1 Corinthians 3:3-4 condemnation of division omong Christians

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1 Corinthians 3:3-4 states “For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?”

I believe this verse can only be interpreted to mean there is only one universal (Catholic) Church. I believe it explicitly condemns divisions and I believe this condemnation applies to denominations.

On another thread, a poster stated this was merely a condemnation against sects. However, the Merriam Webster definition of Sect is “a Religious denomination.”

Furthermore, the Greek word in the scripture is Dihostasiai (my own phonetic spelling). Even Protestant Biblical Greek scholars such as William Mounce and G. Abbott-Smith define the word as meaning “a standing apart; a division, dissension.”

All Protestant Churches stand apart from the Catholic Church as well as the other Protestant Churches. All Protestant Churches are by nature a division. The Protestant Reformation was a Protest. A protest is a dissension.

In short, I think it is clear Protestant denominations (including the so-called non-denominational) fit the definition of “division”(Dihostasiai in Greek).

Any thoughts?
 
I read this a few months ago, and thought very much the same.

the whole separation from the Catholic church is very much from the devil. this is classic case of divide and conqer. if people would of just trusted in the Lord. He set up his church and appointed His Head of Church while he was not physically on earth. and gave Peter the power to bind and loose. its very simple… but over time the devil worked on people and put ideas in peoples minds making them question The Church effectivly questioning The Lord. I dont mean to sound harsh, and i know there are alot of separated brothers and sister that dont know any better because they have never been taught. or have been taught very wrong. I pray for them to find the truth just as i have. I thank the Lord every day that he opened my eyes and soften my heart.
 
How about “I really love the Catholic Church”?😉

Aside from that, my Calvinist brother made an observation that the verse seemed to condemn divisions and that you could apply it to Methodism vs. Calvinism vs. Lutheranism, etc. - that substituting different names didn’t change the verses meaning. He still hasn’t come home yet to the Catholic Church, but I thought it was interesting he would note that. It’s true! Denominations or divisions and schisms are condemned in Scripture. There is only ONE Church! Praise be to God!🙂
 
I too agree with this. In fact you will find a number of verse in the NT exhorting “unity of mind”, “praising with one voice”, etc.

However Protestants simply dismiss this as saying they all belong to Christ regardless of the particular community name they belong to.
They say - “It’s all one ‘church’ with Christ as it’s head”…

Peace
James
 
Though I agree with you all, let us remember that Protestants could view themselves as carrying on the religion from Jesus, believing that Catholics ‘strayed from the path’. I mean, I believe that the Papacy carries on the succession of Peter, but they could argue that the English Monarch carries this on.

Again, I wholly agree with the statements made above, particularly that Satan is the cause of division among God’s children. I just wanted to let you know that Protestants may view the passage another way. Still, I haven’t heard many trying to use this verse as supporting their cause!
 
Hail_Linus said:
1 Corinthians 3:3-4 states “For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?”

I believe this verse can only be interpreted to mean there is only one universal (Catholic) Church. I believe it explicitly condemns divisions and I believe this condemnation applies to denominations.

On another thread, a poster stated this was merely a condemnation against sects. However, the Merriam Webster definition of Sect is “a Religious denomination.”

Furthermore, the Greek word in the scripture is Dihostasiai (my own phonetic spelling). Even Protestant Biblical Greek scholars such as William Mounce and G. Abbott-Smith define the word as meaning “a standing apart; a division, dissension.”

All Protestant Churches stand apart from the Catholic Church as well as the other Protestant Churches. All Protestant Churches are by nature a division. The Protestant Reformation was a Protest. A protest is a dissension.

In short, I think it is clear Protestant denominations (including the so-called non-denominational) fit the definition of “division”(Dihostasiai in Greek).

Any thoughts?
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Well in context Paul was addressing a division within a local congregation. So I suppose one counterargument might be that the Scripture only addresses that which the author intended it to address.

But let’s say one wants to interpret this passage (and others in 1 Cor - say 1:12) of Scripture more broadly than its original intent.

My next observation is that Paul does lay blame to some factions while giving other factions a pass. Paul is addressing everyone as whole and telling all that this state ought not be. If blame is to be assigned in these passages of Scripture then everybody is to blame.

If Paul were writing this to Christians of today, if I take this passage in context, one response he would not approve of is “my faction is right while the remaining factions are wrong”.
 
JRKH said:
I too agree with this. In fact you will find a number of verse in the NT exhorting “unity of mind”, “praising with one voice”, etc.

However Protestants simply dismiss this as saying they all belong to Christ regardless of the particular community name they belong to.
They say - “It’s all one ‘church’ with Christ as it’s head”…

Peace
James
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And to bad that is not what Christ taught. That is pure conjecture and subjectiveness.
 
AmateurPianist said:
Well in context Paul was addressing a division within a local congregation. So I suppose one counterargument might be that the Scripture only addresses that which the author intended it to address.

But let’s say one wants to interpret this passage (and others in 1 Cor - say 1:12) of Scripture more broadly than its original intent.

My next observation is that Paul does lay blame to some factions while giving other factions a pass. Paul is addressing everyone as whole and telling all that this state ought not be. If blame is to be assigned in these passages of Scripture then everybody is to blame.
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EXACTLY! And a division within one congregation does lead to another being founded…sounds and looks familiar-eh?
 
Mumbles140 said:
Though I agree with you all, let us remember that Protestants could view themselves as carrying on the religion from Jesus, believing that Catholics ‘strayed from the path’. I mean, I believe that the Papacy carries on the succession of Peter, but they could argue that the English Monarch carries this on.

Again, I wholly agree with the statements made above, particularly that Satan is the cause of division among God’s children. I just wanted to let you know that Protestants may view the passage another way. Still, I haven’t heard many trying to use this verse as supporting their cause!
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Okay,but the question to be begged is:

Which denomination of out of thousands is the one truly carrying on the religion from Jesus? If they all claim they ALL do,then why the need to form new denominations? Apparently it is not true,they all can’t be carrying the “true” religion from Jesus.
 
Nicea325 said:
Okay,but the question to be begged is:

Which denomination of out of thousands is the one truly carrying on the religion from Jesus? If they all claim they ALL do,then why the need to form new denominations? Apparently it is not true,they all can’t be carrying the “true” religion from Jesus.
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As I said, I wholly agree with the previous posters. My point was simply that I wouldn’t expect Protestants to read the verse and instantly dive into the Tiber, so simply presenting that line isn’t enough to prove the Catholic Church is the OTF.
 
Hail_Linus said:
1 Corinthians 3:3-4 states “For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?”

I believe this verse can only be interpreted to mean there is only one universal (Catholic) Church. I believe it explicitly condemns divisions and I believe this condemnation applies to denominations.

On another thread, a poster stated this was merely a condemnation against sects. However, the Merriam Webster definition of Sect is “a Religious denomination.”

Furthermore, the Greek word in the scripture is Dihostasiai (my own phonetic spelling). Even Protestant Biblical Greek scholars such as William Mounce and G. Abbott-Smith define the word as meaning “a standing apart; a division, dissension.”

All Protestant Churches stand apart from the Catholic Church as well as the other Protestant Churches. All Protestant Churches are by nature a division. The Protestant Reformation was a Protest. A protest is a dissension.

In short, I think it is clear Protestant denominations (including the so-called non-denominational) fit the definition of “division”(Dihostasiai in Greek).

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Okay, but let’s not forget that schism is a sin, whether you deliberately leave the Church or whether you remain in it but drive others away. I’d be willing to bet that there are plenty of non-Catholics out there, whether former Catholics who left or never-were-Catholics who haven’t joined, who have no intentions of ever joining our Church because of the way they’ve been treated by Catholics. Perhaps they attempted to talk to a priest who just didn’t have time for them and drove them away. Perhaps they attended a Mass and found no welcome there. Perhaps they posted on CAF and were called a troll just for asking what seemed to them a valid question. Perhaps the sex abuse scandal persuaded them that we can’t possibly be God’s Church. Whatever the reason, we who drove them away are responsible to God for their absence.
 
Let us pray with Jesus

John 17:

21 May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.
22 I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one.
23 With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognise that it was you who sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me.
24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 Father, Upright One, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.
26 I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.

peace
 
Nicea325 said:
EXACTLY! And a division within one congregation does lead to another being founded…sounds and looks familiar-eh?
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I probably should have said a division within a locale (Corinth).

The more I think about it, the more this passage does seem to fit multiple organizations in competition with each other as we have today.

But after that I think it is important to observe what the passage does not say as well as what it does say.
 
AmateurPianist said:
I probably should have said a division within a locale (Corinth).

The more I think about it, the more this passage does seem to fit multiple organizations in competition with each other as we have today.

But after that I think it is important to observe what the passage does not say as well as what it does say.
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I understand what you are saying. However,regardless if the division is within one locale,its effects have detrimental affects to the overall Church.
 
hazcompat said:
Let us pray with Jesus

John 17:

21 May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.
22 I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one.
23 With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognise that it was you who sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me.
24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 Father, Upright One, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.
26 I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.

peace
Click to expand...
👍

The current situation was not what Christ intended.

God bless
 
Looking at the Literal sense in this verse different people were “bragging” saying I was baptized by “Appolos” because he was the smart one of the group. Another words the people at the time were forming clicks in the Church and Paul says no, no, no, it is God who is baptizing you!
 
Godfollower said:
Okay, but let’s not forget that schism is a sin, whether you deliberately leave the Church or whether you remain in it but drive others away. I’d be willing to bet that there are plenty of non-Catholics out there, whether former Catholics who left or never-were-Catholics who haven’t joined, who have no intentions of ever joining our Church because of the way they’ve been treated by Catholics. Perhaps they attempted to talk to a priest who just didn’t have time for them and drove them away. Perhaps they attended a Mass and found no welcome there. Perhaps they posted on CAF and were called a troll just for asking what seemed to them a valid question. Perhaps the sex abuse scandal persuaded them that we can’t possibly be God’s Church. Whatever the reason, we who drove them away are responsible to God for their absence.
Click to expand...
I totally agree and that is why I like to say that many Protestants are more “catholic” than many Catholics.

My biggest problem about the lack of unity is that our country is falling apart. If all Christians were united in one Church with a clear definition of right and wrong we would not have legalized abortion, sex-sex marriage would not be an issue, the divorce rate would be dramatically lower, etc.
 
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