Watering And Working Series

This morning we continue to look at Paul’s admonition to the church at Corinth. He tells them that they ought to have matured in their Christian faith during the five years the church in this city has been in existence. Instead they are carnal. By using this term Paul is telling the readers that they are fleshly, or led by the flesh. That old sin nature that faith in Christ ought to give us victory over. As a matter of fact, the old way of living to please the flesh ought to be dead to us as Christians.

***** Romans 6:1-14

This, however, was not the Corinthian believer disposition. Many of them had not forsaken the sinful culture that they were saved from. This caused disunity, or division, in the body of Christ. So, last week we looked at the cause of this division in the church: the flesh.

A lack of unity in a local church is one of the main causes of weakness in the local church. Sadly, this still occurs in many churches in our culture. Today, we will look at the symptoms of this disunity in the church at Corinth, and we will look at the cure for this division that they were experiencing.

PRAYER!!!!!!!!

We find the symptoms in verses three and four of 1 Corinthians, chapter three.

1 Corinthians 3:3-4 - “for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal?” (powerpoint)

Paul gives to us here three words to describe what it means to be carnal: Envy, strife, and divisions. The word, “envy”, comes from the Greek word zelos (dzay'-los); from which we get the word “zeal”. It refers to heat in the proper sense.

Figuratively, it refers positively to great passion or warmth. Negatively, as Paul uses it here, it refers to jealousy. The Greek word from which we get strife means quarrelsome. And we know that divisions refer to the lack of unity that is evident in the church at Corinth.

Carnality, or fleshly living, always manifests itself in self-centeredness. The desire to please the flesh. Jealousy is the attitude, and strife is the action that results from this type of living. These, however are only symptoms of this disease called carnality.

It is like a cancer in the church. Once it gets in it will affects all areas. It will corrupt morals, weaken personal relationships, produce doubt about God and His word, destroy your prayer life, and provide fertile ground for false doctrine and heresy. Carnality will strive to take away your rights: Right doctrine, right living, right beliefs, and right practices.

Jealousy is just a severe form of selfishness. When you are selfish you want to please yourself. When you are jealous, you don’t want others to have something and you want it for yourself. Selfishness is one of the obvious characteristics of being a baby. Paul called them babies in 1 Cor. 3:1 because they were selfish.

Paul asks the rhetorical question of his readers in verse three, “when you act like this aren’t you just behaving like mere men?”, or those who do not know Christ. Paul then gives the same example he used in chapter one

1 Corinthians 1:11-13 – “For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or "I am of Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (powerpoint)

So how do we get rid of division within a church? First, we must guard against this happening in the first place. We have seen in this letter that if we are unified in Christ then there is no room for disunity or division. This unity comes by placing Christ first and by being strong in our doctrine. We must strive to be a people of the Book. (title powerpoint)

Sadly, we know this is not always the case. Our church, like many others, has had disunity in the midst. Some of you who have been here for many years have seen the damage it can do both to you as an individual and to the church as a whole. Our church is only around thirteen years old. It is only logical to conclude that there have been times during its history that there has been disunity.

It is my desire, as it is yours, that we won’t see a time of disunity together. There is a way.