What are the Causes of Church Conflict?

By Robb Brunansky

Published February 14, 2025

God designed the church to be a foretaste of the new creation, but sadly, the church can often look more like the old creation as Christians surrender to the desires of the flesh. These problems in the church are not unique, new, or specific to a handful of churches. Rather, conflict has riddled the church from its earliest days.

The first churchwide conflict in the New Testament occurred in Acts 6. This dissension happened during an exciting time of massive growth, not during a time of difficulty or a season of stagnant ministry. With this increase, however, came a proliferation of conflict and strife. The conflict was not over something doctrinal, but personal in nature: certain people in the church were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. The fledgling church in Jerusalem came to a crisis point over this issue as they worked out how to deal with this problem. After much prayer, the Spirit-inspired resolution led to the continued spread of the gospel and an even greater increase in disciples.

Church conflict is unavoidable, even if the body is led by the apostles! When handled biblically, however, church conflict can be used by God for greater unity, growth, ministry, and impact.

The subject Paul is addressing in this opening section of 1 Corinthians is that of church conflict. As we have seen, the Corinthian church was racked with division, conflict, and quarrels. Paul recognizes that what matters isn’t the existence of conflict, but how it is handled. In these verses (13-17), Paul gives the Corinthians the cure for church conflict.

To handle church conflict biblically, believers must first understand the call to unity. We are called by God to pursue and strive after unity. This effort involves professing the same truth, recognizing we all play for the same team, and practicing the same thinking. All Christians are responsible to seek this unity with one another.

We know from experience, though, that unity is difficult and that many things often lead to disunity, conflicts, and quarrels; and so, Paul does not stop with the call to unity but moves on to outline the causes of conflict.

Paul explains he is calling the Corinthians to unity because they are quarrelling with one another. There were, at least, four major factions present in this church: the Paul group, the Apollos group, the Cephas group, and the Christ group. Members of these factions claimed to be of their esteemed leader.

The associations for most of these groups are obvious, except for the last group – those who say they belong to Christ. Why does Paul include those who claim to belong to Christ as one of the quarrelling factions? The likely answer is that their assertion was not made with the right heart for unity in the church or a genuine desire to follow Christ, but with a motivation to set them apart as spiritually superior and in need of no teachers or leaders. While this faction claimed to belong to Christ alone, their proper words came from a factious heart, reminding readers that God is always after a right heart, not just the right words.

Why were the Corinthians dividing up in this way? We receive insight with the word Paul uses to describe these factions: quarrels. These conflicts were not from superficial arguments, but from hearts at war with one another as perceived rivals. Each group was trying to outdo the other, seeing Christians as competitors. They stopped at nothing to maintain their own honor even at the expense of fellow believers.

How the term quarrels is used throughout the New Testament gives clues as to what caused these rivalries in Corinth, and still causes rivalries in the church today. It should be highlighted that these quarrels were not the result of dealing with sin or false teaching. Sometimes there is conflict in the church because of sin in the church, and that must be handled biblically. Such was not the case in Corinth.

These quarrels were also not doctrinal in nature as Paul, Apollos, Peter, and Christ all said and believed the same truth. The problem in Corinth was not that Christians believed different doctrines, but that they had rivalries among them that led to quarreling.

Biblically, this term is never used of dealing with sin or doctrine, but we do find it several times throughout the New Testament to describe sinful divisions. One of the clearest places where we see what kind of behaviors Paul has in mind is in 2 Corinthians 12:20. Notice what comes along with these quarrels and rivalries: jealousy, angry tempters, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, and disturbances.

Quarrels and rivalries happen in a church for several reasons. Sometimes quarrels, strife, and dissensions come because people in the church are unbelievers. For example, Paul says in Romans 1:29 that those with a depraved mind have been given over to strife. Paul, emphasizing this problem again in 1 Timothy 6:3-5, describes dangerous people Timothy must watch out for in the church – individuals who love controversy, quarreling and strife, rivalries and disputes, and constant friction.

People may wonder why someone who is unconverted would come into the church to cause trouble. Paul, in the 1 Timothy passage, explains that these individuals believe godliness is a means of gain. They see a financial benefit or some opportunity to increase their status, honor, or prestige by becoming part of the church. While in the church, they cause conflict and division.

Another reason why strife occurs in the church is because genuine believers give in to the desires of the flesh. In Romans 13:13, Paul calls believers to avoid strife and jealousy. This happens by Christians putting on Christ and making no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. When believers make provision for the flesh and fail to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, divisions creep into the church.

The flesh has one specific desire that helps clarify where these rivalries come from. In Philippians 1:15-17, Paul writes that some people, who were creating division and strife by preaching the gospel, were motivated by envy and strife. These people acted because of selfish ambition, seeing the gospel as a means to promote themselves, which is what the flesh always longs to do. Believers are called to live for Christ’s glory, but the flesh rebels and is totally absorbed with self. Whenever selfish ambition drives our decisions and seeks to protect our honor, glory, and status, the flesh takes over. The resulting carnage of division is disastrous in the church.

The source of the quarrels for believers, then, was selfish ambition motivated by the flesh. Each group was intent on seeking their own glory rather than the good of others and the glory of Christ. This is what made the situation so outrageous to Paul. The Corinthians were, in essence, prostituting the names of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and most horrifically of all, the name of Christ, to satisfy their own selfish ambitions.

Festering church conflict can be devastating for a congregation and utterly dishonoring to our Lord. Thankfully, we have been given the answers for how to reverse this sinful behavior and glorify our God as He intended and deserves. Next time, we will walk through the cure for church conflict.