The Coffee Shop of Life
Peter Sample
1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 49:51
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· 23 viewsAs a sign of our spiritual maturity, we are to be unified
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Every Tuesday, I spend the day at the coffeeshop here in town. I love it. For some reason, I need the bustle and the noise to focus on my studies. My mind wanders so much when it is too quiet. Also, I like having my face in the community while I am studying the Bible. I am very grateful for that coffeeshop. I order a cup of hot tea and they keep it filled for the five hours that I am there. From there, I move to the library to finish up the sermon as all the after school kids come through. I am weird.
Even though I don’t like coffee, I love coffeeshops. Every coffeeshop has a specific culture, from their logo, to their sign, to their decor. When you walk up, you know what the coffeeshop owners think is important, what they want the feel of their coffeeshop to be. And if you spend enough time in the coffeeshop, you start picking up that culture and carrying it other places.
Paul says that we are to be like coffeeshops. Our lives are to be evident about who we are. We are to give obvious hints by our conversation, our language, our interactions, our priorities, to who we are, to our culture. And if people spend enough time with us, hopefully, they will pick who we are and carry it other places.
In a phrase, we are to be spiritually mature. As a sign of our spiritual maturity, we are to be unified.
Let’s read the text:
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
Remember, Paul just talked about how the spiritually mature can know the things of God and reveal the things of God. Unfortunately, the Corinthians are not spiritually mature, and they show their immaturity by their disunity. They can’t get along.
Before we jump in, let’s Pray.
Paul tells us that as a sign of our spiritual maturity, we are to be unified.
1A. Our salvation
1A. Our salvation
Let’s build this argument from the bottom up. First, let’s talk about our salvation.
Previously, Paul gave us a contrast between those who were Christians and those who were not. Now, he gives us a contrast between those who are Christians and following him and those who are Christians and are not following him. So, we must talk about our salvation, to give us all a unified place to stand.
1B. Christ saved us when we were sinners.
1B. Christ saved us when we were sinners.
We believe that Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago. He was born of the virgin Mary and lived a sinless life. We believe that he didn’t walk through earth on a cloud, separated from the sin and dirt around him. He Heb 4 15 “has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” He was perfect.
The Bible speaks of Jesus wandering in the desert for 40 days, tempted constantly by the Devil, and never falling. Think about all things thing that you struggle with. Jesus was tempted by those things.
After living the model life, teaching great things, showing love to the social outcast, looking out for the poor, correcting the theology of the religious elite, he then dies, was buried, and came back to life after 3 days.
We believe all these things are true. These facts prove that Jesus was the Son of God, as Paul writes:
the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
We believe that the Gospel which was promised before is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That his death provided salvation from our sins and reconciliation to our God. We believe that this Gospel is received not based on anything we do but based simply upon faith.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
We cannot earn our salvation, because we are sinners. Christ saved us when we were sinners. I’ve said this before, and I will probably go down to my death bed saying this: We do not deserve our salvation because we cannot earn our salvation. We are sinners.
Paul knew this first hand. Consider how Paul’s life changed. When he met Christ, he was racing down the road to murder Christians. He was not a good man.
He confesses to Timothy:
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
Christ, the perfect man, God himself, saved us when we were sinners. If we believe that we weren’t, we should just compare ourselves with Jesus.
2B. We do not change right away
2B. We do not change right away
A result of Christ saving us when we were sinners is that we don’t change right away.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many people who have amazing Paul on the road to Damascus stories. Where they were horrible people and God miraculously changes them overnight. However, even then, those people are not perfect.
Even though Paul went from being a murderer to a life-giver overnight, he still admitted that he wasn’t perfect. He needed growth. And he took the time for that growth.
But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
He took the time to study, pursue God, and see what he needed to change.
When someone trusts in Christ, we start a journey of getting to know Christ and being changed by him.
John writes:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Remember, John is writing to Christians about Christians. We are sinners. And we remain sinners.
I know many of you know this. You accepted Christ, and you still indulged in sin, slowly being convicted by it. Some of you are much more mature than I am, and you are still being convicted by your sin.
I think about stories that Paul shared.
One day, he and Peter are both in Antioch, and Peter acts like a hypocrite and a racist. One day he is eating, drinking, and fellowshipping with Christians who were not Jews. The next day, when some important Jewish Christians from Jerusalem visit, he stops fellowshipping with the non-Jewish Christians. And he influences others to join him in this horrible act. Even Barnabas, the encourager, the one who accepted Paul when no one else did, joined in this racist, hypocritical act.
Paul openly challenged Peter, in front of everyone, calling him out on his sin. My point is, if Peter who walked with Jesus and was the leader of the church early on, was still living in sin almost 15 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, we will definitely not be changed from our sin overnight.
3B. We are to grow
3B. We are to grow
While this fact is true, and should give comfort, this fact does not allow us to stay were we are. Christ saved us when we were sinners. We do not change right away. But we are to grow.
Which brings us to our text. Paul says:
You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
He has an expectation that the Corinthians church as a whole would grow more spiritual. That they would follow Christ, seeking his ways and reflecting his ways to the world around. But, they are not. Instead, they are seeking the ways of the world and reflecting those ways to the church.
Every letter in the New Testament is built on the fact that Jesus died for us when we were still sinners. And if we know the awesomeness of that fact we will live differently.
Paul writes to the Ephesians, very simply:
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
He tells the Philippians:
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel
How about what he tells the Colossians:
Colossians 1:9–10 (NIV)
We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
Just for kicks and giggles, here is his message to the Thessalonians:
You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children,
If we have turned to Jesus in faith, if we realize the amazingness of our salvation, we will seek to live differently as God reveals the steps of maturity to us.
Paul says of himself:
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
We should seek to grow. To leave the immaturity behind and seize Christlikeness.
Our salvation: Christ died for us when we were sinners. We did not change right away, but we are called to grow.
2A. Our maturity
2A. Our maturity
Let’s move on from discussing salvation and talk about our maturity.
In this passage, Paul contrasts Christians who are mature and Christians who are not mature. He uses two words for those who are not mature. One word is used once and one word is used twice
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
The NIV translates the two words both as worldly. The King James translates them as carnal. But, the two words, either translated as wordly or carnal, mean two slightly different things.
The first instance of the word in verse 1 speaks of human desire. Instead of being people who live by the spirit, they are people who are controlled entirely by human desire. Paul is describing their their unspirituality. The second and third instances of the word in verse 3 is an evaluation of their unspirituality. Not only do they act according to human drives, but they are unspiritual in all senses of the word. They exalt human self-sufficiency, they experience life in pursuit of its own ends, and they are centered on the self.
Through the contrast between these words and the phrase “living by the spirit”, Paul discusses what our maturity is to be based upon.
1B. Our maturity is not based on human desire
1B. Our maturity is not based on human desire
So, Paul says that our maturity is not based upon human desire.
Remember, spiritual maturity is following Christ, seeking his ways and reflecting him to the world around.
Human desires do not play into this. Paul says, instead of living by the spirit, Corinthians, you are living by human desire.
We could read through different passages in the Bible about the acts of the flesh. But, it’s one thing to read them and it is another thing to actually understand them, to recognize them in our own life and turn away from them.
Paul says that if we make all of our decisions based upon what we want, we will not be living by the Spirit. We will not be spiritually mature.
How do we treat our spouse? Is it based upon godliness or based upon how we feel? Do we make decisions based off of fear or based on what God has called us to do? Is our beliefs about God and his ways defined by the culture, our neighbors, our family, or based upon what the Bible actually says.
Our desires get in the way of our godliness.
David wrote:
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
He realized that his affections, his desires, were not in line with God’s ways, and he yearned to walk in the way of God.
Our maturity is not based upon human desire.
2B. Our maturity is not based on human self-sufficiency.
2B. Our maturity is not based on human self-sufficiency.
Which leads us to the second point. Our maturity is not based on human self-sufficiency.
By connecting the one word of worldly to the other word for worldly, Paul was making a drastic statement. He told the Corinthians: Yes, you claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, depended only on him for salvation and for life. However, by being controlled entirely by human desire, you are behaving like a non-believer. Your actions say that you are centered on yourself instead of God.
Say you walk up to a coffeeshop. The sign says that they are a coffee shop. Their advertising says they are a coffeeshop. You walk in and everyone is drunk. You look at their menu and they only serve beer. What they are is completely different from what they say they are.
Paul is saying something rather strong to the Corinthians. He acknowledges that they have the Spirit because they are a Christian. But, he says that they are living as if they have never received the Spirit, as if they had never met Jesus Christ.
That is a pretty severe statement. How would you like it if I came up to you and said: I know that you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but I can’t tell and no one else can tell either. You are living your life as if God doesn’t exist or at least he doesn’t matter to you.
Paul speaks of this in Romans 8:5
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
They are acting like people who are only focused on themselves and not God.
Peter uses this word to describe sin, with the force of demonic warfare trying to steal one’s soul.
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
Paul is making a severe case against the Corinthians. What is worse is that Paul is not accusing individual Christians of this condition. He is accusing the Corinthian church as a whole. I am sure there were individual Christians in that church that many people would look up to as spiritual, but even these “spiritual ones” did not care enough about the testimony of the church to stand up and call the others to maturity.
And what was the big sign of the Corinthians ungodly and troubling condition?
I’ve delayed the point too long. The main evidence for the Corinthians being controlled entirely by human desire, for being caught up in self-sufficiency, instead of being controlled by the Spirit, is their disunity.
He says:
You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
This sin of Christians not pursuing unity, unfortunately, is a sin that so many churches, so many Christians, turn a blind eye to. It is acceptable to have jealousy and factions, to care more about our desires rather than the unity of the body of Christ. To throw up fake divisions based upon teachers and theological viewpoints rather than to acknowledge that we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and that is enough for unity.
In Galatians, Paul talks about those who live by the Spirit versus those who live by the flesh. Those who are mature vs those who are not. As an introduction to that discussion, before he gets to the fruit of the Spirit, he says:
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
We are called to maturity. Our maturity is not based upon human desire or human self-sufficiency.
3B. Our maturity is based on the Mind of Christ
3B. Our maturity is based on the Mind of Christ
Our maturity is based on the mind of Christ.
Several weeks ago, we discuss how we have been given the Spirit to teach us the things of God and the mind of Christ to influence our actions. Those who have received these gifts should be different. There is a definite Christian ethic versus a worldly ethic.
Think about Adam and Eve. They were created to be an image of God. We could talk about what that meant. Books have been written about the specific meaning of that phrase.
But, simply, they were created to be God’s representations to the created world. They sinned, choosing to reflect creation rather than their creator.
In Christ, we are called to be that image again, to be a representation of God to the created world. And every day, we have a choice: will we reflect God or will we reflect sinful creation? Will we act in maturity, or will we act as if we never met Christ?
Paul points out the drastic contrast between those who pursue human desire and self-sufficiency versus those who pursue the Spirit.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Again, he wraps up this discussion of the spiritual versus the non-spiritual with the concept of unity. He tells the church: “Don’t provoke and envy one another.”
Jesus said it this way:
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Our state of spiritual maturity, whether we are following Christ, seeking his ways and reflecting him to the world around, is revealed by how unified we are with Christ’s church, by our love for each other.
So, we talked about our salvation. We talked about our maturity. Now, let’s discuss our actions.
3A. Our actions
3A. Our actions
How then shall we live? Remember, worldliness is not an option. As a sign of our spiritual maturity, we are to be unified. What does that look like?
Simply put, we are to choose unity rather than selfishness.
But, we can see these decisions in two main areas.
1B. How we treat our leaders and our teachers.
1B. How we treat our leaders and our teachers.
First, we see it in how we treat our leaders and our teachers.
Paul is giving a warning. Consider how a child acts when it is self-centered, not caring about the interests of another. When we have that attitude we will have wrong ideas about the quality and required methods of Christian preaching and teaching.
‘A “childish” mind-set may place undue value upon the style of a chat-show host, or alternatively the pseudo-learning of a long display of rhetorical theatricals, above gospel content. To be spiritually minded is to bring different criteria to the role and style of preachers and teachers.”
The Corinthians were split among followers of Paul and Apollos, based upon teaching styles, mostly, but also on theology. Paul said a split based on teachers is worldly, selfish, against the way of Christ.
The spiritually mature will seek to learn the ways of God anyway that they can. Sure, we all have different learning styles. We all have different personalities that find certain speaking styles exhilarating or boring. But the important issue is: Has the Gospel been proclaimed? Has the Word of God been presented? If that is so, don’t divide over the teacher or the teaching. Unite in truth.
What if a teacher or a leader needs to grow in their ability to present? I will be the first to admit that I am not perfect in my preaching. We must all remember love and unity. When someone needs to grow, we come to them in humility, acknowledging the work for God that they are already doing. Then we point out what could be changed and offer resources to help.
But, remember, the focus is love and unity. We don’t just ditch teachers that we don’t like if they are faithfully presenting the Gospel and the Word of God.
So we choose unity rather than selfishness in how we treat our leaders and our teachers.
2B. How we treat our relationships
2B. How we treat our relationships
Second, we choose unity rather than selfishness in how we treat our relationships.
Consider our theological discussions
Consider our theological discussions
Paul urged the Corinthians that when they say: “I am of Paul. I am of Apollos”, that they are acting like a non-believer. He is not saying that theological discussions are bad. He is saying that we should not divide over them if we are believers.
What does that look like?
Many of us have pet theological viewpoints. These are ideas that we have thought a lot about. They are ideas that we consider important. They are ideas which we would think are central to a proper understanding of Scripture and the ways of God.
However, great men of God have disagreed on these topics for the past 2000 years. In those disagreements, these great men of God have agreed that neither side is actually a heresy.
So, in our discussions, we should always come back to what we agree on, we should always be pointing each other to the Gospel and what it means to reflect Christ in our community.
Consider our conflicts
Consider our conflicts
When we get hurt by a believer in Christ, we often do not want to seek reconciliation. We were hurt. Sometimes, a unsaved friend or family member will try to give us advice as to how to keep ourselves from getting hurt. We might hear phrases about “keeping toxic people away” or “you have to do what is best for you” or “if they hurt you they are not worth your time.”
Those phrases are all fine and good, expect when it gets in the way of showing a brother or sister in Christ love and unity.
Scripture clearly teaches that we are to seek reconciliation with a fellow Christian. The Corinthians were not seeking reconciliation: they were constantly quarreling. What do we do when we come to a situation where we cannot find common ground, or reconciliation, with a brother or sister in Christ?
Jesus told us to bring the leadership of the church into the equation. This requires humility: a desire to show Christ rather than to boost our pride. When we choose reconciliation over our own selfish desires, we are showing spiritual maturity.
If the person we are quarreling with will not talk with someone else, they will not seek reconciliation, we have done all that we can do. However, we constantly keep the door open for future discussion, because Christ has called us to act in love and unity, if we are spiritually mature.
Consider interpersonal relationships
Consider interpersonal relationships
This is the last topic. Don’t worry.
Paul said that the Corinthian church was filled with jealousy. People who are jealous do not make good relationships.
James said:
For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
Envy comes from pride, selfishness, human desire, a focus on self rather than a focus on God. All break downs of relationships comes from a focus on self rather than a focus on God.
What would happen if in our dealings with each other, we always prayed: God, how can I lift this person up today? How can I encourage them through my interactions: what I say, how I react, what I do? God, may this person be more like Christ after my time with him?
If we focused more on glorifying God, rather than how we look, or what people will think, or how our desires will be fulfilled, all of our interactions would be defined by unity rather than selfishness.
As a sign of our spiritual maturity, we are to be unified.
My question for you: if everyone in the church was like you, what would this church be like? Would we live in line with who we say we are? Would the inside of our coffeehouse match what is advertised?