1 Corinthians 1 Unity and the Message of the Cross

So I am reading through 1 Corinthians and the verse that spoke out to me was vs. 10, "...be of one mind, united in thought and purpose." What a profound statement; Paul was speaking to a church that was strugling with division and pleading with them to be united - in thought and purpose. So the question that begs to be answered is, "what is our purpose?". Is there a single purpose for the church of Jesus Christ? Could there be? With all the vision and purpose statements that church leadership comes up with, could it possibly boil down to one single thing? (this reminds me of the wisdom of Curly in the movie "City Slickers", when he talks about the one thing).
Well , lucky for us, Paul reveals later in the chapter what this one thing is, in verse 18: it is called "The Message of the Cross". Duh! Paul describes it as "The power of God", that "Christ was crucified" which made us "pure and holy" and gave us "freedom".
This just struck me - what other thing could the church focus on than this, the message of the cross - the Power of God that gives humankind freedom and opens the door for a relationship with God. And of course Paul says that to the world, this message is foolish, but to those who believe it contains the very power of God. It reminds me of Romans 10:9 which says that if you "confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved". Simple, foolish, almost too easy - yet that is the ONE THING that contains the power of God to change our lives and our eternal destiny.
Tonight for me it is just an amazing reminder of why I do what I do, and why I believe what I believe.
So the lesson is for the church, whatever we do must boil down to one thing - that we share the Message of the Cross and trust in its power to change lives.