Nowadays, the divisions which naturally occur are perhaps not divisions of hostility, but they are still wrong divisions: cliques that form, between age groups maybe where the older don’t readily mix with the younger, or the younger with the older; or else they could be divisions between ethnic groups. It is the privilege of a church to be a completely mixed church with people representing many different countries all equal before God and relating to each other, the gospel having overcome these earthly distinctions. But it could well be a tendency to people to stick with their own race or group.
Then sometimes families – if there are large families in a church, they may stick together, and that may be not healthy. It could mean that people not fellowshipping across the board. Some people have a circle of special friends, and that circle of special friends are rather introspective, and they don’t mix very easily with others. So these are the type of tendencies that we have to guard against in our churches these days, because it is sad and it is wrong, and we should do our utmost to fellowship more effectively throughout the church with each other.