. Total allegiance to Christ will mend the divisions, a word used of the rending of a garment, and result in the assembly being ‘perfectly joined together’. The Greek word behind this phrase is that used to describe the mending of nets, Matt. 4. 21, and the restoration of a brother overtaken in a fault, Gal. 6. 1. It is a word that describes the recovery of something that has been spoiled back to a state where its intended function can once again be fulfilled. How essential to unity and godly order is a ministry that emphasizes the pre-eminence of Christ!