“I went to our small church since I was on the cradle role. The people there were the stuff of my earliest memories – church picnics, Sunday School contests, Christmas plays and Easter sunrise services… all of their faces flood back to my mind when someone says the word “Church”. Of all the images that stick out to me from my youth, the one that I cannot shake off – more than any of the “hymn sings” and “after glows” of my youth – was the night of an annual church meeting when our church split in two. On the one side, as I recall, was a very prominent family that seemed to be led by a large woman who favored pink dresses and big hats. I don’t recall her name – just her abrupt and shrill voice as she insisted that the Pastor leave for the vote that was called “because his presence would make people too polite and not let them say the things that were on their minds.” I remember thinking… “Should they be thinking them if they are that impolite?” But I was young, and young people don’t count among such a chorus of enlightened adults. I remember her face… it looked, well… angry. I remember it looked more like the flannel graph picture of Pontius Pilate than that of Jesus…that was the last night dad ever took us to our home church. I don’t really know what happened – but I knew it was bad….” We have all heard the stories – churches that divide over colors of carpet, drapes or no, pews or no, organs or no, choir robes or no – lofty things… seemingly important things. We can conclude that many of these divisions are nothing short of Satan tugging the hearts of wayward people… At the same time, there are times when believers are forced to separate because of truth. It is not an easy thing to do, and many of the separations of yesteryear were probably not for sufficient causes. As the body of Christ, this is as unnatural as cutting off a physical body part off – an amputation is something done in only the most extreme situations. At the same time, we do understand that it is – on occasion- a necessary step. In this study we will examine carefully some WRONG TIMES and WRONG REASONS to divide, in the hope that it will help us become more ready to be patient, and cautious about unity! Not all division is wrong. Truth should be separated from falsehood, light from darkness. Are the actions we object to connected to specific violations of Scripture? If not, can we determine the actual substantive problem in a divided church? These are important questions. The issue is: When people are dividing WITHIN the body of Christ, is there a time when you SHOULD and when you SHOULDN’T? We will look in this study at reasons why we SHOULD NOT DIVIDE, based on Paul’s pleas for unity in Corinth.