Warnings, Exaltations, & Instructions: The Church at Corinth
1 Corinthians 1:4 ¡V 15
At 4:30am someone pounded on the door of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd¡¦s home. The physician listened to the man on his doorstep explain how his traveling companion had fallen from his horse en route to Washington and had badly injured his leg. The doctor invited them in. For the remainder of the day he tended to the wounded leg and allowed the men to rest. By 5pm, they were gone. That event would forever change the doctor¡¦s life and reputation. Why? It was because the man Dr. Mudd had attended to was John Wilkes Booth ¡V Abraham Lincoln¡¦s assassin. As a result, the saying, ¡§Your name is mud,¡¨ was born. Mudd spent four years in prison before receiving a pardon, and he died 14 years later at age 49 due partly to the yellow fever he had contracted in prison. Over the next century, Mudd¡¦s descendants bore his shame.
This story goes to show us how much power there can be in a name. When we call ourselves Christians and say that we are God¡¦s holy church, we are making a claim that forever links us to Jesus Christ. We are giving ourselves a name. We must make sure that the name Christian does not turn out like the name Mudd. How do we do this? We must make sure we live up to the standards that are laid out in God¡¦s Word for his church by heeding the warnings, emulating the exaltations, and following the instructions. When we do these things, the name Christian has great credibility, but that has not been the case for the last several years. The name Christian has a negative connotation with many people. We must make sure that we restore this name to its proper place of power and respect.
Last time we were together, we talked about living a life worthy of the calling we have received. This involves being people who are humble, gentle, and patient. Basically, this type of person is one who puts the second greatest commandment into practice ¡V the one that tells us we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. These were Paul¡¦s instructions to the church at Ephesus. This morning, we are going to take a look at some of Paul¡¦s words to the church at Corinth. If you have your Bible¡¦s, you can follow along in 1 Corinthians 1:4-15 or use your sermon notes.
I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way ¡V in all your speaking and in all your knowledge ¡V because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. I appeal to you brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe¡¦s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, ¡§I follow Paul¡¨; another, ¡§I follow Apollos¡¨; another, I follow Cephas¡¨; still another, ¡§I follow Christ.¡¨ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that none of you can say that you were baptized into my name.
This morning, we must follow these words if we are going to restore the good name of the church. In order to do this, we need to take a closer look at the church in Corinth, uncover some things they did well, and search out the meaning of a specific warning Paul gives them. Before we look any deeper however, we must ask the Lord to teach us and to guide us this morning. Let¡¦s pray.
Understanding Corinth
The city of Corinth was quite a city in the day of Paul. With a population of 250,000 free persons and 400,000 slaves, Corinth had more people in its day than modern day Pittsburgh. Many scholars claim that Corinth was the chief city of Greece at the time ¡V even greater than Athens. Being a city of such size comes with its ups and downs.
This city had three major things going for it. First of all, it was the center of tremendous commerce. The city was located on an isthmus which meant it had harbors on both its east and west sides. On top of the two harbors, there was a paved road called the Diolkos. This road connected the two harbors and allowed for small ships to be hauled over land to the other port or for cargos of large ships to be pulled to the other port or into the city. This allowed goods to be shipped from Italy and Spain to pass through to places such as Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and Egypt. This city also had a rich culture. Although this city was not a university town like Athens, people nevertheless placed a great importance on gaining wisdom. Most people were very interested in Greek Philosophy, and this led to an emphasis on religion in the City. Corinth contained at least twelve prominent temple in which people could go to worship.
Things were not all rosy for Corinth however. Although they were very religious people, there was an overabundance of immorality. This was due to a lack of following true religions. There most famous temple was dedicated to Aphrodite who was the Greek God of love. This led to prostitution in the name of religion as this temple contained over 1000 sacred prostitutes. This was only the beginning of their immorality. In fact, things got so bad that the Greeks came up with a new meaning for the name of this city. In the Greek language, the verb ¡§to Corinthianize¡¨ came to mean ¡§to practice sexual immorality¡¨.
As you can see, Paul had his work cut out for him when he counseled the church at Corinth. Because of their background, the people of this church had many underlying issues that reared their head in the church. Going to church does not automatically make everything better. It¡¦s like a great evangelist once said: ¡§Going to church makes you a Christian about as much as going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger.¡¨ These issues have to be dealt with ¡V they don¡¦t just go away. The same is true in today¡¦s church. Paul¡¦s job became one of instructing this church on how to act and to inspire them to live in a holy way. And, if you look at the problems facing their church ¡V immaturity, instability, divisions, jealousy, lawsuits, marital difficulties, and sexual immorality ¡V you can see that there society was not much different than the society we live in today. Therefore, we need to pay close attention to the warnings, exaltations, and instructions in this book because they are so relevant today. Let¡¦s first dig in and find out what they were doing well.
Exaltations: Things They Did Well
Paul lays out three areas in which the Corinthian church is doing well. Let¡¦s take a look at these.
Speech:
Three kids got together one day and started bragging about their fathers. The first boy stated, ¡§My dad¡¦s so smart he can talk for one hour on any subject.¡¨ Not to be outdone, the second boy said, ¡§My dad¡¦s so smart he can talk for two hours on any subject.¡¨ Finally, the third boy exclaimed, ¡§My dad¡¦s a pastor and he¡¦s so smart he can talk for 3 hours and doesn¡¦t even need a subject!¡¨
Paul tells the church that they have been enriched in every way. The first way he knows this is by looking at the words they speak. This is no little compliment. After all, the Bible has quite a bit to say about words. James 3 is a great chapter to check out when it comes to speech. First of all, in verse 6 we are told that, ¡§The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and it is itself set on fire by hell.¡¨ We are also told in verse 8 that ¡§No man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.¡¨ But, we are given the promise in verse 2 that, ¡§If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.¡¨ So, what does all this mean when we look at Paul¡¦s exaltation of the speech of the Corinthians?
First of all, it tells me that the Christians at Corinth took their words seriously. So many times, we let things come out of our mouths that we don¡¦t even think about. We speak before we think and we end up regretting what we said or even hurting another person and not even realizing it. However, these Christians were good at watching their words. How did they do this? Well, we are told that no man can tame the tongue. The only way it is possible to do this is to give control over every word to the Lord, and that is what these Christians did. They did not speak out of their own thoughts, motives, and whims. They allowed the Lord to take control over everything that came out of their mouths. They took the words of Ecclesiastes 5:2 to heart. ¡§Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.¡¨ That¡¦s the key to holding your tongue.
The old phrase, ¡§Sticks and stone may break my bones but words will never hurt me¡¨ couldn¡¦t be further from the truth. Words can hurt more than any physical pain you have ever had at times. What is the key to this? Think before you speak, ask God to guide your words, and only speak what is absolutely necessary. The believers in Corinth evidently had made this a priority, and they were rightly commended for it. We need to make it a priority to make sure all of our speech is giving glory to God and not causing harm to our brothers and sisters.
Knowledge:
One of my favorite shows growing up was G.I Joe. As you watched each show, they were all ended one way. Does anyone remember it? After each show, you would see one or two members of G.I. Joe giving a public service announcement for kids. You were taught how to handle situations ranging from what you are to do if you are drowning to how to handle a stranger. Then, each one was ended by the phrase, ¡§Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.¡¨
Well, the second area of excellence for this church was in the area of knowledge. These people knew the Scriptures and the things of God. They had a hunger to learn more about their Lord and Savior. They had a hunger to get in God¡¦s Word. They were winning half the battle by gaining knowledge. Where has this hunger gone?
We have talked before about the Barna organization. They are the foremost experts on gathering statistical information about the Christian community. In one of their recent polls, they asked Christians to rank 7 categories according to how mature they felt in each area. Among the categories of worship, sharing your faith, Biblical knowledge, living out your faith, serving people, having healthy relationships, and leading your family, one category stood out dramatically for the wrong reason. 25% of Christians felt the least mature in the area of Biblical knowledge, and almost 70% of Christians felt that their Bible knowledge was below average. It does not take long to find out that this is true.
Let¡¦s take a quick survey this morning. Just answer these questions to yourself? How many of you have 25 or more Scripture verses memorized? 15? 10? 5? If you had to take a basic test on the Bible this morning, how many of you think you would pass? How many of you read the Bible with the expectations of learning something new everyday? This is a problem.
Thankfully, there is an easy solution to this problem. If the Corinthians could have great knowledge without having the New Testament available to them, surely we can succeed in this area. After all, we all have access to one or more Bibles everyday. That means that we can get in it. That means we can learn more about God everyday. That means we can ask God to give us wisdom from his Word and we can make notes and highlight what He shows us. Many times, we argue about things in the church that we don¡¦t even know about. All we need to do is read with the same hunger that these Corinthians had to increase our knowledge. A hunger that comes from a heart wanting to get closer to God. Do you have that this morning?
A Very Specific Warning: Be Unified
Now, these Christians had made some great strides in the faith, but not everything was going in their favor. Even though they were all meeting together and had a union among them, they were still lacking one thing ¡V unity. You might be wondering something? How can they have union together without having unity? How can they live, work, and worship together and yet be lacking in unity? Well, a great pastor once put it this way. ¡§If you take two cats and tie them together by their tails and drape them over a clothesline, I guarantee that you would have a union with very little unity!¡¨
Paul¡¦s prayer for this church is found in verse 10. He appeals to the church by pleading, ¡§that all of you agree with one another so that there would be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.¡¨ Obviously these believers have a ways to go in this area because there have become completing factions in this church. Some are following after Paul while others claim Apollos is greater. There are still more claiming that Peter is the one that had more authority. This is astonishing to me when you take a closer look at it. First of all, all of these people were preaching the same message. They were all telling them to follow Christ and no one else. So, why did the problems arise? These three all had different styles of preaching and ministering. Even though the messages were the same, some people liked certain styles, traditions, and the like of one apostle over the others. So, even though they were all preaching Christ, people took sides according to their own personal preferences. This sounds eerily familiar and completely relevant for today.
Luckily, Paul gives us some instructions on how to deal with this in chapter three. Let¡¦s take a look at verses 1-4. ¡§Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly ¡V mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, ¡¥I follow Paul,¡¦ and another, ¡¥I follow Apollos,¡¦ are you not mere men?¡¨ These are some tough words for this church with one basic message. He is sending the message to the church that they need to grow up.
Many times in the Scripture, we are told not to be of the world, but we are called to be of Christ. If we were to make a graph to show our maturity as Christians, it would look something like the one in your insert.
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Worldly Godly
(Pre-Christian) (Mature Christian)
What Paul is telling this church is that they are much closer to the worldly side of the equation than the maturity side. He knows this because of the divisions and quarreling that he hears is going on in their church. You see, these are things that happen among non-Christians and immature Christians. If they were more mature, these things would not happen because they would be more concerned about what God wants and not what they want. This would make for unity and not just union. This morning, if you would put a dot next to where you think your maturity level is, where would it go? And, would it match up with where Paul would put it? If you find yourself involved in quarrels and division in the church, your dot would be much closer to the wrong side according to Paul.
We need to take this warning seriously if we wish to grow as a church. We must make the effort to be unified by moving on and growing up in our faith. This can start by growing in knowledge and taking control of our words, but that is just a start. We must give everything over to God ¡V and that may include our preferences, opinions and traditions in order to be unified to God¡¦s will. That¡¦s a tough teaching, but it is a required thing. After all, that¡¦s what surrender is all about. If you surrender in a war, you don¡¦t get to pick what you get to keep and how the other side is to act. You surrendered, so they get full control. The same is true of our relationship with God. Too many of us have accepted Jesus as our Savior without surrendering our life over to Him. We are called to surrender and that involves everything. Have you done that? Let¡¦s pray.
