A Case Against Corinth
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Handout
A Case Against Corinth
A Case Against Corinth
What kind of life are we building? I have been thinking a lot about legacies lately. What will people remember about me after I die. Will I be missed? Will people care? Will I have made a difference in the world around me? I think these questions come from a longing to have purpose. We want these years we spend on earth to have significance. We want to know, “was it all worth it?”
We all have a longing for an identity. Who we are is connected to how well we perform at work, how well our sports team does, whether we are a parent or a spouse. It is easy to have the perception of ourselves wrapped in all these outside sources that are completely out of our control. We want to be seen as strong and successful. We want to be smart people who have it all figured out. We want to root for the right people, have the right heroes. Follow the right leaders.
For a long time I have had a crisis over this idea of legacy and identity.
This crisis of legacy and identity has for a long time made me fearful of what people think of me. It makes me anxious and at times paranoid that people are going to turn on me. It makes me feel like I’m not doing enough like I have to earn the love of people around me. Like I have to earn the love of Jesus. Its a hard thing to be a people-pleaser but how do you please a holy and righteous God? How could I ever do enough good to outweigh the wrong I’ve done.
Sometimes it was the other way around. I thought I had the answer for every problem. My heroes were better than anyone else’s heroes. I read the right books, followed the right people, did the right things. I was entitled and arrogant. I was expectant of responsibility even though I wasn’t mature enough to have it yet. I knew what was wrong with everyone else and if they just listened to me I would set them straight.
For a long time I was stuck in a cycle of shame, guilt, anxiety, bitterness, frustration, pride. I was too religious to be humble about it but not religious enough to be holy.
How can we build a legacy that stands the test of time?
What is the foundation for my identity?
In the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul has been reminding Corinth of when he planted the church. In Acts 18 we see Paul meeting Aquila and Priscilla for the first time. Paul began to work with them making tents and preaching in the synagogue in Corinth. Silas and Timothy join him there and Paul works for a year in a half in Corinth planting the church and helping it grow. Later in chapter 18 we see Aquila and Priscilla meet Apollos who was a bold teacher in Ephesus. He is sent to Corinth where it says he powerfully refuted the Jews in public demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Corinth has had some of the greatest Biblical minds in the first century leading and serving in their church. Yet, Paul is having to correct them over their immaturity.
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?
Paul is pointing out one of Corinth’s many character flaws. These are immature Christians. Babies. Paul says that his desire was to speak to them as Spiritual men but really he has to talk to them like men of the flesh and as infants in Christ. They were very experienced with the ways of the world. They had been to the temples and been with the prostitutes. They had eaten the food for idols. They had been murderers and liars and thieves. These things were familiar to them. What they weren’t familiar with was Christ and this new way of living they had been called to. This is a natural part of sanctification. It was expected of them to be like this for a time. The issue comes when it has been years and these people are still infants in the faith. He said this is the way I spoke to you before. Years ago. When He was planting the church. I spoke to you as men of flesh but you are STILL fleshly.
In every church everywhere there are people who have been Christians for a majority of their lives, they grew up singing all the songs, going to all the events, they know all the right answers but they are immature spiritually. There is a difference between hearing good teaching and being obedient to what God speaks in His word. The church in Corinth had existed for several years at this point but operated just like the world around them. They were getting drunk on communion wine and sleeping with their stepmoms. Paul says that the kind of immorality the church of Corinth was engaged in wasn’t even present among the pagans. They were living as people of flesh and not as followers of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit.
When I think about my son and his development, he started with milk and that was all he ever had. Milk for every meal. As he has gotten bigger he went from milk to having peas and applesauce. Now he eats chicken nuggets. Imagine if he never stopped drinking formula. Imagine a 20 year old man drinking from a baby bottle. To develop spiritually doesn’t mean that we learn more Bible trivia. Studying and learning more about the Bible is certainly part of maturity but it isn’t the whole picture. Spiritual maturity is demonstrated by our faithfulness in obeying God’s word not just memorizing details about it. When our faith becomes more than just words. When faith becomes action. This is when maturity begins to develop.
How do you know if you are growing in your faith? Is the person you are today more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, self-controlled than the person you were last year? The more we walk with our Savior the more we will begin to look and act like Him. For Corinth it was evident that although they met every week and although they called themselves followers of Christ they didn’t spend time walking with Him. They may have found salvation in Jesus but there wasn’t a relationship of daily walking with Him and this led to their immaturity.
The problem with their immaturity was that it wasn’t just effecting their own lives, marriages, families. It was effecting their relationship with Jesus and dividing the church as well. Sometimes we think that what we do when nobody is watching has no sway on other people, but every secret moment is an opportunity to glorify God. A good question to ask ourselves is how can I grow in intimacy with Jesus even in these secret moments? When following Him is difficult. When following Him is costly.
What was Paul’s evidence for the church’s immaturity? What began in private soon became a public affair.
The Evidence of Immaturity: Jealousy and Strife
The Evidence of Immaturity: Jealousy and Strife
He says there is still jealousy and strife among you.
“Jealousy is a terrible thing. It resembles love, only it is precisely love’s contrary. Instead of wishing for the welfare of the object loved, it desires the dependence of that object upon itself, and its own triumph. Love is the forgetfulness of self; jealousy is the most passionate form of egotism, the glorification of a despotic, exacting, and vain ego, which can neither forget nor subordinate itself. The contrast is perfect.”
Jealousy in the church happens when we treat the Body like it exists for our gratification rather than Christ’s glorification.
A good antonym for jealousy would be contentment.
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
It is maturity in faith that makes a person content in their savior. In every circumstance Paul has learned to be content. It wasn’t a natural tendency of his. It wasn’t something he had since birth. It was something he learned from years spent trusting in the Lord. It happened through beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks. It happened in the secret places when nobody was watching. It happened when he depended on the Lord to be his strength.
What areas are the hardest to find contentment in?
What areas of your life do you feel you have been growing in contentment?
When we stop looking to Jesus to satisfy and start looking at the world around us we become discontent. Christ and His grace are sufficient for every need. When the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. Discontentment happens when we make someone or something other than Christ to be our shepherd.
A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched.
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?
Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it Than a house full of feasting with strife.
Unchecked discontentment and jealousy will lead to strife and division within the church every time.
How have you seen strife affect a church?
What were some of the reasons for strife?
Paul says that jealousy and strife are not from walking with Jesus. This doesn’t mean that temptation is a sin. It doesn’t mean we won’t have desires or wants that creep up. It also doesn’t mean we won’t have conflict or disagreements. What Paul does point out is that there is a difference in the response to these things between someone who is mature in their faith and someone who is immature. Someone who walks with Jesus will respond like Jesus to conflict. With truth, patience, grace, kindness, justice, not with gossip, condemnation, bitterness, or pettiness.
Specifically, Paul is referring to the Corinthians’ division over earthly teachers. I follow this person, well I follow this person. Paul says cut all that foolishness. That is immaturity.
What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Paul says all these people that they are dividing themselves over are just regular people used by God. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but it was God working behind the scenes to cause the growth. What is the reason for their immaturity? Their hope was in earthly teachers and human leaders rather than growing in God. There was a sense of competition between one another. A need to one up each other or prove that they were the more intelligent student to the more intelligent teacher. We see some of that competition today. We see some debating and attempts to prove ourselves the smarter, more intelligent party. When we look at church history we see divisions in the church and people following human teachers. I follow the pope, I follow Luther, I follow Spurgeon, I follow Calvin, I follow Wesley. It feels like every denomination has their guy, but Paul tells us the only person worth following is Jesus.
Or we find ourselves on the other end. As a teacher its tempting to want people to come to me and sit under my teaching because I’m the guy with all the answers. Sometimes the temptation is to make my name known. I want to be a Paul. I want to be an Apollos, but what are they? They’re just servants. The church isn’t built on the personality of pastors it is carried like a cross on the back of Jesus. The growth of the church isn’t up to me. It isn’t about me. That responsibility is too much for me to bear despite what my ego tells me. It’s too big for any of us. We may plant and we may water but the responsibility for growth is on the Lord. Only He can change a heart. Only He can forgive sins and transform eternities. My job is to just be faithful in doing what God has called me to do, not use this position in an attempt to make people think I’m smart or put together. I shouldn’t be boastful in myself when the church is growing or ashamed of myself because the church isn’t growing. My focus is on being faithful to feed the sheep God brings into my mission field. Whether that is 30 students on a Wednesday night, 3 college students on a Thursday night. Whether it’s my neighbors, my friends, my enemies. Whether its milk or solid food, it doesn’t matter. Be faithful to serve where God has called you to serve and do it to the best of your ability making every effort to make Christ known to the people around you.
Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the Lord his God, Who made heaven and earth, The sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; The Lord raises up those who are bowed down; The Lord loves the righteous; The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, But He thwarts the way of the wicked. The Lord will reign forever, Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!
Jesus is someone worth following not princes and mortal men. What other leader could speak the world into existence, who is just in all He does, who feeds the hungry, who sets prisoners free. He is a leader who remains faithful to all of His promises. He sees the unseen. He loves the unloved.
This Psalm reminds us that when we put our hope in people we will only be disappointed. The Corinthians put their hope in Paul and Apollos and it was splitting the church. Our hope is in God not in broken people. God is good. He uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines, but we don’t put our faith in sticks, we put our faith in God who works all things for His glory and our good. There are no super Christians. We are all a part of God’s field. His building. We all have something to contribute as fellow workers. It isn’t the Phillip Wright show although that would be easy to make ministry out to be that way. It isn’t about my preferences and my tastes. We all have spiritual gifts to contribute to the Body of Christ. We all have a role and responsibility to play in God’s Kingdom. We are living stones in God’s building.
Living Stones on the Firm Foundation
Living Stones on the Firm Foundation
Before we ever talk about maturity, before we ever talk about discipleship, we need to make sure our foundation for life is what it needs to be. Paul made sure to lay a firm foundation for the Corinthians when he planted this church. In chapter 2 Paul says he was determined to make nothing known among them other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the anchor of our faith. Everything we do as Christians must be rooted and centered in Christ. When Christ is our rock, when we put our faith in Him, we can begin to lay stones of maturity and contribute to the household of faith.
When I build my life on Christ the fear of not being good enough is washed in His grace. I am forgiven and redeemed. Jesus has transformed me and I am a new creation. I am raised out of death to live new life in Christ.
When I build my life on Christ the pride of being self-righteous is washed in His grace. I am humbled by the amazing love that Jesus demonstrates to a broken man like myself. I am a servant of God but it is Christ who causes the growth. I have nothing to boast in other than God’s power and wisdom being demonstrated through my weakness and foolishness.
The cycle of shame, guilt, anxiety, bitterness, frustration, pride is crushed by Christ our cornerstone.
According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Paul knows who the foundation of the Corinthians is. He knows they’re Christians because he was there when the church was planted. He led several of these people to Christ. If Christ is their foundation, what they build on top of that is essential for maturity and unity in the Body. Paul is concerned what people contribute to the household of Faith. What people bring to the table. Paul laid this foundation of Christ and others contribute to what he has established.
What do we bring to the foundation?
This isn’t about tithing although I could see why people might try to use this as a passage about tithing. Some people are bringing gold and precious jewels while others are bringing hay. Someone could easily say that your financial gifts aren’t worth much unless you give a lot of money. I could see how someone could manipulate this into that, but I really don’t think money is Paul’s concern. My reason for thinking that? Paul says we are God’s building. It isn’t our money. It is us.
For a while my contribution to the church was that of a consumer. I contributed nothing to the health and value to the church other than a body in a pew. As I grew in my faith I began to learn how I could contribute. As I listened to the Holy Spirit in my life God was able to produce something of value in me. It isn’t my talent or ability that makes me valuable. It is maturity and unity. These fruits that the Holy Spirit is growing in me are the currency of the church.
Love - Joy - Peace - Patience - Kindness - Goodness - Faithfulness - Gentleness - Self-Control
These are the things that make a church healthy and valuable and they are only produced by the Spirit. Do you want to contribute to the Church and make a difference in the lives of God’s people? Do you have the Holy Spirit? Good news! God wants to use you to change lives and eternities. It is work produced by the Spirit that withstands the fire. This is Ecclesiastes. Everything we do in our own strength or wisdom is just vanity, a chasing after the wind. Doing things my way is like the three little pigs building houses out of straw and sticks. Trusting in the Lord, listening to His instruction, being faithful and obedient to do all He says. That is precious to the house of God.
The prophet Haggai was prophet during the return of the Israelites after their exile in Persia. He was prophet when Zerubbabel was governor and when Joshua was high priest in Jerusalem. They were the first wave of returning Israelites and were tasked with rebuilding the Temple of God in Jerusalem after it had been completely destroyed by Babylon. Darius had given them everything they needed to do what was needed, but Haggai is called by God to confront Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the people because rather than rebuild the house of God they were rebuilding their own homes. God says, “Is it time for yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while the House of God lies desolate?”
Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways! “Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord. “You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. “Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. “I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands.”
The people looked to satisfy themselves and so the Lord withheld their satisfaction. The house of God today isn’t a temple, it is His people. If the goal of our lives is to build our own legacies and build our own houses we will find that discontentment is guaranteed. If the Holy Spirit lives in us we will never be content building our own homes while the house of God lies desolate. I don’t mean Central Baptist Church I’m talking about your faith, which being in community with other believers happens to be an essential part of that. When our spiritual maturity takes a back seat to everything else on the calendar we will feel discontent. If Christ is an afterthought. If being obedient to God is only what we do on Sunday mornings or when it is convenient. If all we do to build on the foundation of faith is throw whatever scraps were left over, when the fire and testing of life happens, Paul says the quality of each persons work will be evident.
When ministry gets hard. When conflicts enter the church (Pandemics, natural disasters, politics, death of a congregant, a moral failure, the list goes on and on) when these things confront the church what we have built on the foundation will be made known. It will either draw us closer in unity or divide us through jealousy and strife.
Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain.
A faith built in my own strength is hay to the fire. A faith built by the Spirit working through me is like precious stones to the community of faith.
Does spiritual maturity really matter if our foundation remains?
What kind of house is God building and how can I contribute?
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.
Our lives are not our own. We are a vessel for the Holy Spirit to demonstrate His power and wisdom through. When we withdraw from the church and refuse to contribute and serve we deny the Spirit the opportunity to glorify Himself through us. When we do contribute but do so in our own strength or for our own praise we deny the Spirit opportunity to glorify Himself through us. This isn’t about us. Our faith isn’t a journey of self discovery. It is a living organism made up of other believers coming together to serve and glorify God together. What we do individually is important. We are each a temple of the Holy Spirit and we are responsible for how we maintain that temple, but we do so for the purpose of growing with God and serving others. A temple isn’t a private place. It is open to the public for people to gather and worship. My story what God has done in my life, my testimony of God’s faithfulness, my spiritual gifts, my talents aren’t mine to hoard but are gifts from God to be shared with others so that God might be praised through me.
I imagine some people heard what Paul said and their response was, well watch how good of a temple I can be. I’ll show all these other losers how much wisdom I can contribute.
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.” So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.
To be wise we must become foolish. There is a humbling that is necessary for maturity. Our lives aren’t built on human wisdom or understanding but are instead built on a wisdom that comes from God. The beauty of the Gospel is that God uses weak and foolish people to demonstrate His power and wisdom.
What is our legacy?
That Christ would be glorified. That His wisdom and strength would be made known through our weakness and foolishness. That our hope in life and death would be Christ and Him crucified.
What is our identity?
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Jealousy and strife are signs of immaturity. Humility and contentment are signs of maturity.
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Paul deals with this idea of jealousy by reminding us we have everything in Christ. All things belong to us in Christ and God. We don’t have to envy or be jealous because the things that have eternal significance and relevance have been given to us freely in Jesus. Love - Joy - Peace - Patience - Kindness - Goodness - Faithfulness - Gentleness - Self-control. All of these are freely given as we walk and grow with Jesus.
What is your foundation for living?
What do you contribute to the house of God? Division or unity?
