I Cor. Chapter 5.
Division cannot be thought of as a permanent condition, at least, not in the affairs of man. Division is only a temporary condition. It will not always allow the scales to remain at balance. Division is temporary because either one element of the division will be purged or the other element will be subdued, but one thing is for certain, and that is that there cannot be a permanent co-existence of opposing elements.
Abraham Lincoln, in his nomination acceptance speech of June 16, 1858, said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot endure PERMANENTLY half slave and half free, I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall– but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in ALL the states, old as well as new– North as well as South.”
Look again at this great man’s insight on division. He realizes that the government “cannot endure PERMANENTLY half slave and half free.” Why? Because division is only a temporary condition. In given time, he was aware that “It will become ALL one thing or ALL the other.” Likewise, he understood that “it will cease to be divided,” because, again, division is only a temporary condition.
The unwritten law of division is that in given time one of the opposing elements will succumb to the other. Division cannot exist as a permanent condition. It was because of this understanding that Mr. Lincoln engaged this country into a Civil War. If he had not who is to say what the outcome would have been? Yet clearly it is observed that it could not have continued as it was because something must and did give.
This is exactly the point the Apostle Paul is making in I Cor. Chapter 5. The evil division of fornication cannot be allowed to co-exist with righteousness. They were warned, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” And Paul’s remedy was to “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump.” Furthermore, they were instructed, “Not to company with fornicators” and “not to keep company; if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one, no, not to eat.” Paul realizing that the separate elements of division cannot co-exist, and that one element or the other would ultimately overcome its opposition, he commanded “therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” These situations, of course, deal with matters within the church.
Leaven, according to one authority, is: Sour dough, in a high state of fermentation. Was used in general in making bread. It REQUIRED TIME TO FULFILL THE PROCESS. Leaven was forbidden in all offerings to the Lord by fire (Lev. 2:11, 6:17). Being bread of corruption and spreading through the mass of that in which it is mixed, and therefore symbolizing the pervasive character of evil.
Leviticus 2:11 No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire.
Leviticus 6:17 It shall not be baken with leaven. I have given it unto them for their portion of my offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as is the sin offering, and as the trespass offering.
I remember hearing someone preaching from Matt. 13, concerning the parable of the tares, and saying, in so many words, that the tares were to co-exist in the church and we had no right to “gather them up.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. If this person’s interpretation is correct then I Cor. Chapter 5 is in violation of this law. But, rather, what is taught in Matt. 13 is that “The field is the WORLD” (not the Church). Which agrees with the position of the church being “in the world but not of the world.” God never meant for error and truth to co-exist in the church as a permanent condition simply because it cannot be done. Something must and will give.
Since the Devil knows well the law of division, he strives to induce division among the ranks of God’s people. And where there is a lack of strong moral convictions then the opposing element of unrighteousness wins out. Where there is a lack of strong Holy Ghost-anointed, sin-fighting, Devil-hating preaching then in given time evil will reign. As Mr. Lincoln said, “It will become ALL one thing or ALL the other.” But “it will cease to be divided.” Because division is only a temporary condition.
Division is either a prelude to one element’s supremacy or to a kowtowing of the weaker to the stronger. But in no stretch of the imagination can it be thought of as a permanent situation. Yet in view of this the cry is on today for so-called unity with all manner of unrighteousness. Truth and error cannot walk together. It will either become ALL truth or ALL error.
God must raise up men who cannot be intimidated by the “leave well enough alone” crowd; preachers who with Holy Ghost-anointing dare to overturn the tables of the unrighteous in the house of God; preachers so aware that only one of the two opposing elements shall survive will preach until hell is subdued. When whoremongers and spiritually dead compromisers speak louder than holiness minded preachers, is it not a sign of impending doom? Divisions shall be inflicted upon the church till Jesus comes but our only hope is a God-called fearless ministry that will overpower every element of error.
There exist today a large majority of oneness Pentecostal churches in which jewelry is no longer a question; where divorce and remarriage is rampant; where entrenched deacon boards rule; where worldly fashions abound; where nature’s teaching is ignored; where ritual and formalism have replaced the Holy Ghost and each and every one of these errors began as division. But for the lack of some spiritual Abraham Lincolns the errors prevailed and righteousness died.
The instruction of God’s Bible commands every God-called preacher to fear not to preach on controversial subjects or side step touchy issues. “Purge out therefore the old leaven” lest it purge out TRUTH!
— jlg —