“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,” 1 Corinthians 1:11.
Commenting on the above verse, Dr John Gill said:
‘The person the apostle speaks of was one that very probably lived at Corinth, and was a member of the church there, and at the head of a family of great worth and credit; who being grieved at the growing animosities, and disturbances there raised, wrote to the apostle, and gave him a distinct account of them, desiring him to use his interest to put a stop to them.’
Here was a grief that was born out of a love for the Saviour and a distress born out of a holy jealousy for the honour of His name and His cause, which had been stigmatised by the divisions and sins in Corinth!
I believe that there is such distress aplenty within the ranks of the Free Presbyterian Church at present. Such is not wrong but most proper and good.
The Lord is grieved at sin
Sin amongst the people of God grieves the Lord!
“Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God,” (Hebrews 3:8-12.
Those who “have the mind of Christ” will share in that grief and vexation. It is impossible for the holy person to avoid being grieved at the state of the Free Presbyterian Church at present.
Mocked
There are ministers and elders who publicly have mocked the idea that there has been a departure from the path upon which our founding fathers stepped out in 1951.
Such a view is born of either indifference to the reality of the backsliding all around today or of an ignorance of the nature of the holy paths ventured upon in Crossgar in March 1951!
There are those who rejoice in the departures from the ‘old standards’, manifested in the embracing of ‘modern hymnology’ and an overthrowing of the truth of abstaining from touching the “unclean thing” and fellowshipping with those which the Free Presbyterian ministerial ‘ordination oath’ would have us disown as being disobedient rebels against the Lord!
Thankful
Such grief should not create despair or depression! Rather, we ought to thankful for such vexation if it is of God.
The one redeeming factor in the life of Lot was that he was “vexed with the filthy conversation (conduct, lifestyle) of the wicked,” 2 Peter 2:7. That vexation tells us that the grace of God was working in his heart, despite his failure to act as he should have in response to that vexation.
The devil, ever the perverter of truth, would have Christians react in error at the vexation and annoyance they feel in light of the departure from truth all around us. That which is born of the moving of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer, the devil would have us believe is a wrong thing and is the acting out of a failure within us.
We should have faith and not be unhappy, the devil would tell us, and therefore if we are vexed we must not have faith!
That is the devil’s lie!
Of God
To have distress and anguish of soul in the face of the apostasy and backsliding of today IS OF GOD! He it is Who has stirred our hearts and minds to feel as we do.
The natural man does not have such feelings regarding sin! “Fools make a mock at sin,” Proverbs 14:9. Sin is a matter of mirth and he, the sinner, sees the vexation of the believer as something to be mocked.
It is for this reason that I personally rejoice that there is a spirit of grief and vexation amongst us at the present state of the Free Presbyterian Church.
In truth, our grief ought to be greater, even to tears and weeping! Did not the Saviour weep (Luke 19:41) as did ever so many of His godly servants, when faced with the backsliding and disobedience amongst those who professed His name?
The Psalmist said: “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law” Psalm 119:136.
Such tears are powerful prayers to the Lord for His intervention on behalf of His mourning people.
Moses
Please remember the words of the Lord to Moses. “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites,” Exodus 3:7-8.
Was it not right for the poor lamenting Israelite to be delighted to hear that his lamentations and grieving were heard of God and were the cause of His coming down in delivering power?
Likewise I say to the distressed Free Presbyterian: Your mourning will bring about God’s intervention and the overthrow of those who most foolishly are bent on the abandonment of “the old paths, where is the good way,” Jeremiah 6:16.
Just remember, dear Christian: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy,” Psalm 126:5. That Psalm begins with those blessed words: “When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing,” Psalm 126:1-2.
Just what was their mouths filled with before the LORD turned again their captivity?
It was with sad cries and mourning. They were the ‘seeds’ that brought about the ‘joyful reaping’ of revival blessing.
So Christian, rejoice in your tears; begad a your sorrow for the Lord will turn such into a harvest of blessedness.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rd)
Monday 10th August 2026