"Being Perfectly Minded" "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (1 Corinthians 1:10). This was written by the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth, but of course it applies to all churches of all time. The problem seemed to be that the people, all of the Christian Faith, have disputes among themselves about doctrine taught and preached, and whose doctrine to follow. One may be more spiritual than the others; one may be more educated than the others; one may have more of the gifts working among them than the others; irregardless they are of the same Body, the same Savior, the same LORD, the same baptism, the same Church. Paul goes on to say in verse seventeen, that this causes us to loose power given us by the work of the cross done by Christ. Paul is calling this human wisdom. And it's obvious that human wisdom causes nothing but trouble without God's wisdom with it, but the Holy Spirit is telling us, through the Apostle Paul, that this very thing is keeping us from the blessings of God. In other words the salvation of Christ brings us a power that we miss by having division among us as an individual body, as well as the body as a whole. Without the power of the Holy Spirit we cannot be effective in the purposes of God. More specifically we see by the next verse the problem is arguments among the members of the church. Verse 11: "For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you." They were arguing about different points of view from different teachers or ministers, among the brothers and sisters. Paul simply told them to stop arguing. Paul knew and understood that these arguments were probably from a lack of knowledge. Many of us think we know the scriptures and the ways of God so well that our understanding is perfectly correct, and we don't leave room for improvement or even the addition of more information itself. This causes disagreements when another point of view is introduced. The Apostle is pleading with us to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. This does not mean that everyone must be the same or even think the same. But we must not let our different view points take us away from the real purpose and meat of the Gospel of Christ. The real purpose of the church is to "bring light into a dark world". When this is done, and the Holy Spirit has His way, then the Truth is revealed to each person as that person needs, and not the wisdom or intellect of men. Of course this does not take away from the fact that the church needs to be educated in the Word of God by Godly men and women who teach the Word. But this does mean that the education received should be for the purpose of changing lives to the glory of God and Christ Jesus. Not only do these arguments deteriorate the effectiveness of the gospel but it also keeps us as Covenant partners from the blessings of the Covenant. Perseverance, provision, protection, healing, forgiveness, hope, justification, reconciliation, redemption, propitiation and much more. In fact all of heaven and earth. All that God has for His people are good and Holy. Therefore, a lack of goodness keeps us from receiving the things of God for our lives. Many of which give us not just long life, but a fruitful life pleasing to the Lord. We must set aside our arguments and disagreements on how things are taught and presented, which are usually very petty, and set our focus on how the Holy Spirit wants to present a never-changing Gospel to a constant changing world. If sin is preached against; a crucified risen Savior is lifted up and Jesus is that Savior seen as the manifestation of the living God then we must all agree that the focus and purpose is the same and unify in that purpose. Let us set aside our human wisdom and take on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. He never divides, splits, or separates His family. David Walls