The heart that does not belong to Christ is rooted in the idea of selfishness. There may be different stages as one heads toward selfishness. The idea, however, is that one begins his service to God by denying himself (Matthew 16:24). A movement away from God is, therefore, a movement back toward selfishness. The man Diotrephes loved to have the preeminence (III John 9). Elders who shepherd the flock of God cannot lord over God’s heritage (I Peter 5:3). Some men’s personalities are of such a nature that they cannot handle power.
Still others have their feelings injured and rather than face the problem they go out and do what they can to lead others to their position. As they lead others to join them the end result is churches will wind up being split. Going back to the example of Absalom, the men who followed him “…knew not anything” (II Samuel 15:11). Absalom could pretend and no one questioned it. In a similar way divisions in our brotherhood have occurred because men follow their friend or some well-known brother without investigating what really happened.
Divisions do occur because of personalities. Using the word to mean just a difference of opinion is not just. Some divisions occur because people reject the Word of God. Others occur because faithful brethren will not deal with the personalities who injure the body of Christ by their selfish desires to rule. Church divisions do not occur because of a difference of opinion. Someone on one side or the other has little or no concern for the body of Christ and would rather see it destroyed than them not getting their way. We should all work hard to love the brotherhood (I Peter2:17). Likewise, we should work doubly hard to not allow Satan to use us to harm the body of Christ.
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