HoHum:
"What must I forsake to follow Christ?" a young man asked.
"Colored clothes for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don't eat any more white bread. You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths or shave your beard. To shave is to lie against him who created us, to attempt to improve on his work."
WBTU:
“Do not go beyond what is written.”
Many others through the ages have created standards beyond what the Scripture has revealed to judge the behavior of other Christians. They were in danger of placing their man made and cultural standards on an equal level with commands and principles of Bible.
Remember Paul is confronting the problem of division here. “For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?” 1 Corinthians 3:4, NIV.
Paul begins to correct this by talking about judging in vs. 3-5. Many of the judgements made of Paul and Apollos were based on extra biblical standards, because this is where Paul mentions “learn not to exceed what is written.” What issues were dividing the Corinthians into various camps based on various teachers?
1. How many converts they each had. Issue from 4:2 is not the number of converts he has, but whether he is faithful to the Lord.
2. Ministry style. With their personalities and gifts they did things differently. 3:10-15
3. Certain extra biblical standards of conduct. “Do not go beyond what is written” This is what we are focusing on tonight.
For us the HS is warning about the danger of drawing conclusions in our minds about matters not addressed in the Word of God. We must confine our opinions about spiritual truth and morality to the teachings of the Bible. Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:16, NIV. This book has everything we need.
Why should we, as individual Christians and churches, be committed to guarding against “going beyond what is written”? The answer lies in all the problems that result from it.
Thesis: 2 dangers that Paul mentions in 1 Cor. 4:6
For instances:
The danger of spiritual pride
“so that no one of you will become arrogant”- NASB.
How exactly does this happen? It centers around a Greek word that means “to be puffed up”, and is found several times in Paul’s writings.
1. “Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.” 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, NIV.
Knowledge puffs up. The study of spiritual issues can actually produce bad results if it is divorced from love for God and others.
“The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5, NIV.
Without love, the knowledge we gain just makes us prideful and unloving toward others. Along these lines, it is interesting to notice how many judgmental conversations begin with words like “I’ve studied this extensively,” “I’ve been around the block a few times,” or “I know why this is happening.” The more people think they know about a particular issue, through study or experience, the more qualified they feel to make judgments about it- even if the Scriptures do not make such judgments.
2. “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.” Colossians 2:16-18, NIV.
This whole section deals with issues that go beyond what is written. Spiritual pride actually makes us spiritually immature and ungodly. The more we add to the Scriptures, the more we go backward instead of forward in our relationship with God.
why does this happen? When we learn and obey the commandments and teachings of Scripture, the HS is present and working within us as we do. When we are learning and obeying the “commandments and teachings of men,” HS is not. If we grow in our godliness by the power of the HS, He makes sure that we progress in humility as well. When we are going by man made ideas, we can only grow arrogant as we surpass other Christians in our “spiritual success.”
Division in the Body of Christ
“Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.”- NIV
Going beyond what is written leads to spiritual pride, and spiritual pride inevitable leads to division among believers. Differing standards of morality, and the judgments based on them, pit brother against brother, and groups of Christians against other groups of Christians. An “us against them” mentality almost always develops when we go beyond what is written.
I am avoiding a lot of issues here because then people will tune me out. Mention this moral issue with little Biblical discussion on it and people pick sides and no one wins.
Let’s take one that is almost ridiculous, outlandish. Very few have strong passions either way on this one. Let’s say that a couple has a baby (nice considering that many are having babies). Some sister in Christ listens to a strong sermon about how families need to be parent centered instead of child centered. The couple who has the baby feed the baby when the baby is hungry. They do not wake up the baby ever 2 hours to feed the baby but do it when the baby cries for it. (By the way, we put our babies on a schedule not because of some spiritual principle but out of necessity). This sister in Christ who heard the sermon about the family needing to be parent centered instead of child centered takes offense at how this couple feeds their baby. This family is going down the wrong path of being child centered instead of parent centered (obviously this sister never has had a baby). Of course the Bible does not say anything directly about when we should feed our infants, but these arguments are based on God is a God of order not chaos, and the principle that the family needs to be lead by the parents. When this sister confronts this couple, she is attempting to “help” them, or straighten them out on their bad parenting practices. If the child centered couple (demand feeding their baby) don’t change, they will be seen in an even worse light, because they do not take counsel very well. What does this sister do, well, she follows the instruction of Matthew 18:15-20. She takes a few others along and she bolsters her case further by confronting them with their practice of sharing a bed with this baby, rocking this baby to sleep at night, and even driving this baby around the block in the car seat to get her calmed down. After this, she takes it to the elders (who laugh at her) and the elders finally decide to put this couple out of the church because obviously they are not follow the directions of Scripture. No, probably she will not go this far (because she doesn’t want to be laughed at by the elders), but she will follow the instructions of “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.” Titus 3:10, NIV. What is the end result of all of this? Division and hurt feelings. Over what? Something that is not directly talked about in Scripture. We are not being silent where the Bible is silent. By the way, who is really being divisive?
I understand that some division between Christians is a “necessary evil,” because many do not follow the direct teachings of Scripture. However, we all need to be challenged to consider the kinds of issues that would cause us to criticize other Christians. Are these issues really biblical ones, or are they mere preferences, or extrapolations from biblical principles that do not hold up under careful study.
Division between believers in Christ is sometimes necessary for clearly biblical reasons, but division for any other reason, is abhorrent to God. “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16-19, NIV. The last one does not seem as bad as the others but it something that the Lord hates. Division in the family of God is something that should be avoided at all costs (except at the cost of biblical truth, of course). The Word warns us not to be the ones who cause such unnecessary division by, for instance, spreading extra biblical things that drive a wedge between Christians.
In doctrine, unity; in opinions, liberty; in all things, love. Need to know what is doctrine and what is opinion. Some are so arrogant to think that their opinions are doctrine. Like the Sadducees: “Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Matthew 22:29, NIV.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23, NIV.
