Together we WIN!

Together we win! How often have we heard that we are all in this together? Or the notion that together we win? This is not just a cleeshay. It actually has Biblical basis. Its in our divisions, or separation or cliqs we are most vunerable!

Paul address the in this chapter with first harsh criticism because if fearful they are not spiritual but are carnal. He said he must feed them milk because they are not ready for meat.

IN all ages since the Fall there has been a tendency in the human heart to forget God, and get away from him.

Yes the Corinthians we doing what their forefathers had done leaving God out or the equation.

Not as through the walked away the church but they had allow their own self interest, likes, preferences to cause separation in the church. This definitely does not sound like the Church in Act 2 that were with one accord and had all things in common.

Idolatry has been the sin of all nations, including God’s favoured people, the Jews, and including certain persons who call themselves Christians, and yet make idols out of crosses and images. This vicious principle of ignoring God, and setting up something between our minds and our Creator, crops up everywhere, in every department of thought.

Paul is trying to correct a problem so the church can move forward. Look at back 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 for the first maker: “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 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.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul” (1 Corinthians 1:10-13)?

We will let the smallest stuff cause separation. We can find any reason not to like a person. It was rumored that Apollos was very eloquent. He was overshadowing Paul. It was was Paul who established this Church. He still had some faithful followers but others were willing to abandon him. So Paul lays out the argument of who we all are: SERVANTS There was jealousy and strife among the saints.

We have an obligation not to focus on the personality of a man but focus on the person of Jesus!

Because of the gift of the Holy Spirit, Christians are graced with seeing and tasting and exulting in gifts that are beyond my ability to comprehend (1 Corinthians 2:9). For all the gifts the Spirit had given them at their conversion, these believers were acting as if they had never been converted. Their actions worked to deny the presence of the Holy Spirit. Every new believer receives the Holy Spirit at conversion: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9). Yet, their claims to be Christ-like contradicted their actions. They desired status. They displayed jealousy and quarrelling. Their actions were self-centered. This kind of egotism and self-centeredness is a contradiction of Christianity itself. Selfishness and self-centeredness is a fundamental denial of the cross of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Pride shows up in different forms and to differing degrees in each of us. Pride infects all of us. One of the biggest problems about the disease of pride is that it has a blinding effect upon those who have it. They had claimed to arrive and were further them Paul himself in their spiritual growth (1 Corinthians 4:8-13).

There are No Two Classes of Christians: Holiness isn’t Optional

“I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready…” (1 Corinthians 3:2).

Self-Centeredness is Self-Destruction. Their self-centeredness has caused quarrelling. Their quarrelling has caused confusion over the nature of church leadership (1 Corinthians 3:5-15). Their confusion and quarrelling has even caused these saints to lose their grip on the nature of the church itself (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Paul had lived in Corinth for eighteen months where he had expected these young Christian to more transformed (Acts 18:11).

I attended my 40th class reunion last weekend. When I tell folks that I am still close with quite a few of my classmates they look at me strange. We are a unified bunch. I believe it has something to do with our class song:

All for One

There's no need to live on an island 'Cause everyone here respects your opinion It all adds up to It's your strength we need So get behind and push If you don't want to lead

'Cause it's all for one and one for all You live, you give, you have a ball

I don't know your future plans But divided I'm sure You will not stand I said all that to say There's an easier way If it's love that we share Then there's no debt to pay

Its words like that when internalize will cause you to stick together.

So Paul makes the argument of instead of focuses and holding in high esteem your favorite preacher recognize that We are Christ’s disciples!

here is the guiding principle

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Ro 12:4–8).

4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Co 3:4–9). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Ephesians 3 “16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”