Giving Thanks for Broken Believers

Introduction

Being thankful for people illustration

1. people who annoy us- illustration children “mommy, mommy”

2. people who hurt us- the person you have been angry at because they didn’t treat you right

3. people who hate us-

I don’t believe God is calling us to be grateful for the pain they cause us and it can be hard sometimes to really feel grateful, but especially if they are believers, we should have something to be thankful for about them. As I thought on this this week, the example of the Corinthian church came to mind.

Many of us are familiar with the book of 1 Corinthians and when we think of the Corinthian church, we do not think of a spiritually healthy church. We think of a carnal church with a lot of problems. Here is just a sample of some of the problems in Corinth: fighting and divisions, incest, suing each other sleeping with prostitutes, drunkeness during the Lord’s supper, chaotic worship services, false doctrine. Later they were even rejecting Paul in favor of other men claiming to be super apostles.

So if you were writing a letter to the church of Corinth, what would your letter sound like. Mine:

“Dear Corinth, you guys are really messed up. If you don’t get your act together, there are going to be some serious consequences. Until you can figure yourselves out, please do not respond to this letter. I wish you a good life. Sincerely, Pastor Shirk”

This isn’t how Paul begins his letter to the Corinthian church. Paul follows a typical pattern:

Introduction

Recipients

Greeting and Well wishes

but notice what he writes in vs 4-9. Read 1 Corinthians 1:4–9 “I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Paul is giving thanks for this church. This isn’t out of the ordinary for Paul. He does it in many of his letters, but he follows it up with reasons why he is thankful. Not every letter gets so much detail as Corinth does. I think Paul offers us an example of someone who could be thankful even for messed up, cantankerous, annoying people in his life.

We all have people that we find it hard to be thankful for, but following Paul’s example I think we can find something. For Paul, this wasn’t so hard because he loved these people. 2 Corinthians 2:4 “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.” When we truly love even the annoying people of life, we will find something to give thanks to God for about them.

Paul lists three things that he is thankful for.

Knowing that God is blessing them.

1 Corinthians 1:4 “I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;”

When I first began to study this, I believed the grace of God was their salvation but as I began studying it I realized it was something more. But the first thing that Paul thanks God for is that God was blessing them.

Grace takes on many forms. We are saved by grace. We are changed by grace. We are strengthened by grace. We serve by grace. Grace is ultimately God’s provision in our lives because of his favor and love. But everything that God provides is a blessing in our lives whether we realize it or not. James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Every blessing in our lives comes from God.

The two words is given is an aorist participle or a action that was continuously going on prior to Paul giving thanks. But notice it was continual. Another way you could word this is the grace that was being given unto you. This wasn’t one blessing years ago, but God keeps on blessing. As believers, our lives are filled with blessings from God. We may not always be paying attention to them, but they are there.

Paul finds it in himself to be able to rejoice and give thanks for the blessings these carnal, broken Christians receive. Remember in Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” You know what the verse before that was Romans 12:14 “Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.” and just two verses down we are told Romans 12:17 “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.” Kinda a weird place to find a verse telling us to rejoice with those who rejoice. Notice it didn’t say only with those you get along with. This command within the church applies to everyone in the church. Even those who treat me wrong.

Can I give thanks when God blesses someone that I don’t particularly like? Can I rejoice when someone who annoys me receives a blessing?

When Billy Joe who is always picking at your kids gets a new car, do you snear and think “she doesn’t deserve that.” Why doesn’t God give you something like that? Why her? Can you rejoice in her blessings?

You see how this enmity between you steals you gratitude. It steals your joy.

Realizing that they are specially gifted by God to help the church causes me to give thanks.

1 Corinthians 1:5–7 “That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:”

The second thing that Paul gives thanks for is that God has given spiritual gifts to these believers for the edification of the church. This one is interesting because if you have read 1 Corinthians, you know that the corinthians abused those gifts. They used them to cause divisions and they were not showing love in how they used them. But in spite of all that, in spite of how they misused their gifts; Paul is still grateful that God had given the gifts. I think Paul can find that gratitude because he knows who gave the gifts.

enriched- this word enriched means that they had a wealth of gifts available to them. Later in vs 7, he says they are not lacking in any gifts. Specifically, he mentions all utterance speaking gifts like exhortation, teaching, ect. and in all knowledge- gifts like words of wisdom.

As we will see in Romans 12 when we get there on Sunday mornings, every believer has a spiritual gift that has been given for the benefit or edification of the church as a whole. When we walk in the flesh these gifts become curses. Our spiritual gifts become weapons in our hands that hurt the body instead of helping the body.

Spiritual gifts can be used abusively or to harm:

The person with speaking gifts calls out everyones problems with no love, mercy or compassion. And in their wake are a bunch of spiritually bleeding bodies lying on the ground. And just as wounded bodies don’t function properly; so wounded church bodies don’t function properly. He doesn’t have to act this way, but as long as he walks in the flesh, he will leave destruction behind him.

The person with the gift of mercy only wants to help and never harm so they ignore serious problems in their friends life. When that friend ends up hurting from the consequences there really is nothing she can do anymore. Could she have prevented it earlier if she had been willing to speak up.

The giver always wants to meet everyone’s needs. This guy comes into the church and is always asking for help financially. Problem is he refuses to get a job and obey scripture. The giver continues to give and enables his disobedience to God’s word.

And yet, Paul could be grateful because even though these believers misused their gifts, it was a sign that God was at work among them. He even says in vs 6 that these gifts were evidence that they truly were saved. With all the problems Corinth had, it would be easy to think maybe they weren’t saved. To think we might as well give up on them because they are hopeless, but the gifts were evidence God was doing something in their midst. There was still hope because God had not given up on them. They were God’s children and he was still blessing.

When I look at a brother who constantly finds fault in others, I see someone who was intended by God to be the radar that reveals sin in a loving way to help others grow. When I see the couple who lovingly fear confronting their daughter because they don’t want to upset her, I see a couple that God intends to heal the hurts of others not pretend like they don’t exist. Our disfunction as a church reveals what God really wants to do and is trying to do in our midst and for that I can give thanks.

Believing that God is doing a work in their lives to change them into His image causes me to give thanks.

1 Corinthians 1:8–9 “Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Blameless is not one of the words I would have used to describe Corinth. Maybe carnal or proud or problematic or messed up, but not blameless. When we look at other believers who seem to have so many issues, it can be easy to doubt their salvation: to think they can’t be Christians. Paul in these last two verses gives God thanks because His work in their lives is not ultimately dependent on them.

shall also confirm- This word confirm means to make someone of something settled securely or unconditionally. As bad as these Christians were, they cannot lose their salvation. In order to understand why we need to ask our selves who is confirming them? The answer is God. Not just generic God, but the Faithful God. They are saved not because of anything they did, not because they were great candidates, but because God is faithful to keep his promise to save them.

Not only is he faithful to save them, but he is faithful to preserve them blameless. Blameless means not deserving of a charge of wrongdoing. Clearly this must be a contradiction right because the corinthians have so many problems, but it isn’t. Notice the phrase in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. This refers to the second coming. There is coming a day when we will be made perfect, but Paul’s point is that God is faithful and is now involved in that work of transforming us.

Often times we are like a teacher who expects their 9th grader to pass an ACT test. We want everyone to be at the end goal now. We want perfection today. Meanwhile, these other believers are still in class. They aren’t ready for that test today. God is still working on them. This is why Paul says a few chapters later 1 Corinthians 4:5 “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

Paul can give thanks that God is at work to sanctify these believers. He is doing something to change them for the better. Here is our take away: No matter how messed up other believers are, no matter how hopeless they may seem, they are not beyond hope because God is working to change them even now. God is going to finish his work some day. Now when that day comes they may have a ton of changing or they may have a little, but God is faithful to work on them. I can be thankful that God will finish what he started and even now he is doing that work. There is no such thing as a Christian whom God is not working on to sanctify them and make them holy. So there is always hope.

Conclusion

This doesn’t mean that we all of a sudden approve of their wrong behavior. Paul continued on to correct the sins of the church of Corinth.

This doesn’t mean that we ignore their doctrinal error. Paul would correct their belief in the resurrection at the end of the book.

But the one thing that ties all three of these points together is God. God is at work blessing, gifting and changing even messed up Christians. So when that annoying person gets on my nerves once again, I can still give thanks that God is working in their lives.