1
Corinthians 01
Smarten
Up Church
June 6,
2010
I was a teenager in the 1960s, growing up in rural south
Arkansas. There were a lot of things happening among
young people those days that did not reach my part of Arkansas. For example: “Jesus, yes! The church,
no!” I guess we were too
“redneck” for that. Anyhow, I had heard
that statement and it came back to my mind as I began to study the book of 1
Corinthians. It would have applied to
the church at Corinth back in A.D. 56. The local church there was in serious
trouble. And sad to say, the problems
did not stay within the church family; they were known by the unbelievers
outside the church. Their “dirty
laundry” was literally hung out for the whole city to see.
To begin with, the church at Corinth was a defiled
church. Some of its members were guilty
of sexual immorality while other were getting drunk and still others were using
the grace of God to excuse their worldly living.
It was also a divided
church. There were at
least four different groups competing for leadership (1:12). And that led to it being a disgraced
church. Instead of glorifying (making to
look good) God, it was hindering the progress of the Gospel.
How could that happen?
We talked a little about this last week.
The members of the church permitted the sins of the city to get into the
local assembly. Corinth was a polluted
city, filled with every kind of vice and worldly pleasure that the mind of
sinful man could imagine. About the
lowest accusation you could make against a man in that day would be to call him
“a Corinthian”. People would know what
you were talking about. It is like us
calling a person “a Californian”.
In addition to that, Corinth was a proud, philosophical city, with
many wandering teachers promoting their crazy ideas. The bad thing here was that many of these
philosophical approaches were being applied to the Gospel by some members of the
church, and this fostered division. The
congregation was made up of different “schools of thought” instead of being
united behind the Gospel message.
If you want to know what Corinth was like, read Romans 1:18-32.
Paul wrote the Roman epistle while in Corinth, and he could have looked out the
window of his apartment and seen the very sins that he listed.
Of course, when you have proud people, depending on
human wisdom, adopting the lifestyle of the world, you are going to have
problems. In order to help them solve
their problems, Paul opened his letter by reminding them of their calling in
Christ. He pointed out three
important aspects of this calling. And
guess what the first one is?
Called
to be Holy (1 Cor.
1:1-9)
Paul first attacked the serious problem of defilement in
the church, yet he said nothing about the problem itself. Instead, he took the positive approach and
reminded the believers of their high and holy position in Christ. In verses 1-9 he described the church that
God sees: in verses 10-31, he described the church that men see. What we are in Jesus ought to be what we
practice in daily life, but often we fail.
We don’t practice what we preach or live what we teach.
Set
apart by God (vv. 1-3)
The word church
in the Greek means “a called-out people”.
Each church has two addresses: a geographic address (“at Corinth”) and a spiritual
address (“in Christ”). The church is
made up of saints, that is, people who have been “sanctified” or “set apart” by
God. Remember in past lessons where we
followed the “paper trail” from sanctified to sanctification to holiness? A saint is not a dead person who has been
honored by men for their holy life. Paul
was writing to living saints, people who, through faith in Christ, had been set
apart for God’s special enjoyment and use, to begin the process of becoming holy
(just like Jesus). Every true believer
is a saint because every true believer has been “set apart” by God and for
God.
Allow me, for just a moment, to chase a “spiritual
rabbit”. While studying for this lesson,
I came across this thought, “set apart for God’s special enjoyment” and that got
me to thinking. I, Barry Drake, have
been chosen, set apart, by God (creator of the universe) for His special
enjoyment. And that thought got me to
thinking about my youth and my father and what I did that brought him
enjoyment. I remember the paper mill
where my father worked for some 33 years going on strike. While he worked there, they only struck
once. Anyhow, all the workers were
gathered at the union hall and for some reason I went down to see what was going
on. I must have been about 16 or 17 at
the time. As I visited with my father
and his friends, I noticed an old piano, so I went over and began to play some
old “rock and roll”. It seemed to lift
the spirits of those men, especially my father, and I will never forget the look
on his face. It was the look of
enjoyment and pride. My father was proud
of me and that brought him joy. With
pride he said, “That’s my boy”.
Then I began to think, “What is it that brings enjoyment
to my Heavenly Father?” What is it that
I do that brings a smile to His face and a feeling of pride? He chose me to be one to bring Him joy but He
left it up to me to choose what to do.
It isn’t hard to know what does NOT bring Him joy. My sins bring Him sorrow but what brings Him
joy? Think about that for a while. What is it in your life that brings your
Heavenly Father enjoyment?
Let me explain this “set apart” thing to you. Since I’m getting married this month, let me
use the example of marriage. When a man
and woman pledge their love to each other, they are “set apart” for each other;
and any other relationship outside of marriage is sinful. So it is with the
Christian, the bride of Christ, who now belongs completely to Christ. He is “set apart” for Him and Him alone. But he is also a part of a worldwide
fellowship, the church, “all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus” (1
Cor. 1:2). A
defiled and unfaithful believer not only sins against the Lord, but he also sins
against the church, his fellow Christians.
Enriched
by God’s grace (vv. 4-6)
Salvation is a gracious gift from God; but when you are
saved, you are also given spiritual gifts. Paul explains these in detain in
1 Cor.
12-14. The Greek word
translated “enriched” gives us our English word plutocrat,
“a very wealthy person” or “a big shot”.
These Corinthians were especially rich in spiritual gifts (2 Cor. 8:7), but were not using their gifts in a spiritual
manner. The very fact that God has
called us, set us apart, and enriched us ought to encourage us to live holy
lives.
Expecting
Jesus to return (v. 7)
Paul will have a great deal to say about this truth in
1 Corinthians 15. Christians who are looking for their Savior
will want to keep their lives above reproach (1 John
2:28 – 3:3).
Depending
on God’s faithfulness (vv. 8-9)
The work of God was confirmed in them (1
Cor. 1:6), but it was also confirmed to them in
the Word. This is a legal term that
refers to the guarantee that settles a transaction. We have the witness of the Spirit within us
and the witness of the Word before us, guaranteeing that God will keep His
“contract” with us and save us to the very end.
This guarantee is certainly not an excuse to sin! It is the basis for a growing relationship
of love, trust, and obedience.
Now, in the light of these great truths, how could the
people in the Corinthian church get involved in the sins of the world and the
flesh? They were all elect people, an
enriched people, and an established people.
They were saints, set apart for the glory of God! Their practice was not in accord with their
position. In other words, they did Not practice what they preached.
When Paul mentioned the word “fellowship”
in verse 9, he introduced a second aspect of the Christian’s
calling.
Called
into Fellowship (1 Cor.
1:10-25)
Having mentioned the problem of defilement in the
church, now Paul turned to the matter of division in the church. Division has always been a problem among
God’s people, and almost every NT epistle deals with this topic or mentions it
in one way or another. Even the 12
Apostles did not always get along with each other.
In verse 13, Paul asked his readers three important
questions, and these three questions are the key to this long
paragraph.
Is
Christ divided? (vv.
10-13a)
The meaning of the verb here is really grotesque. It means, “Has Christ been divided and
different parts handed out to different people?”. Paul did not preach one Christ while Apollos preached another and Peter yet another. There is but one Savior and one Gospel. How, then, did the Corinthians create this
four-way division? Why were there
quarrels (contentions) among them.
One answer is that they were looking at the Gospel from
a phil-o-sophical point of view. Remember, Corinth was filled with teachers and
philosophers, all of whom wanted to show off their worldly wisdom.
Another thing we need to watch for is that human nature
likes to follow human leaders. Our human
nature tends to identify more with spiritual leaders who help us and whose
ministry we understand and enjoy. I will
admit that I am sometimes drawn in that direction. The Corinthians,
however, instead of emphasizing the message of the Word were emphasizing the
messenger. They got their eyes off the
Lord and on the Lord’s servants, and this led and will lead to competition and
division.
Were
you baptized in the name of Paul? (13b-17)
Keep in mind that baptism was an important matter in the
NT church. When a sinner trusted Christ
and was baptized, he cut himself off from his old life and often was rejected by
his family and friends. It cost
something to be baptized in that day.
Just as Jesus did not baptize people, so both Peter and
Paul allowed their associates to baptize the new converts. (Tell personal experiences) Baptism is important but not who baptized
you. If you start honoring men instead
of honoring Jesus, then you cease to promote unity in the church.
Was
Paul crucified for you? (vv.
18-25)
The mention of the cross in verse 17 introduces this
section on the power of the Gospel versus the weakness of man’s wisdom. I am teaching through the book of James in my
Wednesday Bible study at the nursing center and there we are looking at the
wisdom of the world versus the wisdom from above. In is interesting to see how the two (James
and Paul) come together. It is also
interesting how Paul approached this problem of division in the church.
First, he pointed to the unity of Christ: there is one
Savior and one body. Then he reminded
them of their baptism, a picture of their spiritual baptism into the Body of
Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). Then he took them to the Cross.
We have studied crucifixion before and know what a
horrible and shameful death it was. It
was so bad that it was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen. It was not something to even be mentioned in
public.
The key word here is “wisdom”; it is used eight
times. The key idea that Paul expressed
is that we dare not mix man’ wisdom with God’s revealed message. The entire section on wisdom (1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16) presents a number of contrasts between the
revealed Word of God and the wisdom of man.
Think on this for a minute. The wisdom of God is revealed primarily in
the cross of Christ, but not everybody sees this. Paul pointed out that there are three
differe3nt attitudes on the cross; some stumble at the cross (23a), some laugh
at the cross (23b), and some believe and experience the power and the wisdom of
the cross (24).