Unity in Fellowship: 1 Corinthians 1:1-17 (Shepard Memorial)

1 Cor 1:1-17 begins our series, inspired by the last message on Ezekiel, on Unity in Christ.  The danger to the unity of the church in Corinth was the development of splinter groups following personalities like Paul, Apollos, and Cephas (Peter) and even a splinter group claiming that they followed Christ unlike the rest.  Paul appeals to unity for their fellowship with one another with the theme of calling since they have been called to be saints together (1:2) and called into the fellowship of Jesus (1:9).  Under this theme we see that not only are we not to be lone ranger Christians but also not lone ranger churches and that factions within a congregation deny the definition of saints and fellowship.  Likewise, we looked at the ideas of Spiritual gifts and baptism to shed more light on these points about the fellowship of the people of God in union with Christ.

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