On Divisions

One of the least understood areas in the Church today is that of Church government. It is on this rocky point that much unity founders, and despite much activity to achieve the unity that we all know is indispensable for a credible witness in the world, all attempts at unity in the church fail because of a failure to understand the Government of God.

This subject must need fully be approached very carefully, and the first point that must be understood is that there is a dimension to this unity that must be spiritually discerned before it can be carried into practice. Paul says:


1Co 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him; and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned;


Paul tells us in the next chapter of Corinthians that divisions exist among them because they are yet carnal. One says he is of Paul, and another that he is of Apollos. That sounds very much like the denominationalism that is rampant in the church today. The church is not functioning, as a body should because it is immature. Paul ties up unity and maturity into one issue through this teaching. Without maturity there can be no unity. The division that existed in the early church, described by Paul, has plagued the Christian community for the last two thousand years, and always will, because there will always be immaturity. Even if by some miracle unity were achieved in this generation, in the next generation of Christians divisions would come again because of all the new Christians who are immature.

How do we find our way out of this enigma? What is the unity that Christ speaks of when he asks his Father that we may be one as he is one with his Father? Well, first let us accept that the Unity that Jesus wants is not in Ecumenism. It is not a political unity based on compromise, it is something deeper and more costly than that. Secondly, it is not a Unity that embraces only part of the church, but the whole. Unity within a denomination or a network of ministries is not true unity because it still excludes much of the Body. A group of churches that associates with each another because they have similar doctrinal views is not unity but sectarianism because by their doctrines they exclude parts of the body of Christ. This kind of sectarianism is reprehensible and is severely rebuked in the scriptures.

1Co 1:11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of Chloe, that there are divisions among you.
1Co 1:12 But I say this, that every one of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.
1Co 1:13 Is Christ divided?

Jud 1:19 These are the people who cause divisions, who are controlled by their natural desires, who do not have the Spirit.

Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are …….. strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, disputes, schools of opinion,

The first step towards unity would be maturity. Many of the reasons cited for church divisions are merely a cover for a deeper spiritual disunity based on fleshly ambition. Arriving at the place where we can say with Paul “ I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer “I” that live, but Christ that lives in me”, is the first step toward unity. It is this “I” that is at the root of all the disunity. Since only some in the church will reach this place of maturity church unity will only ever exist for those that can see from God’s perspective.

Unity is something that exists already for the spiritually discerning. When Jesus rose up from the dead the whole church rose up with him and is seated in heavenly places. The one who perceives the church seated in heavenly places perceives the unity of the body, it is spiritually discerned. The flesh is a veil that prevents many of us from seeing this unity. Those who are fleshly still see “me” and “mine”, whereas the spiritual man sees all things as Christ’s and all servants of the Lord as belonging to the Body.

Now in practical church government this is how this unity would be worked out by those who are mature.

All local churches would be recognized, as being part of the church, which they are, be they Baptist, Roman Catholic, Vineyard or Pentecostal. (It is not that simple, there are also Coptic, Armenian, Russian orthodox, and MarThoma churches to cite but a few.) The name of a church needs to be given no recognition at all as all denominational unity is based on the flesh. When the apostle Paul went from city to city preaching he did not call the churches that he started “ Apostle Paul ministries” or anything distinctive, each local church stood on its own and was governed by elders. The denominational names that have been given to churches have been given by men as a means of claiming their ownership and rule over those churches. Paul said some preach Christ out of selfish ambition yet he rejoices that Christ is being preached because people still get saved despite the personal ambition of some preachers. Consequently there are many believers within denominations that are under the control of ambitious men, but these believers are as much part of the body of Christ as you and I. We must discern that we are joined to these members. If we do not judge the body rightly we bring judgment on ourselves and:

“For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep” ( 1 Cor.11:29,30)


It is obvious that some churches are closer to a biblical pattern than others, and it is obvious that in each local church there are wheat and tares. There are good fish and bad fish. Not all will be saved; many Roman Catholics, Baptists and Pentecostals will be bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness. We should all do all that is in our power to convince, persuade and rebuke all Christians to grow to maturity and be conformed to the perfect will of God. We are joined to other Christians by virtue of our being born of the same Father and not because we believe or practice our belief in the same way.

This does not mean that we should compromise at all in declaring the whole counsel of God.

Act 20:27 For I did not keep back from declaring to you all the counsel of God.


In China of the pre communist era the church movement that was started by Watchman Nee (the little flock) had an excellent opportunity to model their movement on the primitive church since they were building on a new foundation in places where Christ was not previously preached. One of the clearest revelations that they had of the government of the church was in recognition of the local assembly. This revelation consisted in recognizing the autonomy of the local church and rule by elders. This was a measure that contradicted the denominationalism of the foreign missions in China and aimed at indigenously ruled local assemblies. Unfortunately this led to exclusivism as they went on to claim that the only true local church cannot be based on anything except locality and by this doctrine excluded all the other churches from fellowship with them. This exclusivism was short lived, as it was not long before the communists took over and put all the Christians together into prison no matter what their doctrines. God knows best.

Another revelation of church government that was retrieved by this revolutionary movement was that of the separation between the church and the work. In the New Testament the Church was all the combined local assemblies scattered throughout Judea, Asia Minor and Europe. The local assemblies are referred to as the church of Corinth, the church of Ephesus, of Colossae, etc. Their distinctiveness was based on locality and nothing else. The rulership rested in the hands of the local elders, each local church ruled its own affairs. Even such a mighty Apostle as Paul did not presume authority over the churches that he started; if he had done so then this would have given rise to denominationalism since all the apostles would have done likewise. The churches started by Paul would have been ruled by Paul from his prison cell in Rome, the churches started by Apollos would have been ruled by Apollos from wherever he was. God forbid, this is exactly what Paul taught against. When Paul preached the gospel and men responded, he handed over the church to local rulership or left an apostle with them, like Titus or Timothy, and he went on his way. When he returned, or wrote a letter to these churches he appeals to them as a father, and must prove to them through argument a spiritual authority based on his relationship to them.

Spiritual authority must always be based in relationship. In the world of that time it would take months for an apostle to travel through a region, and those Apostles that went further afield like Thomas or Bartholomew , who went to India, would have taken years to complete this journey and could have been out of touch with Jerusalem fro years at a time. Today with our modern communications we feel that we can control from home base a mission on the other side of a planet, but that would not have been possible in the early days of the church, and nor was it ever Gods intention for this to be the case.

When Paul was called by God to mission, he was separated of necessity from the church in Antioch and commended to the Lord.


Act 13:3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and having laid their hands on them, they let them go.

Act 13:4 They therefore, having been sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia, and thence sailed away to Cyprus.


If Paul had continued to work under the supervision of the church at Antioch, the churches that he started in Asia would have been called something like

“The church of Antioch in Greece” or something equally absurd. One should not laugh at this but weep, because there are many examples of this today. It causes havoc in the mission field, and much confusion among those who we are trying to reach. When apostles, or missionaries, for that is the same thing, go out sent by the Lord, they should be leaving behind the nationality and authority of the church they are departing from or they just end up perpetuating division in the mission field.

They cannot be directed by a church or a committee sitting thousands of miles away in a different culture with no understanding of the issues that are being confronted. This is unscriptural and impracticable. I have seen countless disasters in the mission field as a result of this misapplication of God’s government. If it is recognized by a church that the Holy Spirit has set apart men for the work of apostleship (Mission), then it behooves those elders to “let them go” as we see in the above scripture. If the sent ones are not ready to follow the Lord’s guidance then let them be joined to men with experience as Timothy was joined to Paul.

In the same way, let the churches which are started by these missionaries also be under the direct authority of the Lord and not ruled by an absent apostle or by a committee in another town or country.

Getting back to the initial subject of this teaching, that of Unity, it can now be seen how unity can be achieved in a practical way. Having dispensed with personal ambition we now see local groups of Christians joined directly to the head and ruling under the headship of Christ. Unthreatened, they feel free to relate to all other groups and are not restricted in this activity by the “Home Office”, be it in Rome or Texas. They do not have doctrinal blinkers that prevent them from seeing their unity with other local churches. They are not controlled by a jealous leader or group of leaders who want to build an organization that can be governed from elsewhere. This is the New Testament pattern.

The groups of apostles are also autonomous as long as they are starting new works. If ever they return to home base they will submit to the local leadership, they will even submit to the local leadership of the churches they themselves have planted. The local leadership cannot rule over their activity once they go out and are commended to the Lord. This is the New Testament pattern for church government and can be seen clearly in the scriptures once brought into the light. In the book of Acts we see teams of apostolic workers moving around starting new works and serving the local churches with teaching. With Paul there was a team of workers, now traveling with him, at other times in a fixed abode working with a local assembly. With Apollos and Zeus there were other teams of apostolic workers. The workers sometimes would change teams. The apostles of Jesus, the Twelve, are hardly mentioned in the book of acts because they were working as apostles in different spheres to Paul and his companions. These groups of apostles were the agents that bound together the different parts of the body, the local assemblies, not as heads, but as joints of supply.

Eph 4:16 from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love.


The appeal to Elders in Jerusalem to make judgments regarding the inclusion of the Gentiles into the church, which we read about in Acts chapter 15, is not a precedent which centralizes the rule of the church in Jerusalem. Rather, it is more a doctrinal issue as we find later in church history at the council of Nicea.The reporting back of Paul to the churches in Judea after his missionary journeys is more in the line of mutual respect and accountability than submitting to a Hierarchy. The centralization of authority in Church government only took place once Christianity became the state religion under Constantine and was for political reasons.

With the current state of affairs in the church it seems impossible to achieve the kind of unity that Jesus prayed for. Individuals have too many vested interests. Nevertheless, we are able to prevent further disunity by putting into practice the principles set out above. The Lord is not pleased by our further perpetuating disunity by associating ourselves only with those who approximate our own views. Nor is he pleased with those who try and have authority beyond their own sphere. The immaturity of claiming the work of God as our own must be dispensed with. And above all, spiritual sight is necessary to see and love the Church of God in all its multiple forms and expressions in the world.



Thank you, Craig