Series: Questions About the Church
Part 2 of 5: Why Do Some People in the Church Think Differently from Me?
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:7, 11-12, 26; 3:1-2,4
Introduction
Last week I started a series of messages dealing with questions people may have about the church, and I talked about “What the church is?”. This week I want to deal with the question: Why Do Some People in the Church Think Differently from Me? There’s an awful lot in the Bible about the church being united (and we’re going to talk about that next week), but there are so many differences between people that affect the church. Why is that? That’s what I hope to answer a little bit today.
1. Church People Are Different Because of the Gifts God Has Given, (1 Cor 1:7)
Verse 7, Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. (NIV)
There are two key words I want to focus on in this verse. The first is, ‘spiritual gift.’ In the Greek language of the New Testament that’s one word, and it’s the same word from which we get our word, ‘charismatic.’ Now, we use that word to describe some denominations that we believe have misunderstood some of the teachings about spiritual gifts. But the word itself, simply refers to what we call spiritual gifts.
What is a spiritual gift? Using that same word, ‘charismatic,’ do you know how we say someone has a charismatic personality? These are people who seem to have a wonderful mixture of confidence, kindness, sincerity, integrity, knowledge about a particular area, leadership style, and being able to relate to people. And after spending some time with them, you want to be around them. And it’s almost unexplainable; “I don’t know why, but I like being around this person.”
Spiritual gifts are similar to this. These are abilities in various areas of ministry. Many of these are listed in 1 Cor. 12 and in some of Paul’s other writings, and include things like: preaching, teaching, witnessing, wisdom, discernment, administration, giving, languages, healing, and helping with menial kinds of tasks.
They are abilities that we may have, but it’s like God blesses them in our lives, so that they are stronger than if we just learned some of this on our own. I mean, you can learn how to preach, teach, witness, and administrate, and so on, but it’s sort of like God gives you a special knack for something.
As most of you probably know, I like computers. When we were in South Dakota, our Director of Missions was always calling me for help with computer things. He would sometimes get a new program and install it on the office computer, and then, he couldn’t figure out how to use it. So, he’d call me for help. I’d go to the office, sit down at the computer, and run the program. It would be a program that I’d never seen before. I’d ask him, “What do you want to do first?” He’d tell me, and I’d start clicking certain places and find what it was he wanted to do, and figure out the steps he had to take to get done what he wanted to do. It’s like I’ve got a knack for some of that. I’m not ready to call that a spiritual gift, but God has given that ability to me, and I can help when people have some computer questions.
So, an easy way to explain spiritual gifts is that they’re kind of like us having a knack for doing something, but it’s a God-given and Spirit-empowered ability that God wants us to use to minister to others in the church, and to advance His kingdom. God gives every believer one or more spiritual gifts to do His work.
With that being said, part of the reason that church people think differently from one another is because of how we’re gifted. If my spiritual gift is evangelism, then, in church planning and budgeting, I will want us to emphasize that and plan events to carry that out. If my spiritual gift is teaching, then, I will want to see us follow a planned learning approach to Scripture and Doctrine, and let that be our main focus. If my spiritual gift is administration, then, I will want us to set up leadership training in all areas of church work, and I will everybody going to this training.
So, even our spiritual-giftedness can lead us to think differently in the church. And there’s nothing wrong with that as long as we do what we’re going to talk about next week.
2. Church People Are Different Because of the Influence of Different Spiritual Leaders, (1 Cor 1:11-12)
Verse 11-12, My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 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." (NIV)
Now, I read verse 11 last week and emphasized the ‘household’ part. This week I included it because it leads into verse 12. The people were having quarrels because of the differences of opinions they had regarding spiritual leaders.
The word, ‘quarrel,’ in verse 11 seems to emphasize a verbal disagreement. Some of you may have the translation, ‘contentions.’ It could even be translated ‘debate.’
Do you remember when John the Baptist and Jesus were preaching at about the same time. Some people had heard John preach, and they agreed with what he was saying. And the Scripture calls them John’s disciples. They were “following” John.
This is what’s happening here. Some may have heard Paul preach or teach directly, or learned from the letters he had written, and they decided to focus their spiritual learning on the things Paul had said. The same thing goes for Apollos and Peter. So what they have done is made their favorite teacher or preacher more important in their eyes.
Now, do we do that today? Of course we do! Some of you watch or listen to Charles Stanley, John Hagee, Chuck Swindoll, James Dobson, Billy Graham, David Jeremiah, or any number of others. I don’t know how many different preachers and teachers come on some of the satellite TV channels, because we don’t have that. Instead, our TV service comes in over the internet. Our service is called SkyAngel, and all of the channels are considered either religious or family channels. So, we have TONS of TV preachers and teachers on our channels to choose from.
Our tendency is to find the one we like best and listen to that one. We come to trust that person’s teaching, so when they say, “This is what a particular verse means,” we accept it. Somebody else may teach that it means something a little different. Then, we want to defend our favorite Bible teacher. Well, Paul’s not even talking about false teachers or wrong doctrine being taught, because he’s talking about himself, Apollos and Peter. But they must have emphasized different things, or they applied the Scripture in different ways, or their style of leadership was different.
And we in the church get more comfortable with some preachers and teachers than we do with others. So people in the church think differently because of the influence of different spiritual leaders.
Now, I like that some said they were followers of Christ. They must have taken what they have learned from many different leaders and pulled it all together, so they say, “Here’s what I’m learning about Jesus.”I think that’s the way we need to be, as long as we don’t look down on those who haven’t done that yet.
3. Church People Are Different Because of their Place in Life, (1 Cor 1:26)
Verse 26, Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. (NIV)
Paul’s main point here is that people who are intellectuals, or are wealthy, or royalty, are often slow to respond to the gospel message, because they are more self-absorbed. So he’s saying, “Look at yourselves. the majority of you are average everday kind of people.” But he uses the phrase Not many of you were wise, philosopher-types. Not many of you were “mighty,” capable, wealthy, or influential. Not many of you were nobility. The words NOT MANY leave room for some of them to have come from those backgrounds.
So, that says to me that there were people from different circumstances of life. And that can be one of the reasons why people think differently in the church.
You know, I could go around the room asking for what you think the solution is to the economic condition we are facing right now, and I’d probably get 50 different answers. We all have our own opinions about things, don’t we. Whether they’re right or wrong, we still have them. And sometimes, it may not matter whether our opinions are right or wrong, but they’re just different. Our opinions—how we think about things—is affected by how we were raised, our education, our work experience, our health, our families, many, many things.
And the church can be made up of people from all different kinds of backgrounds. So, we are likely to approach church issues differently. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. I mean, it’s God Who created us, and God Who placed us in our family and cultural settings, and God Who makes some educational and career opportunities available for us.
So, when we’re looking to minister to and share the Gospel with the world, having all these different perspectives can be very helpful. And that’s part of the reason God made us different.
4. Church People Are Different Because of their Spiritual Maturity, (1 Cor 1:12; 3:1-2)
1:12 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." (NIV)
Paul brings this back up in 3: 4. He says, “When you act this way, you’re being mere men.” They were not being “spiritually minded.” Look back up at 3:1-2, “1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly — mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.” (NIV)
Paul points out the fact that they are spiritually immature. And it shows up in the way they act and in what they say at church. I mentioned the influence of different spiritual leaders a moment ago. Well, there’s nothing wrong with having a favorite Bible teacher, or preacher. But when we allow that favoritism to lead to a superior or judgmental attitude, then, it becomes a problem.
How many of you ever said this when you were kid:
My daddy’s stronger than your daddy.
My daddy’s smarter than your daddy.
My daddy can beat up your daddy.
As children, we often have that kind of favoritism about our fathers, and it makes us feel maybe more secure when we try to press that point with other people. But when we do that spiritually, we are acting like spiritual infants, and we aren’t ready for the deeper truths of God’s Word. And what’s sad is that sometimes there are people who have been Christians for a long time, but they’ve never “grown up” spiritually. So, in the church, there are some babies in the faith, some spiritual toddlers, some children, some with a teen-age kind of faith, and some with a mature adult type of faith.
That’s another reason that people in the church are different from us.
So, church people are different from each other because of:
1. the different spiritual gifts God gives us
2. the different spiritual leader that have influenced us
3. our life circumstances, and
4. our spiritual maturity.
And those differences are OK. There’s nothing wrong with having these differences. But I believe Paul encourages us to strive for greater spiritual maturity, so that these normal differences won’t lead to contentions, quarreling, conflict.
So, how do we grow more spiritually mature? Bible study obviously has a part in that because we need to increase our knowledge of God. But having more knowledge doesn’t automatically make us more mature.
Wrestling with the truths of God and what they mean to us personally and discovering how God wants us to live them out helps us to grow in our spiritual understanding. Prayer is important, because through sincere prayer we humble ourselves before God and submit to His leadership in our lives.
Conclusion
As you look at your own life, what differences do you see between yourself and others in the church. Not all those differences are bad; they’re just different. But what about your spiritual maturity? Are you an infant? Toddler? Child? Teenage? Adult? Are you willing to do what it takes to become more spiritually mature?
