The Sin of Division
Text: Matthew 12:25; I Corinthians 1:10
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- State the claim about the prominence of the sin of schism in the New Testament — how it ranks in the catalog of condemned sins.
- Identify the five causes of division and give a biblical example of at least three.
- State the three categories of people who issued specific warnings against division and identify the specific texts.
- Explain the four actions the New Testament prescribes in response to division — from teaching, to marking, to withdrawing, to the prohibition of division itself.
- Explain why division in the church is more than an organizational problem — what theological claim it violates.
Thesis
Division in the church is the most frequently condemned sin in the New Testament — more often and more severely denounced than covetousness, idolatry, adultery, drunkenness, or hypocrisy. The reason is theological: the church is the body of Christ, and to divide the body of Christ is to do violence to the unity that belongs to it by its own nature. The causes of division are predictable; the warnings are explicit; the prescribed response is clear. The person who promotes division has committed a sin that the New Testament places at the top of its catalog.
Burden
Some sermons are impressive; some are not, depending on the listener's mood — some scriptures also arrive with varying force. This sin always impresses, because no person who has experienced division in a congregation can regard it as a minor matter. The burden is to establish, from the text of the New Testament itself, why division is treated with the severity it receives — and to give the congregation the categories they need to identify and respond to the causes before the division becomes irreversible.
Introduction
"And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, 'Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand'" (Matt. 12:25). The principle is structural: division produces destruction. A kingdom divided cannot function as a kingdom; a house divided cannot function as a house. The application to the church — which is the kingdom, which is the household of God — follows necessarily.
"Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment" (I Cor. 1:10). Paul's exhortation is made "by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" — the most authoritative form of appeal he can make. It is not a suggestion toward organizational harmony; it is a command in the name of the Lord to a congregation that had already begun to fracture.
I. The Prominent Mention of Division in the New Testament
All sins are condemned in the New Testament. The catalog includes covetousness, idolatry, adultery, drunkenness, hypocrisy, and many more. But of all the sins that appear in the New Testament's warnings and rebukes, the sin of schism — division — is the most frequently denounced and the most severely condemned.
Covetousness is second in the catalog of condemned sins. The person who assigns less urgency to division than to covetousness has reversed the New Testament's order of emphasis. The reason division ranks above covetousness is not that the desires behind division are more corrupt than the desire for material things — it is that division's damage falls directly on the body of Christ, which is unique among the things that sin can damage.
Idolatry, adultery, drunkenness, hypocrisy follow in order. These are not minor sins; they are severely condemned throughout the New Testament. But even these fall below schism in the frequency and severity of the New Testament's condemnation. The person who thinks they have avoided the most serious sin by avoiding drunkenness and adultery may have missed the one that the New Testament treats as the most destructive.
II. Causes of Division
Division does not arise spontaneously. It has identifiable causes, each of which has appeared repeatedly in the history of the church.
Personal favoritism (Matt. 20:26; I Cor. 1:12). "Each one of you is saying, 'I am of Paul,' and 'I of Apollos,' and 'I of Cephas,' and 'I of Christ'" (I Cor. 1:12). The attachment to a particular teacher or leader — to a personality rather than to the Lord — produces factions organized around persons. The faction of Paul and the faction of Apollos are still one faction too many. Personal favoritism elevates the vehicle above the cargo, the teacher above the Lord who sent the teacher.
Personal ambition of leaders (III John 9-10). "I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say." The leader who is more concerned with their own primacy than with the unity of the body has made their own position the center of gravity that everything else must orbit. When the orbit is disturbed — when another teacher arrives, when the congregation begins to look in another direction — the ambitious leader produces division rather than yield the position.
Social or racial customs (Gal. 3:28). "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The social and racial categories that divide the world outside the church do not lose their force automatically when they enter the church. The congregation that allows the hierarchies of the surrounding culture to determine who sits with whom, who speaks for whom, and whose concerns receive attention has imported a cause of division along with its members.
Moral derelicts — Judas, Demas (II Tim. 4:10). "For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me." The person who has chosen the world over the church creates division by their departure — specifically the kind of division that results from the absence of a person who was carrying responsibilities they now have abandoned. The moral failure that leads to abandonment always leaves a gap that produces disruption in the body.
Doctrinal differences (I Tim. 1:3; 6:3). "As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines" (I Tim. 1:3). "If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing" (I Tim. 6:3). Doctrinal deviation produces division — not because the person holding the deviation intends to divide, but because the body cannot move coherently in two directions simultaneously. The doctrinal cause of division requires the response of doctrinal correction; it cannot be resolved by ignoring it in the name of unity.
III. Warnings Against the Sin of Schism
The warnings against division come from the highest levels of authority in the New Testament.
Jesus warned against it (Matt. 12:25). The Lord himself identified division as destructive at the most fundamental structural level. The warning is not primarily about the sin of the people who divide — it is about the self-destructive logic of division itself. The divided kingdom does not need an enemy; it is already destroying itself.
The elders of the church at Ephesus were warned (Acts 20:30). "From among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them." The warning is specific: the source of division will be internal — from among the elders themselves. Paul does not warn about external enemies in this passage; he warns about the danger from within the leadership. The people who were appointed to maintain unity are capable of being its destroyers.
The church at Corinth was warned (I Cor. 11:18-19). "For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it." The divisions at Corinth were visible in the assembly itself — not merely in opinion but in the actual practice of the Lord's Supper. The doctrinal and social division had produced a liturgical division that Paul treats as a corruption of the Supper itself.
IV. Condemnation of Division
The New Testament does not merely warn against division; it prescribes specific actions in response to it.
Teaching on unity condemns strife. The positive presentation of the church's unity — one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God (Eph. 4:4-6) — is itself a condemnation of every strife that contradicts it. The person who hears the teaching on unity and continues in division has explicitly rejected the teaching.
Mark those causing division (Rom. 16:17). "Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them." The instruction is not to observe division passively — it is to identify the people who are producing it and to turn away from them. The identification is not persecution; it is the protection of the body.
Withdraw from them (II Thes. 3:6, 14). "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us." The withdrawal is an act of discipline, not of hatred — it signals to the person causing division that the body has recognized what they are doing and will not be drawn into it.
There must be no division (I Cor. 1:10-11). The command is absolute: "that there be no divisions among you." The command is not "minimize divisions" or "manage divisions thoughtfully." It is "there must be no divisions." The standard is unity — not uniformity of personality or opinion on matters where Scripture is silent, but the unity of the body in the mind and judgment that Christ has revealed.
Application
Identify the cause of division in any specific situation before attempting the response. The cause determines the appropriate response: personal favoritism requires the reorientation of loyalty toward Christ; personal ambition in a leader requires accountability and, if necessary, removal; social division requires the application of Gal. 3:28; doctrinal division requires doctrinal engagement, not avoidance.
Maintain the distinction between division and disagreement. Disagreement is the normal condition of people who think; division is the condition of people who have allowed their disagreement to become a rupture of fellowship. The person who disagrees with a decision and continues in fellowship has not divided; the person who withdraws from fellowship over the disagreement has.
Conclusion
"Any house divided against itself will not stand" (Matt. 12:25). The church that divides does not need an enemy. The division is the destruction. Every faction, every personality cult, every social barrier, every doctrinal deviation that has been permitted to become a fellowship rupture — all of these are the sin that the New Testament places at the top of its catalog. The person who would not dream of committing adultery but who is cheerfully contributing to division in the body of Christ has committed the greater sin.
"That you all agree and that there be no divisions among you" (I Cor. 1:10). The standard is clear. The command is direct. The response required is not organizational management but the application of the mind of Christ to the body that belongs to him.
Invitation
The unity of the church begins with the unity of each member with Christ. The person who has not entered the body has not yet received the foundation of the unity it requires.
Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Repent. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). Enter the one body, through the one baptism, into the one Lord — the unity from which division is a departure.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division / Schism | schisma | A tear, a split — from schizō, to split, to tear. | Used in I Cor. 1:10: "that there be no divisions among you." Also in I Cor. 11:18 for the divisions at the Lord's Supper. | The word is concrete and violent: a schism is not a difference of opinion — it is a tear in the fabric of the body. The metaphor makes clear why it is treated with such severity: you do not sew a torn garment by managing the tear; you close it. | I Cor. 1:10; I Cor. 11:18 |
| Mark / Keep your eye on | skopeō | To look at carefully, to observe with attention. | Used in Rom. 16:17: "keep your eye on (skopein) those who cause dissensions." | The word is the root of "scope" — an instrument for careful observation. The instruction is not casual awareness but deliberate identification: watch them, know what they are doing, recognize the pattern. | Rom. 16:17 |
| Agree / Same mind | to auto legēte | To speak the same thing — the idiom for agreement, unanimity. | Used in I Cor. 1:10: "that you all agree (to auto legēte)." | The idiom is stronger than "agree to disagree" — it is speaking the same thing, moving in the same direction, having the same orientation. The standard is not the absence of all difference but the presence of the unity that comes from the mind of Christ being the governing standard. | I Cor. 1:10 |
| Draw away / Torn away | apospān | To pull away, to drag off — the violent image of tearing. | Used in Acts 20:30: "to draw away the disciples after them." | The word again is physical and violent: the person causing division is not inviting; they are tearing. The disciples are being pulled away from the body toward the personality or teaching of the one causing division. | Acts 20:30 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "A house divided against itself will not stand" | Text | Matt. 12:25 |
| "That there be no divisions among you" — governing command | Text | I Cor. 1:10 |
| "I am of Paul, I of Apollos" — personal favoritism | II.1 | I Cor. 1:12 |
| Diotrephes "loves to be first" — personal ambition | II.2 | III John 9-10 |
| "Neither Jew nor Greek... all one in Christ" — racial/social cause | II.3 | Gal. 3:28 |
| "Demas has deserted me" — moral dereliction | II.4 | II Tim. 4:10 |
| "Not to teach strange doctrines" — doctrinal cause | II.5 | I Tim. 1:3; 6:3 |
| Elders warned from within — Paul's farewell at Ephesus | III.2 | Acts 20:30 |
| "Keep your eye on those causing dissension" | IV.2 | Rom. 16:17 |
| "Keep away from... unruly brother" | IV.3 | II Thes. 3:6, 14 |
| "One body, one Spirit... one Lord" — unity teaching | IV.1 | Eph. 4:4-6 |
| Baptism for remission — entry into the one body | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 152. Primary texts: Matt. 12:25; I Cor. 1:10 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "ilost" → "Must"; "I Cor. I:l0" → "I Cor. 1:10"; "lll." → "III."; "severerly" → "severely." Doctrinal audit: division ranked above other sins in the New Testament's frequency of condemnation — affirmed without softening; the five causes identified with specific texts and examples; the distinction between doctrinal division (requiring doctrinal engagement) and social/personal division carefully maintained; the prescribed responses (teaching, marking, withdrawing) developed in sequence from least to most formal — consistent with II Thes. 3:15 ("do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother"); invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
