The theory of the unmorality of art has established itself firmly in the strictly artistic classes.  They are free to produce anything they like.  They are free to write a “Paradise Lost” in which Satan shall conquer God.  They are free to write a “Divine Comedy” in which heaven shall be under the floor of hell.  And what have they done?  Have they produced in their universality anything grander or more beautiful than the things uttered by the fierce Ghibbeline Catholic, by the rigid Puritan schoolmaster?  We know that they have produced only a few roundels.  Milton does not only beat them at his piety, he beats them at their own irreverence.  In all their little books of verse you will not find a finer defiance of God than Satan’s.  Nor will you find the grandeur of paganism felt as that fiery Christian felt it who described Faranata lifting his head as in disdain of hell.  And the reason is very obvious.  Blasphemy is an artistic effect, because blasphemy depends upon a philosophical conviction.  Blasphemy depends upon belief and is fading with it.  If any one doubts this, let him sit down seriously and try to think blasphemous thoughts about Thor.  I think his family will find him at the end of the day in a state of some exhaustion.

-Heretics, GK Chesterton

After establishing the basis of his faith and ministry, Paul launches into an examination of the foundations of the Corinthian church with a blistering interrogation: “Is Christ divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Were you baptized into the name of Paul?”  It is doubtful that anyone there had the temerity to offer answers to these rhetorical questions, and if they did, they would not have been able to stand in the storm that would certainly have followed: “Why then are you dividing the church?  Why are you identifying yourself with Paul as though he were the subject of your devotion?  How can you separate yourself from your brothers on the basis of something which does not stand at the level of the Sacrament itself?”

Hearing none, Paul continues expounding the doctrine of the cross.  But we will linger at the divisus est Christus awhile.  It is a very serious thing to raise up false divisions between ourselves.  And since we are not less prone to it than the Corinthians were, it will be sufficient to note that Paul’s expectation for them is nothing less than complete unity, that is, that they be “perfectly united in mind and thought”.  That statement ought to give pause to any one of us.  I am not perfectly united in mind and thought with my own wife, let alone my children, let alone my brothers and sisters in the church, let alone my brothers and sisters in other churches.  Such disunity is more than just an imperfection in our sanctification; it is open to the charge of blasphemy.

Strong words these, but so are Paul’s.  Our righteousness before God is imputed to us on a basis of our unity with Christ, and if he is divided, we are in danger of being divided from him.  Though Gill says you could interpret the phrase as an assertion, “Christ is divided”, yet he goes on to demonstrate that just as the seamless garment Jesus wore was not torn asunder, so his mystical body the Church will not be torn in pieces by schisms and divisions.  So to act as though it were torn in pieces, and (typically) as though our piece were more important than all the others, is to speak against the very truth upon which we depend for salvation.  That is like refusing to forgive someone $10 for a sandwich when the master just forgave me $10M for Nicolas Cage’s mansion.  I will certainly be turned over to the jailers to be tortured, until I pay back all I owe.

This is not a bridge club, this is the Bride of Christ.  We are not free to treat each other as if what we have in common does not matter.  When we introduce division amongst ourselves by emphasizing social strata, by failing to welcome others into our circles of friendship and fellowship, by looking down on people that are not as Y/S/B as we are, by judging our brother with a legalistic standard, or by marginalizing our sister to make her appear less in others’ eyes, is to declare with our actions that the finished work of Christ is not what holds us together.  It is to declare that our adoration is reserved for an icon (Paul, Apollos, Cephas) and not for our crucified Lord.  It is to declare that there is a name higher than the Name into which we were very intentionally baptized.  For our church to be about something other than Christ is, as Rick said, idolatry.  And idolatry of the tongue (that is, ascribing the nature of the unity or disunity of the Body of Christ to deciding factors other Christ himself, which amounts to impious speaking about God) is blasphemy.  In the Israelites’ case this was disappointing, but in the case of a people to whom the mystery of the gospel has been made known, it is inexcusable.

If there is anything worse than blasphemy, it must be halfhearted blasphemy.  Dare we pass the peace on Sunday morning and not be willing to reconcile with the person whose hand we grasp?  God deals hardly with those who would offer an appearance of holiness while secretly holding back, as Ananias and Sapphire found out to their sorrow.  Their sin was not keeping their own money for themselves.  It was pretending that they had given their all for the Kingdom, while holding some of the proceeds back.  Their mistake was not essentially that they had lied to their brothers and sisters.  It was, as Peter charged, that they had lied to God himself.

I think God would have had mercy on them if they had simply been honest about what was in their hearts.  If Ananias had said, “To heck with the building project, I’m buying a new cart with this money, and I don’t give a pile of donkey biscuits what Joseph of Cyprus did with his”, the apostles would have smiled and shaken their heads, praying for Ananias to mature to the point where the needs of the church were more important to him than fulfilling his own desires.  He would have been speaking against Christ, and God would have forgiven him for that, for those who have been forgiven much love much.  But when Ananias responded to the impulse in his soul to bless the church with his material goods by intentionally misleading his brothers and sisters as to the truth of the matter, he crucified the Son of God over again and called down on himself the condemnation of land that has drunk in the rain and has born only thorns and thistles.  He blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, and God does not forgive that.

That is terribly close to home for me.  I love for everyone to think that I have it all together relationally, that my motives are purest gold, that my esteem for them is exceeded only by my enjoyment of their company, that any anomaly they spot in my behavior towards them can instantly be explained away as inconsistent with my true underlying intentions.  That is a crock.  On my best days I am a judgmental, condescending, calculating, jockeying, presuming, self-centered ass.  I am not perverse enough to openly spurn my brothers and sisters when I look down on them, and I am not upright enough to openly recognize them as the beings destined for glory that they truly are.  When I am honest with myself (more properly, when I am honest with God) I find hope in one thing, and one thing only.  Jesus said, To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: “The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.  I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot.  Would that you were either cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”  If he had stopped there I would be in serious trouble.  I do not even have the spiritual spleen to blaspheme well, because of my unbelief.  But he has not stopped there.  Jesus has counseled me to buy from him true gold, refined by fire.  He has offered to me white garments to cover my shameful nakedness.  And he has given me salve to anoint my eyes, that I may see.  And though that sight is not yet perfect yet I can make out the form of One who disciplines those he loves, and I find my heart strengthened to be zealous, and repent.

Christ is not divided.  Come and declare boldly with me through word and deed that his peace rules in our hearts, to which indeed we were called in one body.

Author: Jeremy Vogan

My name is Jeremy Vogan. I live in Staunton, VA with my wife and four kids. I love to write, and seek to honestly explore the intellectual and emotional implications of following Jesus as a deeply broken person in a twisted, cruel world that is full of veiled beauty and meaning. Writing is part of how I faithfully look for Jesus Christ to someday make all things new. I'd enjoy hearing your feedback! JV