Faith in Focus #4
A reflection from Connection Church and other spiritual events from the week
Faith in Focus is a weekly reflection on what God has been teaching me throughout the week regarding my faith. Whether it’s personal interactions, reading, or the Sunday sermon, God speaks through it all, and I hope this helps you focus on His mission.
I Hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving with family and friends! But if you didn’t, just remember you still have so many things to be thankful for.
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Sermon Reflection: When the Church Fractures
Based on Jonathan Land’s sermon, Connection Church Sioux Falls, Nov. 23, 2025. (watch here)
Paul’s opening remarks to a fractured Corinthian church confronts our own appetite for personalities, platforms, and competition. His antidote is as urgent now as it was then: cling to Nothing but Christ.
On November 23, 2025, Pastor Jonathan Land of Connection Church (Sioux Falls) led our community through 1 Corinthians 1:10–17, a passage often introduced gently but never read gently. Paul’s tone is urgent, almost fatherly, pulling the believers of Corinth back from the brink. They were splintering, aligning themselves with favored leaders, and fracturing into spiritual sub-tribes. Two thousand years later, the details have changed, but the dynamics have not. We still drift toward cliques, camps, and curated allegiances unless something stronger than preference connects us.
Paul’s remedy is not technique. His answer is not conflict mediation. His correction is not even a strategy for unity. It is a Person.
Christ, and the cross He endured, stands at the center of the passage and the center of Paul’s appeal.
The World Behind the Text
Corinth in the first century was a bustling crossroads of wealth, commerce, migration, and religious variety. Social mobility was possible, but it demanded relentless self-promotion. Teachers, philosophers, and orators toured the region, gathering followings much like today’s influencers. Public life was structured around patronage: you aligned yourself with someone powerful, and that affiliation shaped your identity.
Against this backdrop, Paul founded a church where people who had once competed for honor and visibility were now called to see themselves as one Body. Yet old habits persisted. Reports reached Paul (likely through Chloe’s people) that factions had formed, some loyal to Paul, some to Apollos, some to Cephas (Peter), and some claiming superior fidelity to Christ Himself.
The cultural forces behind this fracturing were not random. They mirrored the honor-driven dynamics of Corinthian society: the desire to follow someone impressive, to belong to the “right” group, to secure approval through association.
Paul does not shrug at this. He sounds the alarm.
Walking the Passage
Paul begins with an appeal, not a command: “I appeal to you, brothers…” (1 Cor 1:10, ESV). Apostolic authority does not overshadow family affection. He asks them to be “of the same mind and the same judgment,” which is not a call to uniform personality but to a unified purpose. Paul echoes Jesus’ warning in Matthew 12:25 that a divided house cannot stand.
Then he names the issue. He has heard of quarrels among them. Not disagreements. Quarrels. A community that had once gathered around the risen Christ now argued over which teacher they most admired. Paul does not dismiss the value of leaders like Apollos or Peter; elsewhere he celebrates their faithfulness. But he refuses to let any messenger overshadow the message.
Then comes his scalpel-like set of questions, sharp enough to cut through any era’s spiritual posturing:
“Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor 1:13, ESV)
This is the turning point of the whole section. Paul’s rhetorical questions expose the absurdity of personality-driven faith. Only one person was crucified for them. Only one name was invoked in their baptism. Their allegiance should be to Christ alone.
A Fair Counter-Reading
Some interpreters argue that Paul overstates his concern, that the Corinthians weren’t fractured in doctrine but only in preference, and therefore the rebuke shouldn’t be applied too universally. But this reading underestimates both the social power of factionalism in Roman society and Paul’s theological insistence that the cross dismantles all grounds for boasting (cf. 1 Cor 1:18–31). Even if the divisions began as personality preferences, Paul saw the spiritual rot beneath them: misplaced loyalty leads to misplaced identity. And misplaced identity leads to a malformed church.
The Turn
Pastor Jonathan identified three practical dangers that still draw believers toward the gravitational pull of cliques. Each a distortion of discipleship. Each pulling our gaze from the cross.
1. Don’t mindlessly follow.
When we follow personalities uncritically, we drift. Not because the leader is necessarily unhealthy, but because the human heart tends to exalt what is visible and forgets what is eternal. We are called to follow leaders who point to Jesus, not leaders who inadvertently (or intentionally) point to themselves.
2. Don’t try to impress.
The desire to impress is a treadmill with no off-switch. Impress someone and you must impress again. Fail to impress and your identity shatters in rejection. Paul’s correction is liberating: our approval is fixed in Christ. God’s love is not earned by performance but given freely by grace. Impressiveness is not a fruit of the Spirit, it’s the worm that eats at it.
3. Don’t compare.
Comparison operates like a carnival funhouse mirror: it either inflates pride or shrinks self-worth. As Theodore Roosevelt famously said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” It is also the thief of unity. When we focus on what others have, or what they seem to have, we lose sight of the unrepeatable gifts God has entrusted to us. Comparison stokes envy; gratitude extinguishes it.
Paul’s larger aim becomes clear:
Follow Nothing but Christ
Seek approval from Nothing but Christ
Measure yourself by Nothing but Christ
Anything else, personality, preference, performance, divides what the gospel was meant to unite.
Carry It Into the Week
Paul’s rebuke is pastoral, not disciplinary. It is an invitation to reorder our lives around the cross again. For Connection Church, rooted in the gospel · community · mission framework, this means:
Gospel: Christ crucified is the only foundation strong enough to hold the weight of our identities.
Community: Unity is not sameness but shared allegiance. We do not gather around leaders, demographics, or affinities, but around Jesus.
Mission: A divided church blurs the beauty of the gospel before a watching world. A united church makes Christ visible.
Spiritual cliques may feel natural, even inevitable. But the Spirit makes a different way possible. Paul’s words call us to walk it.
Week in Reflection
This week, members of my Bible study group had the pleasure to spend an afternoon volunteering with Operation Christmas Child, a global outreach effort organized by Samaritan’s Purse. While there we assisted donors as they dropped off shoebox gifts, helping unload contributions ranging from single boxes to large bulk donations, and loading them into trailers bound for a regional processing center.
While the work is practical, we tried to emphasize that the effort extends beyond logistics. Each drop-off provided an opportunity to pray with donors and acknowledge their contribution to the ministry’s broader mission. Every shoebox delivered through Operation Christmas Child is ultimately matched with a child who may otherwise never receive a Christmas gift.
The initiative is built around more than the distribution of toys and personal items. Before children receive their boxes, they participate in The Greatest Gift, a program designed to introduce them to the Gospel message in a format tailored for younger audiences. The ministry considers this teaching component the heart of its mission, with the gift boxes serving as a tangible extension of that message.
I am so thankful for every individual who assembled a box this season, as each contribution represents a child who will hear about Jesus, many for the first time. Those interested in learning more or preparing to participate in next year’s effort can explore the resources linked above!
Ben’s Song of the Week: Thank You - Ben Rector
As families across the country gathered for Thanksgiving this week, not everyone experienced the picture-perfect family holiday. Yet we should attempt to emphasize a consistent theme this season, even in heartache: thankfulness endures, even in difficult moments.
This week’s featured song underscores that idea with the lyric, “Life is hard sometimes, I don’t know what to say. So thank you.” The message resonates with listeners who face uncertainty, offering a reminder that thankfulness is not reserved for ideal circumstances, but in all circumstances.
Even when God’s plans feel unclear and questions outnumber answers, the song points back to a central conviction, that God has been faithful, and there remains much to be thankful for. This is echoed in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NASB), where Paul writes, “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Scripture draws a distinction that often gets overlooked: believers are called to give thanks in all circumstances, not for all circumstances. Gratitude isn’t meant to romanticize hardship, no one is expected to celebrate a job loss or a car accident. Instead, the call to thankfulness reflects a deeper confidence echoed in Romans 8:28 (NIV), which affirms that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.” With that perspective in mind, the hope is that you were able to find moments of genuine thankfulness this holiday season, regardless of your circumstances.
And just remember, God loves you, and so do I.
