Month: September 2018

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 3:1-17 (day seven)

I must confess this text confounded me all week. The text is distinctly corporate, yet true for the individual as well.  As you work through the scholarship it is clear that throughout this text Paul is talking about the church as a whole and only the church.  This is not about you as an individual, but about you as a member of the larger body of the church.

Even the temple text, verses 16-17:  “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are” is not about the individual, it’s about the church.  All the “you”s in there are plural.  The text about you (singular) being the temple is found later in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Which brings me back to my initial dilemma, everything in our text, 1 Corinthians 3, is true for the individual, but that is not what Paul is writing about.  1 Corinthians 3 is about the church.

This week we can talk about the church or we can do what Alexander Maclaren, one of my favorite preachers, did.  In his sermon on 1 Corinthians 3 he begins by essentially saying that I know this text is about the church, but I’m going to talk about individuals.

This text is “not about the Christian life in general…and though I may be slightly deflecting the text from its original direction, I’m not doing violence to it, if I take it as declaring some very plain and solemn truths applicable to all Christian people.” – Alexander Maclaren

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 3:1-17 (day six)

“For we are God’s fellow workers.” -Paul, 1 Corinthians 3:9

Isn’t that statement amazing? Paul was referring to himself and Apollos, as an attempt to persuade the Corinthian church to repent of their divisiveness. But the simple truth of that statement is astounding; that God would include them AND us in the work he is doing.

It reminds me of the time Jesus told the disciples, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from the Father I have told you.” (John 15:15) We are friends with God; we are co-workers.

The journey of the Christian is to grow into those truths. Are you?

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 3:1-17 (day five)  Paul’s warning to the believers in Corinth comes because there has been no growth or maturing for a period of time.  His tone in the first two verses was not confrontational but rather factual. “You were not ready.” These are not accusations you would make against brand new Christians. Notice the past tense in his statements in verse 1 and the first part of verse 2. Then, his tone changes. He’s not upset because they started as babes in the faith, but that they did not grow out of it. “Even now you are not yet able.” There was no evidence of growth or progress in their faith. Quite the opposite. What Paul saw and sensed was “the flesh”- jealousy, strife, and boasting in men.

They had time to grow. We have time to grow. The goal of the Christian life is not perfection but progress. Will we make progress and grow to know, act like, and become more like Jesus?  Paul would say, “It’s time to grow!”

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 3:1-17 (day four)

Paul was pretty tough on the Corinthian church.  He pulled no punches.  As a mentor to these new believers, he believed they needed to know the truth. The times were critical, as well as dangerous.  For the Corinthian church to survive and be useful to the Kingdom work, they had to grow in their faith and understanding.  They had to move past the ‘milk’ stage and reach the ‘meat’ stage.  Paul gives some harsh instructions, but ends this passage with words of hope.  VV.16-17 lets the Corinthians know they are not in this alone…the Holy Spirit dwells in them…the temple of God.

Who are you mentoring and discipling in the faith?  Maybe you believe that you still need the ‘milk’.  As believers, we have a responsibility to learn, and grow, and mature in our faith.  As we grow, find someone to bring along with you.  Meat is especially good when it is shared with another!

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 3:1-17 (day three)

“You are still worldly.”

Paul has articulated how ridiculous the church’s proclamation of the kingdom of God will sound to the wider world’s thought systems: scandalous to Judaic thinking, foolhardy to Hellenistic thinking.  Their prospects don’t look good.  For this project of cultural shift, they will need all hands on deck.  But they can’t muster all hands on deck.  You know why?  The energy one spends on outmaneuvering those who disagree—so that one’s own faction can achieve and maintain dominance—leaves little-to-no energy for anything so demanding as representing that apparently ridiculous kingdom.  And furthermore, no kingdom will be represented at all if factions and dominance are the treasures of the church.  They will have sold their birthright for worldly gain.  The strength of the gates-of-hell-crashing church isn’t political muscle.  It’s the clasping of one another’s hands in weakness.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 3:1-17 (day two) 

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. Vs. 5

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Mega-church pastor retires – church never recovers. It seems a frequent headline for those in evangelical circles. Churches are built by a hard working, well-intentioned pastor. Good things happen, but in the end the institution cannot support its own weight when the cornerstone is removed. To be fair, I think this is never the desired effect.

We are drawn to the gregarious. We love preachers who can craft a sermon in a memorable way. But Paul reminds us as well as the church in Corinth that any good that happens is due to God alone. Likely our most beloved pastors will continue to remind us of that. When we are focused on the work of the Holy Spirit in our churches, then we are less likely to fall victim to the cult of personality.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 3:1-17 (day one)

“And I, brothers, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but to men of flesh.”–v 1

Is it possible to genuinely believe in Christ and still live out the desires and agenda of the old, unredeemed life?  Can sincere Christians live like the world in action and attitude? Yes.  Insert sad emoji.  Paul calls it being carnal (fleshly).

Having received the Spirit of God at conversion, the carnal man has not learned (or not obeyed) Christ’s call to crucify the old life.  This immature Christian calls Christ Lord, but in his choices and priorities, is a stranger to “life in the Spirit”.

Dangerous territory.  “Those who sow to the flesh will reap the harvest that always comes with flesh.  Those who sow to the Spirit will reap the glorious results of His life in us.”–Galatians 6:8

Friends, are you filled with God’s Spirit?  Are you walking in His power?

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (day seven)

Paul takes an unusual stance in 1 Corinthians 1 that can only be attributed to the Holy Spirit.  He claims that we cannot come to God through logic or miracles, but only the cross.

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 1 Cor. 1:21

Our natural tendency when talking to a non-believer is to win them over through an intellectual debate about life, and if that does not work we imagine what they would think if only they saw a miracle of God.  Paul argues an intellectual debate is fleeting, and unfortunately, Jesus already told us how they would respond to miracles as well:

“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”Luke 16:30-31

Neither logic nor miracle will win your friend to Christ, but we must follow in Paul’s footsteps to simply lead people to the cross.  We preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (day six)

All good things come from above. Hebrews 1:17

True wisdom isn’t home grown, it’s a gift given from above. The homegrown kind isn’t wisdom, it’s hubris. That’s the kind of wisdom some in the Corinthian church were dealing, self-exalting, division causing hubris.

Godly wisdom leads to peace and unity, not a fractured church. It brings people together; it doesn’t push people away. This is why the simplicity and the foolishness of the Gospel is the greatest gift of godly wisdom. It does what our hubris could never do.

We know we are living by the wisdom of God when the kind of Gospel we live (and tell others)results in the tearing down of walls, not building them.