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God’s Answer to Troubled Christians and a Troubled Church
Introduction: If the “Corinth Street church of Christ” were in Nashville, would you even for a moment think about attending there? Not likely. I think we would all be surprised to even find a church today like Corinth, but that does not change the fact that a church today can become enough like Corinth that we wouldn’t want to go there or stay there if we had been a member.
So, how does a church become like Corinth? It would be easy to conclude that problem was a lack of unity, but we need to look deeper. Thieves can have unity. Wickedness has its unity. False religions unite in their purpose. And the Lord’s churches can have unity that is not grounded in the cause God has given us. In the upcoming study of 1 Corinthians, we need to discover why the Corinthian church was troubled and divided. It will give us the answer to how to protect ourselves from the same fate.
Two Foundational Flaws
There are two answers to the divisions in Corinth: they are elevating humans and elevating human thinking. The first four chapters lay out the root problem both in an individual Christian and in a local church.
The first problem is, “I of Paul and I of Apollos.” In other words, I want to feel important. It is finding pride in following someone who seems important in this world. After all, there is no pride in following a crucified Jesus because that means I become nothing.
The second problem is expressed in 1:17. It is being enamored with the thoughts and ways of the culture and world around them, which is simply another way of finding self-importance.
Consider Paul’s answer to these two common flaws:
The first answer is the cross (1:21). Paul tells the Corinthians and us that we need to come to grips with a clear, straightforward principle – God chose to save the world “through the folly of what we preach.” Too many Christians/churches want to look good in this world; they want to impress the world. Following the lifestyle of the crucified Christ is not going to put you in the company of the rich and famous.
Instead, it will put you in the company of those who aren’t wise according to this world’s standards, with those who aren’t powerful or noble. It will put you in the midst of weak people, lowly people, and despised people. In contrast, our world likes titles and fancy job descriptions. By the time most people get done with their job title, I have no idea what they do.
Paul said it well: “Who is Paul and who is Apollos? Servants through whom you believed.” We are the lowest person you can think of in any worldly culture. The reason is important. Then only Christ gets the glory.
The second answer is that worldly, cultural wisdom isn’t true wisdom. Worldly wisdom is foolishness with God. In fact, if there were any foolishness with God, it would be wiser then any man. If there were any weakness with God, it would be stronger than man. Therefore, the only true wisdom is that which is revealed from the depths of the mind of God.
Let’s understand this in our present day setting. We might comfort ourselves by thinking that we would not be like the Corinthians and exalt a person or a preacher and boast about following that preacher. God forbid! That’s disgusting. Yes, but what does happen? Members set themselves and the church up for failure when they fool themselves into thinking they are studying the Bible when they are actually following men just like the Corinthians.
For one, “Bible study” becomes no more than morals, how to raise my kids, or how to have a good marriage. Women’s studies are relegated to only parts of the Bible that talk about women or women’s roles. Heaven forbid that a ladies class would actually study the text.
Worse, what is called Bible study is reduced to reading books about the Bible or Bible topics. Do you want to know more about the Holy Spirit, well read a book on it. Do you want to know about the church? Read this book. Do you want to know how to pray? Read this book. This not only destroys God’s design for how we would learn about him and reduces Bible study to nothing more than topics, it opens the Christian up to an abundance of false teaching.
Paul’s answer: instead of focusing on what a person says and the plausible words of wisdom, determine to know “nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified” (2:2). Paul and the others are revealing the words of the Spirit, the depths of the mind of God (2:10). Paul concludes, “But we have the mind of Christ” (2:16). What is the answer here? The key to being a Christian is knowing God (Phil. 3:7-8). And the key to knowing God is putting hard work into knowing the writings of the apostles and prophets, the only people to whom the mind of Christ was revealed.
More than anything else, this is an individual matter. Each Christian has a God-given responsibility to do the hard work of knowing God. No parent can do that for you. No teacher can do that for you. No preacher can do that for you. No book can do that for you! Only you can, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”
So let me ask, is there something that isn’t quite right in your life, in your worship, and in your service to God. Is something missing, and you just can’t seem to put your finger on it? Allow me to offer you an answer:
First, there is no one from outside of you that will solve this problem. We as humans make a huge and critical mistake when we are looking for another human, our spouse, our job, our children, a church, our earthly activities, or a recreation to fill the void within us. God said it well through Jeremiah: “Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:12-13). There is only one fountain of living waters, all else are “broken cisterns that cannot hold water. All else is “life under the sun” that is nothing more than “striving after the wind.” Every earthly person with every earthly pursuit is vanity of vanities. If you are feeling that restless void within you, there is only one fountain from which you can drink the living water, and there is no easy shortcut to pursuing that living water.
Consider the problems we create when we are looking for some–one or some church or our spouse, to fill the confusion and void within us. When we do that, we expect everyone around us, including every church and every physical pursuit, to be a god to us. We place our expectations of what only God can fulfill on a sinful human. No matter how wonderful your spouse is, he or she cannot take the place of what only God can do, and it is unfair and foolish to expect it.
Consider the example of Sarah: Genesis 16:2-6 – Sarah made the mistake of thinking that her husband, her maidservant, and a child would solve the deep hurt within her. And when it did not, she took it out on her husband and the maidservant. Sarah! Wait on the Lord! After 14 years of shear agony as she watched Hagar and Ishmael prance around like they were the true heirs, the Lord visited Sarah. The Lord visited Sarah, and Sarah finally laughed. Only God can cause us to laugh.
The Message of 1 Corinthians
So, what is the message of 1 Corinthians? How should we summarize it? How can the message protect us individually, us as a church, and the Kingdom of God? The message on every page is, It’s not about me; it’s not about you. It’s about the Lord Jesus Christ.
This message is summarized in 1:28-31. Boasting is a critical theme in both letters. Verse 31 is a quotation of Jeremiah 9:23-24 and is quoted twice, in the beginning of the first letter and at the end of the second letter. The key phrase in the quote: “Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me…” There is only one boast that is biblical, only one boast that should come out of the mouth of followers of Jesus; it is a boast in who the Lord is and what the Lord has done. It is the boast that I am nothing and he is everything. In other words, if we want this church to become a Corinthian church, all we have to do is make it about me or make it about you. Everything Paul will write in the letter is, “It is not about you.”
3:5; 4:1 We are servants, stewards of the mysteries of God. If that is how Paul saw himself, that is how we are to see ourselves. That means elders are servants. Preachers are servants. Deacons are servants. Teachers are servants. There isn’t a one of us who is anything more than a servant, and the reason is, there is only one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. All others are servants. Therefore, every day we need to remind ourselves, “It’s not about me.”
4:10-13, 16-17 Consider verse 16 first. Who were Paul and the apostles? Like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. That is what we are to imitate. Why? Because that is the message of the cross and following the way of the cross so others might live. This isn’t about us!
5:1-13 This chapter illustrates how far we can go when we think the church is about us. “Oh look how accepting we are! We accept everybody!” Do you think the scenario of this chapter hasn’t happened in our churches? A member falls into unrepentant sin, but has a big family in the church who protects him and doesn’t want to be embarrassed, and therefore threatens to leave if their family member is exposed. What’s the problem? Someone has made it about them, and it’s not about us!
6:1-12 Christians are suing each other. The problem is, you are thinking about you. You are not considering how this is seen before unbelievers, nor are you considering that every Christian should be stepping back and saying, It is not about me, and therefore prefer to be wronged rather than to wrong the cause of Christ. Paul concludes the chapter with, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
In chapter 7, marriage is not about me. Marriage is about making sure my spouse’s needs are met. Oh how 7:10-11 has been abused! “Well, I guess I can leave my husband as long as I don’t remarry!” Really? And what about the first five verses? This isn’t about finding loopholes and escape routes out of marriage just because we are not happy. It isn’t about me.
In chapters 8-10, the best restaurant in town is in the idol’s temple. Wow, what a feast! Besides, there is no such thing as an idol. Really? What about your brother who worshiped in that idol’s temple eating that feast for years before coming to Christ? And what about the fact that even though an idol is nothing, what is sacrificed there is offered to real demons? You see, this isn’t about you.
Chapter 11 is not about a “covering,” it is about gender roles. A woman is saying, I just think I ought to be like a man, and a man is saying I’d like to take on the role of a woman. Well, that’s nice, except that this isn’t about you, and God is interested in how he looks to the world and whether or not he is glorified. We all have feelings that are not in line with God’s will, and God’s answer is that we are to “renew our minds after the image of him.”
Also in chapter 11, we want the Lord’s Supper to be a meal (still being advocated today!), and we will just all bring our own dinners, and who cares about those who have none and that this is the remember the Lord! Same answer, isn’t it? It’s not about me!
Chapters 12-14 is all about who has the best gift and who gets to show it off in front of the church. But Paul said that if you have the greatest gift known to man but insist on your own way and do not follow love, you are nothing.
Chapter 15 reminds us where our hope is. It isn’t in this life. When our hope is in the Promised Land, we won’t be grumbling about what’s going on in our wilderness journey.
Conclusion: If we are going to be the church God desires and find true joy in our spiritual family, we will always remember, “It’s not about me!”