Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Corinthians 1:1-18 | Date: January 3, 2010 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

I’d like to take a moment to pass along my holiday greetings as well and wish all of you the best New Year possible. I encourage you all to pray that we would pray together that God will bless us in this year to serve him more faithfully together and more productively as well. And many thanks to all of you who have sent your kind and encouraging holiday greetings, Christmas, New Year’s, and all of that. It’s been much appreciated.

Before we begin, maybe a word about the title for those of you who don’t receive the emails. I promised that this morning’s message would be titled, “How to Split a Church in One Easy Lesson.” That certainly is the theme of the passage, you know, in a way. But I thought maybe what I should do is give a word of explanation in that, particularly for the visitors who might be here. If we had here at RBC a deep problem with this matter of divisions in the church, I would not, coming across a passage like this, shy away from addressing it. But I’m very thankful, coming to a passage like this, that we do not have that at RBC. That is an unusual blessing, it seems, in churches, and it’s one that we should not take lightly. It’s one that we should be very thankful for.

We should be thankful that God has given us a spirit of unity and oneness here, and we should be very prayerful, as well as active, to promote and protect that unity that God has given to us. But at the same time, passages like this are given to churches not only for the occasion when they’re in the midst of a church squabble, but also by way of preventive measures. And I trust it will help us to that end this morning.

1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning with verse 1:

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the Church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus, for in him you have been enriched in every way, in all your speaking and all your knowledge because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is faithful.

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; and another, “I follow Christ.”

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I’m thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanus; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

There is a tradition in—I believe it’s more common in Anglican churches—that when the scripture is read, the pastor will often say something like, “This is the word of the Lord.” And the response of the congregation is, “Thanks be to God.” I think it’s a great tradition. Now, of course, like any tradition, it can become routine as well. But let’s do that from time to time. When I get through with the scripture reading, I will say, “This is the word of the Lord,” and you will say, “Thanks be to God.”

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we are grateful for this, your word to us. Keep in the forefront of our minds each time we open this book that this is the word of our God. This letter to the Corinthians is a letter written to a troubled church. We ask that you will help us as we go through it to learn much from it. We pray that you will give us correction. We pray that you will give us that instruction that we need to keep us from all of these ways which would dishonor you. We ask that you would use your word to shape us to become more like Christ. We ask it in his name. Amen.

A Church Brimming With Potential

It might be a bit of a surprise to some of you to learn just how high it is on Paul’s list of concerns, and therefore high on the list of God’s concerns, that the church remain in unity and peace. A glance through the epistles of the Apostle Paul with this in mind would just be a surprising lesson, I think, for many of us, to see that this is such a high priority for him and how often the Apostle prays and then also exhorts people to remain at one with one another. Several of the churches Paul had to address had some specific problems in that regard. It is clearly an item that is high atop his list of concerns. The unity of the church is something that Christ himself not only prayed for; it is something he died to secure.

Now, the church at Corinth, as you know, is well known in all of Christendom ever since as “the troubled church.” All kinds of problems the Apostle Paul has to address going through this letter, and that’s the reason it has become known as such a practical book, addressing so many issues that are of such relevant use to the church of our time as well. But although it was a troubled church, what’s often overlooked is that it was a church also that was just brimming with potential. And Paul highlights that for us in these opening verses of chapter one.

In verses four through seven, for example, the apostle just falls all over himself trying to emphasize what all of the Corinthians had going for them in grace. The teaching they had was second to none. The Apostle Paul himself had been there; he founded the church. You can read the account of it in Acts chapter 18. And by all the teaching that they had had, they had learned, they had grown, they had been nourished. You could count on it that at that church, you could go and you would hear the word of God proclaimed, you would hear it taught, and it would be a place where you would learn and grow in grace from the teaching.

And that was their tradition. After Paul, there was Apollos. He was a well-educated man, trained by Paul’s associates, Aquila and Priscilla. We have the Apostle Peter as well who was there, obviously a prominent minister indeed, one of the original 12 disciples. And as a result of all of that, verse 6 tells us their testimony about Christ was confirmed in them. They had been stabilized or well-grounded in the truth. Paul was there, we learn in Acts chapter 18, for a year and a half, and after him, these other illustrious ministers had come. This was a church that was well-grounded in the truth.

And that’s an interesting observation, because knowing that the church at Corinth is such a troubled church and there are so many difficulties that the Apostle Paul has to address, we might otherwise have the impression that this is a church that was not well-taught. But it was a church that was very well taught, teaching us, I guess, that teaching alone isn’t enough. Because of this teaching, Paul says in verse 7, they lacked in no spiritual gift. They had it all. This was a well-endowed church. More than that, Paul says in verses 8 and 9, you have a bright future ahead of you. God has begun this work and he will continue it. Having called you, he’ll keep you strong and preserve you to the end.

The Problem of Schism

Here was a church, then, that had everything going for it: solid teaching, theologically stable, illustrious pastors, gifted men. God had enriched them and by his grace they had been blessed beyond measure in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Apostle Paul summarizes all of that in these verses 4 through 9. And after a lead-in like that, you might expect, if this were your first time coming to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, that Paul then would launch into an exposition of those great riches that they enjoy together commonly in Christ. That’s what he does in some of his letters.

That’s not what he does here. Rather, he turns right from that in verse 9 to verse 10 with this appeal to practical unity. And in fact, it’s not obvious in the English, but actually there’s a slight adversative at the beginning of verse 10 in the original, and we might just translate it, “But I appeal to you, brothers.” There’s a little shift in emphasis here. You’ve got all of these riches, but now there’s something else I’ve got to bring up. And if you’re not clear with that in verse 10, you certainly are clear with it by the time you get to verse 11: “My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.”

Divisions had come into the church. Verse 12 gives us specifically what he has in mind: “One of you says, ‘I am of Paul’; another says, ‘I am of Apollos’; and another one says, ‘I am of Cephas'” (that’s the Apostle Peter’s Aramaic name), “and yet another group of you saying, ‘I am of Christ.'”

“You are a blessed church,” he’s saying. “You are brimming with potential. You’ve had it all. And yet there’s something going on that cuts right across everything that I’ve taught you and everything that you profess to believe.” And so begins, then, a problem that has plagued the Christian church ever since: the problem of schism, divisions in the church. The church, blessed as it was, was not enjoying the unity to which it was called, and the Apostle Paul tells them, “This is your fault.”

I suppose we should mention just by way of clarification that there is such a thing as justified division. Luther was right to break away for gospel causes and such like that. But that certainly was not the kind of division going on here in the church at Corinth, and Paul faults them for it. In fact, he tells them in verse 11 that this division is what occasioned his letter. He says, “I’ve heard from Chloe’s household. I’ve been informed by them.” And the word that he uses there has connotations of “I’ve heard the evidence.” It’s been demonstrated to me that this is happening. It’s not just hearsay. I’ve heard enough that I’m convinced it’s true. I wouldn’t have thought it, but there it is going on in your church.

Now, we’re not sure who this Chloe is in verse 11. We assume probably some wealthier church member who was able to send a messenger, a servant or something, to the Apostle Paul. They didn’t just drop a letter in the post office box in those days; you send it with someone for personal delivery. But evidently someone from the church had brought a letter from the church and with that was this evidence from Chloe’s household with all of this report of division in the church. She went herself or sent word to the Apostle Paul with all of this. By the way, just to scratch a little itch here, note that she was right in what she did. There’s no pious, “Well, I’m not going to say anything; it might be gossip; I’ll just keep it to myself.” She went to the people in the church who were authorized to deal with the problems, and she made it known to the Apostle so that it could be dealt with accordingly.

The information the Apostle Paul received was so convincing that now he writes to deal with the problem, and he deals with it thoroughly, and he deals with it severely. There were several other problems in the church, and if you’d like just a preview of what we’ll see as we go through this letter, Paul sort of outlines his letter in that way:

In chapters 1 through 4, he deals with this problem of divisions in the church at great length. Then we pick up with chapter 5, and he picks up the problem of incest in the church, immorality going on; he has to treat that. We get to chapter 6 and we find him dealing with the problem of believers taking one another to court. We get to chapter 7—notice the words there in chapter 7 verse 1—”Now for the matters you wrote about.” So now here Paul is going to be addressing one by one the issues that the church sent to the Apostle Paul for help. And first off here, he takes up questions of marriage and remarriage and divorce, singleness and things like that. We get to chapter 8, “Now about the food sacrificed to idols,” and he takes up that issue. There’s this problem going on in the church and squabbles over that. That takes chapters 8, 9, and 10. We get to chapter 12, and Paul takes up the question of, “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers.” And then we get to chapter 15, and you’ll see, “Now about the gospel,” and he takes up the question of the resurrection. And then the very practical matter, chapter 16, verse 1, “Now about the collection.” You can’t wait for that sermon.

But this problem, the problem of division in the church—of all of the problems that Paul had to address—this is the one that he gives first and foremost attention to, and he treats it, as I say, thoroughly and severely in chapters 1 through 4.

Making Way Too Much of the Ministers

Now, it’s difficult for us to know exactly the circumstances around the squabble. We don’t know exactly what each party in the church was saying beyond the words that Paul gives us. We can speculate a little bit more than that, but that’s all it is, is speculation. Verse 12, though, identifies the problem: “I am of Paul. I am of Apollos. I am of Cephas.” And then another party, evidently piously saying, “I am of Christ.”

“I’m for Paul.” “Apollos, he’s our man.” “Paul, Paul, he’s our man; he can preach better than Apollos can.” Or if I really wanted to start a rift in this church, I would say, “Warfield, Warfield, he’s our man, he can write better than Tozer can.” I did that just for Gene Halverson. Factions around, attached to various church leaders, prominent preachers of the gospel.

Now in one sense, I suppose in fairness, it’s not difficult at all to understand why some of them may have felt this way about their preferred church leader. The Apostle Paul, for example, was, after all, the founding pastor of the church. He is the one who brought the gospel to Corinth for the first time. Many of the people there were converted under his ministry. He was the one from whom they heard the gospel first. And from him, ministering there a year and a half, they grew. And this they learn not only the scriptures from some good preacher, but from the inspired Apostle Paul himself. And it’s easy to see how they might have regarded every other preacher then as second rate. There’s a special affection for the Apostle Paul. There’s a sense in which that’s natural.

Apollos—we don’t know really what the deal was with him and that faction. He came from Alexandria, so there’s been speculation that he was a highly educated man, as Alexandria was one of the most respected university cities in the Mediterranean. Maybe he was one of keen intellectual ability; he has that reputation. Maybe he had more polished speaking. Maybe he had unusual expository skills, taking the Old Testament, showing how it’s unfolded in the New Testament in Christ, something like that. We do have a hint when we get to verse 17, the next topic that the Apostle Paul takes up, when he speaks of this matter of human wisdom. That’s kind of code language almost for the Greek philosophies and the Greek rhetoric of the day. And maybe something surrounding Apollos was this matter of a polished speaker. He’s really a good preacher; everybody else is second rate compared to him.

Cephas, or Peter, of course, was another inspired apostle. You can understand why there would be high regard for him as well. There’s no record that he was ever in Corinth except for a couple of hints here. His prominence was such that they were able to have some kind of a clique around him. Paul makes reference to him in chapter 9, making reference to the fact Peter, in his travels, took his wife with him, and he says it in such a way that the Corinthians seem to already know that. So evidently Peter had been there. And some have conjectured then that maybe the Apostle Peter group was a Jewish group. Maybe then his teaching was a little more law-oriented, duty-oriented. I don’t know; I don’t know if I can go with that. There was a special group for the Apostle Peter as well.

And then a fourth one, the Christ party: “I follow Christ.” Somehow these people were using their loyalty to Christ as another party division and dividing from other Christians on the ground of Christ himself. Maybe these people were some anti-authoritarian types—”We don’t need other teachers; we have Christ.” I don’t know. All of these are speculations, but what we have is, for some reason, people making way too much of the preachers.

The language again of verse 17 is such that it seems to involve some degree of this matter of rhetoric, style, polish, the packaging. And their preference, then, of one over the other had given way to quarreling and divisions, cliques, and even fights. Paul will tell them in chapter 4, “You’re puffed up. You’re prideful in all of this.” And you’re not only puffed up in it, but you are so proud that you will not only support one of these ministers, but you will support that minister as over against another, as though these ministers are competing in some way.

Chapters 1 through 3, Paul has this repeated criticism of the people at Corinth for being proud, for being boastful in their party spirit. And Paul has to remind them, as he does in a graphic way when we get to chapter 3, that these ministers do not differ in substance. They differ in style only. None of these ministers had any supernatural powers. None of these ministers ever came into Corinth with some ability to give you faith. None of these ministers came into Corinth with some magical power to give you spiritual growth or to grant you some gift that somehow now you’re special. No, they didn’t differ in substance. But rather, Paul says in chapter 3, we ministers of the gospel are just servants, servants by whom you believe. We didn’t give you faith; God did that. Paul plants, Apollos waters, but it is God who gives the increase.

And so Paul tells them throughout this passage, you’re making way too much of the ministers themselves. Now, I don’t think, again, that it’s necessary to say that we should all have the same affection for every person or for every minister for that matter. And again, it’s easy to understand why there might be some particular regard for the Apostle Paul in this kind of a case where he’s the founding pastor of the church, he’s the one who brought them the gospel. And I don’t think Paul goes so far as to say you have to have this very same affection for every person.

But it is necessary—and this is verse 10—that there be no divisions among you and you be perfectly united in mind and thought. That is, you agree with one another. You think the same thing. You’re going the same direction. And you have the same goals. You don’t all—and this is a good way one commentator put it—you don’t have to sing in unison, but you do have to sing in harmony. It’s not Paul as over against Apollos. We’re all in this thing together and it is God who has made it so. And what we are after, he tells us in verse 17, is this common objective of preaching the gospel.

Now notice three things here that these parties had in common:

Number one, they were not fighting over the contents. They’re fighting over the wrappings, the packaging, personal preferences, maybe racial prejudices, stylistic prejudices, maybe a particular liking for some kind of presumed intellectualism, something like that. But they are not opposing doctrinal errors. They’re not opposing Paul, for example, for some moral failure. Those are not the kinds of divisions that are going on here. They’re not fighting over contents.

Number two, each was attached to a name. Now, that’s a slick move, and it really helps if you want to split a church. This is important: each was attached to a name. Because if you attach your cause to a name, then you don’t look like the one who’s proud. And it’s not really your cause; it’s someone else’s cause, and you’re just humbly taking it up for him. And so each one has attached themselves to a name. Oh, man, we’ve seen that in churches, haven’t we? I know a pastor who told me that their church had split right in half. I asked him why. Well, their church had basically two sides: one group of the people supported Liberty University, and the other group supported Bob Jones University. And I took my stand with Bob Jones.

Some churches have divided over popular seminar speakers. More commonly, it’s not just a name, but a particular cause. That’s your preferred cause that you make prominent and then pit that cause against all other good causes. But because you’re promoting a good cause, it’s hard to be faulted for it. Social involvement of some kind. Community involvement. Missions is a good one. Music, youth. I know a church that split—”We don’t have a youth pastor. We want one. We can’t get one. Well, we’ll start our own church and have one.” Each was attached to a name, or if we could broaden that, each was attached to a particular cause—a good name or a good cause—and hiding behind that cause, promoting division in the church between causes or names that are in no way competing.

The third thing these all had in common was—and this is the most important—each was wrong. Isn’t it interesting? The Apostle Paul was not flattered with the Paul party. You know, “I appreciate the superior insights of those of you who say, ‘I’m a Paul.’ I understand that, but you know, you’ve got to keep it down a little.” Paul’s not flattered. Much to the contrary, he condemns the Paul party just as severely and, in fact, more pointedly at times, it seems, than all of the others. Neither is Paul impressed with the Christ party. Now, you think there’s a winner. If you want to pick a name, there’s a good one: “I love Christ.” But they’re using Christ in such a way as to pit him against his servants. Paul says, “What are you thinking?” And all sides then, the Apostle Paul writes throughout these opening chapters, all sides are acting in a carnal way. They’re behaving like sinful men. They’re acting in the flesh.

And this is the kind of point that comes up in Paul very often. It comes up in James and other places as well: the root cause of all of these divisions, always, the root cause is simply stinking pride, selfish concern, self-centeredness. And you’re promoting your cause. And Paul says you are to blame for it. It is simply a prideful assertion of self. And so over and again the apostle demands, not only here in the church at Corinth, but in all of his writings, over and over, demands that the church manifest its unity in Christ by the way that they love and are at peace with one another. In other words, then, disunity does not belong in the church, and it will bring the work of Christ to a screeching halt.

Exactly Contrary to the Gospel

Now, what’s so serious, then, about all of this stuff that Paul is addressing here? And I want you to see in verse 13, Paul insists that all of this division and this behavior in the church is exactly contrary to the gospel. His point is not simply that you can’t get along well or it won’t look good. His point is that this is exactly contrary to the gospel that you profess to believe. Notice his three rhetorical questions in verse 13:

Number one: Is Christ divided? Has Christ been torn apart? Has his body somehow been torn into pieces and you have a part and he has a part? What kind of a grotesque presentation of Christ are you giving? How many bodies does Jesus have? Is Christ divided? Paul develops this at length when we get to chapter 12 in terms of the spiritual gifts—that we are one body, all of us functioning mutually for the good of the whole. Christ is not divided. There is one body and each of us is a part of that body with the purpose of ministering to the others. Christ is not divided.

Question number two, verse 13: Was Paul crucified for you? Did you think that it was my redemptive labors that brought you to peace with God? Was that Paul on the cross bearing your sin? Was that Paul on the cross taking your place, bearing your curse? Of course it wasn’t. There was only one Savior, and it’s the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the one who died. He’s the one who took our sins. And this is our only rallying point. And Paul says to the church at Galatia, “This is our only point of boasting: the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.” And in all of this “Paul, Paul, he’s our man” kind of stuff, we’ve completely forgotten our common Savior. Isn’t it interesting how Paul takes the problem of division and brings it to such basic issues? It’s exactly contrary to the gospel that you have professed.

Third question in verse 13: Were you baptized into the name of Paul? When you entered the waters of baptism, whose allegiance did you swear? Your baptism was a pledge of allegiance to whom? Were you baptized in my name? With whom did you become identified when you were baptized? Were you baptized in my name—”Okay, now here’s a disciple of Paul”?

And that’s why Paul goes on in these next few verses and says, “I’m glad I didn’t baptize any of you. Well, there was Crispus and Gaius and the household of Stephanus. Other than that, there wasn’t anybody.” I’m glad there weren’t any more because you’d be saying, “Paul baptized me. I’m a disciple of Paul.” You’re baptized in the name of Christ. You belong to him. Now, do you see his point then in verse 17? Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. This is our rallying point. This is our common objective and our common goal. And this is what we are all about. And all of your squabbling over personalities and over trivialities is a denial of the gospel, an obscuring of this message, and a missing of our whole purpose and reason for being.

The gospel we preach, the gospel that you claim to believe, is a gospel of reconciliation. It brings men and women together in Christ. And it can never be used as a dividing point between believers. Our whole identity, Paul says here then, our whole reason for being, is to promote the fame of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here in your behavior, squabbling with one another over your preferences, you are bringing that great enterprise to a halt. It happened in the Book of Acts. You remember the opening chapters of the Book of Acts? Things are so great. Things are booming. People are being saved. The church is growing. You get to chapter 6: “You’re not taking care of our widows.” “Oh, you’re not taking care of our widows. You should do this.” You’re squabbling in the church, just like we’ve all seen. It brings the ministry of Christ to a screeching halt. It happened in the Book of Acts. It happens now at the Church of Corinth. And, of course, it’s happened ever since.

How to Split a Church in One Easy Lesson

Well, I promised you some very practical points on how to split a church in one easy lesson. Take these down, though you’ll find them very useful:

Number one: Decide that your preferences matter more than anyone else’s. Decide that your preferences matter more than anything else—more than anyone else’s preferences, more than a united church, more than a united front for the gospel, more than the gospel, more than the name of Christ—your preferences matter. That’s number one.

Number two: Promote your opinion. Promote your opinion forcefully. Talk about it. Talk about it a lot. Make sure you slander those who disagree. And here’s a good one—I always love this one—find someone who cares enough to listen to your concern so that you can, under the guise of “Please pray for so-and-so,” slander him well. And at the end of the discussion, you’re standing much taller. We’ve never seen that.

Number three: Major on minors. That’s all through verses 10 through 12. Major on minors. Talk most about what matters the least: labels, people, names.

Four: Find a good Christian leader whose side you can claim. That’s verse 12, of course. Find a good Christian leader whose side you can claim. That’s important because it will give you more credibility. It’s not your cause; it will be his. Select a respected leader, whether in the church or out of the church, and then what you do is you pit him against another leader in the church, or as I say, take one good cause and pit that against some other cause and make them in competition with one another. That’ll work. Promote your cause or your man at the expense of the others.

Number five: Use your preference to determine how you treat others. That’s verses 11 and 12 too, isn’t it? Use your preference to determine how you treat others. If they don’t promote your cause with you, they’re obviously not as godly. They don’t have the spiritual discernment you have. You should treat them accordingly.

Number six, most important of all: Neglect our number one priority. Neglect, verse 17, the ministry of the gospel. Because if you start spending too much time majoring on the gospel, everything else will get lost behind it, because the elevating of this cause of the gospel has a way of transcending all other concerns.

Well, all of that, of course, is tongue-in-cheek. Better, let me say it this way: the alternative. Recognize that your preferences are only that—just preferences. Number two: recognize that your preferred ministry, your preferred man, your preferred leader, your preferred cause, is just that—your preferred cause. Next: recognize that there is no good accomplished in promoting your preferences above others. Recognize that fighting over these things is sinful. Don’t make too much over personalities.

Oh, I’m tempted to make some applications that might make people nervous. “Calvin, Calvin, he’s our man.” And we have labels. And insofar as those labels reflect and inform and illumine the gospel, we’re for it. But don’t ever make those things in themselves, the labels themselves, points of division. Calvin himself would deplore that. Don’t make too much over personalities. Next: do not ever engage in private slander. And last and most importantly: keep the message of the person and work of Jesus Christ front and center and most prominent. Link firmly together in this great common cause of the gospel and keep firmly in your mind that this is the only cause worth promoting.

Remember that division in the church is an old and effective device of the adversary. Be on guard against it. As I mentioned at the outset, we must be careful to protect it. Not only pray for the unity of the church, but we must be actively protecting the unity of the church and promoting the love and the unity of the saints so that the message of the cross that we give will be made all the more attractive by those who see us. God keep us from division. Nothing will kill the work of Christ here like that. It’s awful at this point of history we haven’t learned better, isn’t it? But I guess the human heart is still the same and we need these kinds of admonitions from the scripture to be alert of what matters most and what care should be given to promoting the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, the problems that have afflicted your church have recurred so often. Help us to learn from them. You have put this in your words so that we would be cautioned against it. Lord, we thank you for the unity that you’ve given us here at this church. We do feel that there is a spirit of love here that is unusual. Lord, we take that as a great token of your love and a wonderful gift from you to us. We praise you for it. We pray that you would give us grace also to promote and protect and preserve that unity that you’ve given to us. May we reflect in the way that we relate to one another that great unity that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you’ll protect our church from the evil one. We pray that you’ll protect our church from us. Give us grace to live in such a way as to please you and to advance the cause of Christ here. We pray in his name. Amen.