Good morning dear friends, Today is Tuesday June 11th and our Scripture journey has us reading 1 Corinthians 3 today.
In this his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul faces some hard issues head on. During his months there, the Gospel had taken hold with a few Corinthian people in that wild and crazy city. A relationship with Jesus was all new to them. They did not have the benefit of the New Testament, it hadn’t been written yet. None of them had seen or met Jesus personally, and probably none of them had ever met any of Jesus’ Disciples.
During his 18 months in Corinth, as part of Paul’s second missionary journey (Acts 18:11), we know he worked hard teaching God’s truths as best he could. But after those months, he moved on, traveling to other places. Another teacher Apollos came behind him (Acts 18:24-19:1), and spent some time continuing to teach them, and then he moved on. When Paul writes this letter, we don’t know exactly who is leading the Corinthian church… perhaps no one. So they are floundering and Paul writes this letter to try and teach from a distance, and rally them together again.
Notice his opening statement in chapter 3 vs 1. He calls them “brothers”. I wonder if whoever read this letter out-loud to them for the first time, paused after that word? Because of Jesus, this widely diverse group of people, were a family… God’s family, and Paul was calling them to consider themselves a close knit family and stop the divisive talk.
Then Paul challenges them… If I could paraphrase it, Paul is saying… ‘you have stagnated. Your growth has stalled. You are not maturing spiritually as you should be.’ Friends, we need to look closely at our own lives through the lens of these first 3 verses and ask ourselves… “am I growing as a Christian? How do I know? Am I growing as fast as God wants me to grow? Am I who God wanted me to be by this stage of my life?”
Psalm 139:13-16 tells us God shaped and formed us carefully in our mother’s wombs. Before we were born He knew us intimately, and He had a specific design for each of us. He knew the course of our entire lives before we lived our first day outside the womb, so it’s fair to ask ourselves questions like these: “Am I today who God had designed for me to be at this age? Have I maximized all the growth opportunities God has given me, so I am in lock step with Jesus in becoming and accomplishing all He has designed me to be and do”? Is it possible, like the Corinthians, I have stagnated in the spiritual growth and development God has designed me for?”
Do you see Paul’s strong statement…“You are still worldly.”? As we’ll see in the chapters we’ll read over the next two weeks or so, there were many areas Paul saw them as worldly, but here he focuses on two…they quarrel and are caught up in jealousy, like those in the world who don’t know Jesus. The tell-tale evidence is that the Christians in Corinth were caught up arguing about who their favorite preacher was! Their focus had moved from God and God’s truth; from Jesus and His life changing Gospel power… to debate about who they preferred to listen preach! We saw that in chapter 1, and here Paul takes it up a notch. Like a dentist trying to root out the decay.
Now we understand this, don’t we? How many churches or Christians do you know where great damage has been done to the work of God in a community, because people got all worked up arguing about music style or attire of the people on the platform or the size and shape and even color of the building, or times of the services, or personality of the Pastor. Step back and look clearly at that…do you see what it is? This is the influence of the devil, stirring up God’s people, trying ruin the reputation of Jesus in every community where there is a church, which claims they want to honor God.
Notice in vs. 5-9 Paul makes it clear that in the work of God, everyone has a part, and God is the one who does the miraculous inner heart work that results in life change. Do you see that little phrase “God made it grow”? Think back in your life… who have been those, from the time of your childhood, who have helped your spiritual growth and development? Thank God for them, but mostly thank the Holy Spirit of God for HE has been the one doing the deep, inner, spiritual work in you!
Do you also see that for all spiritual growth in any and every person, everywhere in the world, there is ONLY One foundation… Jesus Christ (vs. 11). Our salvation, our spiritual growth, our sanctification… all depend on Jesus. And anyone who tries to build anything spiritual apart from Jesus, will find it falling apart, and coming to nothing in the end. Do you see that in vs. 12-15?
Does that ring a bell in your memory? Look back for just a moment to Jerusalem when this movement began. Peter and John were called to account for the healing of a crippled man and their unrelenting preaching about Jesus, in Acts 3 & 4. Then all the Apostles were arrested and jailed in Acts 5. The Jesus movement was getting out of control, and some religious leaders felt it had to be stopped or at least controlled! Notice in particular the wisdom of one of the Rabbi’s who recognized the evidence of God at work. He said “Leave these men alone! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts 5:38,39). Can you recognize the difference between a work of God and the work of men who claim it is God’s work but. . .??
Finally in vs. 16 Paul shoots an arrow right to their hearts “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that Gods’ Spirit lives in you.”? This radical idea shook them. God was not asking that a magnificent Cathedral be built in every city Paul visited and shared the Gospel. Instead, God’s Spirit was taking up residence INSIDE the people who trusted in the truth of Jesus’ Gospel, and trusted Jesus to save them from their wickedness. God’s HOLY Spirit wanted to be vibrant, powerful, dynamic, doing His transforming work inside the minds, hearts and souls of every Christian in Corinth. He, the Holy Spirit, would bring them to unity when they focused their worship on Holy God, focused their attention on understanding all Jesus had done for them, and allowed the Holy Spirit to refine them as God’s people.
That’s what I’m calling all of us to this summer in a fresh new way, everyday, as we together dig in to God’s Word, and ask the Holy Spirit to keep doing His refining, cleansing, teaching work in us. It’s all about HIM isn’t it friends? So today, let’s focus on Jesus, and ask the Holy Spirit to show us if there’s any discord in our lives that we need to bring to Jesus. Rejoice that you are a son or daughter of God today, a prince or princess of the King of kings, and live like royalty today my friends, for HIS glory!
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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