In Good Faith: When facing conflict, it’s more important to be righteous than right

My pastor smiled knowingly as I sighed and said, “If the Apostle Paul were alive today, we’d be getting a letter.” The relevance of Paul’s advice to first century churches dawned on me as our congregation was navigating conflict rooted in a mix of theological, cultural and political differences. Writing to believers in Corinth, Paul admonished them for quarreling and forming rival factions, saying they were acting like “mere infants in Christ” rather than spiritually mature people. He rebuked the Corinthians for dividing into loyalty groups based on favorite leaders (“I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas”). He implored them to have “no divisions among you” and asked a pointed, rhetorical question: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?” Using the human body as a metaphor, Paul explained that believers form a unified spiritual family with many interdependent parts.

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