Thoughts for Digging In Devo 6/24

The Warning and the Calling

Welcome to another episode of Digging In

I’m gonna start by reading the verse from last weeks readings that inspired this video, and it comes from first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10

“I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.”‬‬

So I titled this message “The Warning and the Calling” let there be no divisions and be of one mind, united in thought and purpose

In this letter to the Church in Corinth, Paul is writing to a Church he founded

With all of the churches Paul planted, Paul would stay, he’d teach, he’d train leaders, but then he’d leave

Once Paul would leave, teachers would then come in after him, some true, and some false

In Corinth, Paul is dealing with a similar issue as with the church in Ephesus

this issue is division within the Church

He writes in Ephesians 4

“Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.”

So in these two letters, and this is a theme that runs throughout scripture and Paul’s letters, he is emphasizing unity, telling the churches to not allow division.

So, what is causing division among you, he’d ask? And why are you letting it happen?

For the church in Ephesus it was the religious division between Jew and Gentile,

In the other letters he addresses racial and socio/economic division as well.

This division exists due to a lack of understanding of what happened at the Cross

and what has changed because of the gospel.

On one side of the cross all within the Church were equally sinners and separated from God, regardless of color, creed or social class, and on the other side of the cross all are equally saved by the grace of God.

In our world today we have so many voices of division,

Division over color, creed, and socio/economic status.

Jesus is the one voice unity, His is the only voice that matters, so what does He say? What did His life and death accomplish.

We need to know, we need to study His word in order to know.

Wherever we see division, a lack of unity, we can be sure of one thing, the enemy is at work

Why? Because the Spirit of God is a Spirit of unity, breaking down all barriers that would cause division.

In Ephesians 4 Paul writes that we should be eager to maintain the Unity of the Spirit, because there’s One body, one Spirit, we’re called to One hope, there’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

So as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1, he makes his appeal by the authority of Jesus to live in harmony and to not allow divisions in the church, this is serious.

He says, no, rather be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

So, what is going on in the Corinthian church?

Well he tells us in verses 11 and 12 of chapter 1

1 Corinthians 1:11–12 ESV

For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

Paul is warning of another kind of division,

Division in the Church over teachers and possibly teachings about the gospel and its implications.

His emphasis is on unity and the essentials of who God is, who Jesus is, and what God has done in Christ and through Christ, and who the church now is because of it.

We may read that and think that sounds strange, why would they claim to be a follower of Paul or Apollos.

But we do the same, don’t we?

We all have our favorite teachers, authors, podcasts, and preachers

Some we can quote better than we can the Bible.

But what if all of these are actually distractions and are causing division amongst?

It seems that we live in a culture today where we don’t want to think for ourselves, we want someone to do the hard work for us and just tell us what to think.

So we read our favorite authors, listen to our favorite podcast, and trust the information and wisdom they are giving us.

Not sure if this sounds familiar or not?? We may even claim the identity as a follower of a certain teacher or teaching.

Well I’m a follower of Jesus, not any one teacher of His.

What I mean by that is this, and Paul says we are all followers of Jesus, our teachers, authors, podcasts, preachers should all be pointing us to Jesus, not themselves and not some non-essential teaching.

They are to help us to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and to be able to communicate it.

But the enemy uses them to distract us and cause division.

Today there are over 200 Christian denominations in the U.S. and a mind blowing 45 thousand denominations globally. That’s crazy, how is that possible??

Well it sounds like it started in Corinth at the time of Paul’s writing

There seems to be the beginning of 4 denominations we can call them, Paulism, Apollosists, Cephasites, and Christians,

Paul is saying that this as a big problem and huge threat to the Church.

We are to be followers of Jesus.

Paul gives another warning in regards to teachers in the last letter he ever wrote, one to his protege Timothy.

He would say that a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching but will follow their own desires and look for teachers to tell them whatever they want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase myths.

That time has come.

We can become too attached to our teachers and even find some who will tell us exactly what we want to hear.

Maybe this is a discipleship problem

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

Each teacher is to serve a purpose, to plant, to water, etc. not to be clung to and looked at as if they are Jesus.

They are to equip God’s people to do His work.

To teach and train in order to send.

In good conscience I do believe, we are trying to continuously learn, to know more

We then find the “best” teachers to help us do that. But for what purpose and at what cost? Is it just to know more, or is it so we can share more?

Paul says in chapter 2 of 1st Corinthians, verse 2

1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

The Good News is quite simple, really

We are sinful, wretched and depraved, and separated from God because of our sin, rebellion, and disobedience.

God’s standards are perfect and we are far from it, His standards aren’t “good enough”, no they are perfection, which is an impossibility for us.

So, in His love, His mercy, His grace, God did for us what we are incapable of doing ourselves, and He rescued us from this desperate situation, He did this in Christ.

Jesus lived the life we are incapable of living and then died the death we deserve.

But He didn’t stay dead, He resurrected by the power of the Spirit and then ascended back into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father in all glory and power.

This is the Gospel and this is what we’ve hopefully come to know, to believe, and trust in, and this is what we’ve been called to share.

if our teachers aren’t helping us to know the Gospel, to share the Gospel then it should be a sign of caution to us.

And that takes us to our calling, our purpose

We are to Love more

Ephesians 5:1–2 ESV

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

That’s from Ephesians 5

We are to share more

1 Cor. 1:26-29 tells us to consider our calling, not many of us are wise or powerful or noble in the worlds eyes. God chose the foolish to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong, so that no one can boast in the presence of God.

Then he writes in verses 30 and 31

“God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.””

boast about the Lord

At the end of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he writes

1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

So

Fight for Unity, that’s Paul’s warning, be careful for anything that causes division

Go and share, that’s the calling and purpose that Paul is reminding us of; it is the work of God by the power of the Spirit through you and we need to trust Him.

How attached to our favorite “teachers” are we and are they focused on unity in the body and building us up to share more or on non-essentials of the faith that cause division?

What is keeping me from being a more effective witness for the Lord in my sphere of influence? Is it a lack of knowledge or a lack of trust in the Spirit?