The House of Chloe

1 Corinthians 1:11

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.

Contention has been a part of the world from the beginning of time. It started in Heaven, when Satan rebelled against God and was cast out of Heaven. It continued between Cain and Abel, when Abel offered a blood sacrifice and Cain offered a sacrifice of works. It continued between Jacob and Esau, when Jacob deceived his brother and dad, and the division and contention it caused is felt to this day. We could look throughout the Old Testament and see contention has always been a part of this world.

When we move to the New Testament, we see contention did not stop. There was contention among the disciples about who should be the greatest. There was contention with Christ from a lost church treasurer when He did not rebuke a woman who anointed His feet with the ointment from her broken alabaster box. There was also contention between Peter and Paul, because Peter refused to accept that the saved Gentiles should not be being circumcised. There was contention between Paul and Barnabas about taking John Mark with them, a man who quit on them in a great time of need.

Contention has always been a part of history, and it will always be a part of history. It is a mirage to think we can all get along and not have contention. As long as there is right and wrong in this world, there will always be contentions. As long as people backslide from the truth, there will always be contentions. However, some contention can be avoided if we keep a proper focus. Let me share a few thoughts about contention and our involvement with it.

First, we will always have contention if our focus is on man. Paul said that there were contentions from those of the house of Chloe. The contention was over who they followed. Some said they were of Paul, others of Apollos, some of Cephas, and there were some who said they were of Christ. The problem with this house was that they made human personalities their focus instead of keeping Christ and His Word as their focus. As my pastor taught me, we are never to focus on personalities and institutions because they will always change. Our focus must be on Christ, but even when we keep our focus on Christ, there will still be contention.

Second, we are not to avoid contention when truth has been attacked. To the crowd that loathes contention, we must realize that if we avoid contention at all costs, we will allow truth to be silenced. There is a time when we must be contentious, but not over personalities, but when truth is attacked. Yes, sometimes that means a name will come up because humans are the ones who change from truth, but our focus should be on the truth and not on the personality who backslid from the truth. However, we must be careful not to make the personality the focus of our attack, but we must hold truth high so people can see what is truth.

Third, the best answer to contention is to go soul winning. Instead of talking about the contention, let’s talk about Jesus. With 8.2 billion people in this world, the best thing you can talk about today is the Gospel to at least one lost soul. We will do more for truth’s sake if we spend our energies on giving the Gospel to the lost as we do about the contentions between personalities.