The Church must maintain its Distinctiveness amid a Corinthianizing Culture! A distinction God-made, not man-made. That was the fundamental failure of the Church at Corinth. It had failed to maintain its distinctiveness amid the corrosive culture of Corinth.
The Maintenance of Distinctiveness is also the challenge that confronts the Church in America. Amid our contemporary Corinthianizing Culture, we must resist the pressures to Conform.
However, contemporary Congregationalists are more compassionately concerned for the Carnal than they are for the Spiritual. We tend to be Overly Obsessed with the Obvious and apathetically Ambiguous on the Actual. Our concern for the Carnal is overtly evident in Three Major Areas.
First, our Polarizing Politics in Kingdom Matters evidence our concern for the Carnal. Church folk possess an uncanny knack for exhibiting opposite powers in opposite directions. WE love to divide up into opposing groups, sects and parties. In every congregation there are opposing sides with opposing powers. Its as if we haven’t heard the Lord Jesus say, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Yet we still pursues this “I of’s” policy. I am of Paul, of Cephas, of Apollo and of Christ. We have foolishly labeled ourselves as Conservatives, Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, Independents, Moderates, Liberals, Primitives, Progressives and Charismatics. Yes, we have subscribed to Carnal Party politics. And that always polarizes, divides the unity of the Body of Christ. Perhaps, we need to ponder this question: Is Christ divided? Polarizing Politics!!! Our concern for the carnal is evident.
Second, our Prejudiced Principles evidence our concern for the carnal. We have formulated our creeds and fashioned our affirmations upon the anvil of our own preconceived misconceptions, our likes and dislikes and not upon the unalterable Word of God. Of late we hear much of “Traditional Family Values” that are more culturally biased than Biblically based! WE hear many in the camp of the Church champion the cause of Religious Freedom. We foolishly rally around the idea of freedom of choice, our inherent right to pick and choose, and have forgotten that we are not free to choose: We are not our own for we are bought with a price. We did not choose the Lord Jesus, He chose us! Our concern for the carnal is evident. Not only in our Polarizing politics and Prejudiced Principles but:
Third, in our Perverted Programs. I must sadly confess that personally, parentally and parochially our programs are misguided, distorted and perverted representations of the King’s agenda. You have to admit that the goal of most of our church programs is Materialistic Gain. Our so-called Revivals are mostly geared toward Culturalization and not toward Regeneration. And our feeble efforts to increase our memberships are an exercise in extending Ethnicity rather than Religiosity. Hence, Polarizing Politics, Prejudiced Principles and Perverted Programs evidence our Obsession with the Obvious, our Concern for the Carnal.
Subsequently, I submit to us that if the Church does not practice the Maintenance of Distinctiveness, then the Carnal will Supersede the Spiritual. The Church at Corinth is a classic case in point. They had allowed the Carnal to take the place and position of the Spiritual because they succumbed to a Corinthianizing Culture.
Yet, in the midst of Neo-Corinthianism the Church must rise above the Carnal. And so, I thought it would be helpful if we could tap in on this Pneumatical Movement of the First Century. A movement that was marked by a Rejection of Carnal Social, Religious and political Ideas. A movement that had a strong and sustained emphasis on the Spiritual. I call this Pneumatical Movement Spiritual Enlightenment, a Renaissance of the Sacred.
To rise above the Carnal, a people must consider and commit to the Spirit.
Therefore to realize that, we are Summoned to the Summit to Sup with the Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit. We must comprehend as well as apply His Absolute Sovereignty over the Subjects and Service of the Church of Christ on Earth.
And so, cognizant of both the Spirit’s Sovereignty over the Church and our Usefulness as we are subjected to that Lordship, Paul writes in Verse One: “Now concerning Spirituals…” He deals here first and foremost with Spiritual Enlightenment. “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren,” says Paul, “I would not have you ignorant.”
Hence Paul knew that Ignorance and even Idolatry were implied concepts in the idea of Enlightenment. So first, Paul deals with the Darkness before he holds forth the Light. And we do well to follow his train of thought as we consider –
I. First, Ignorance and Idolatry as recorded in Verses One and Two.
Spiritual Enlightenment follows upon the heels of Ignorance.
So first, let’s consider our Ignorance as revealed in Verse One of out text (read). “Brethren, I would not have you Ignorant” says Paul, “concerning spiritual gifts.” The implication there being they were ignorant. “Brethren, I would not have you ignorant…”
No pastor wants to shepherd an ignorant flock! One of his divine mandates is to diminish and dispel ignorance by feeding the flock with knowledge and understanding of the Spiritual according to God in Jeremiah 3:15. “And I will give you pastors according to My heart,” says God, “which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
However, many just don’t know of the spiritual; they don’t know because they haven’t been taught. They are Actively engaged in the pursuit of ignorance because they aren’t questing and thirsting for knowledge of the Spiritual.
They do have a degree of knowledge. Knowledgeable of their Position – they know they are saved. Yet, they are Ignorant of their Possessions – the Spirit and His Gifts.
So Paul says, “Brethren, I would not have you ignorant concerning Spiritual Gifts.” You can be ignorant about anything else, but know the Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit. Because ignorance of the Spirit results in Idolatry. For he continues in Verse Two saying, “Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.”
Second, Ignorance leads to Idolatry. There is one thing that we all Know Now – we know our Previous State, Gentiles! The phrase “ye were Gentiles” is in the Imperfect Tense in the Greek Text; meaning, we used to live in an existing state of Alienation. The word “Ethnos-Gentiles” does not signify Ethnicity, race or nationality, although there is Ethnic Ignorance as it relates to God in the form of Superstitions. But “ethne-Gentiles” as it relates primarily to our Ethos; that is, our Ethics in our moral and religious customs and practices. Ethically in our religious practice we were Pantheists, worshippers of many gods rather than Monotheists, worshippers of the One and true, living God. Citizens by birth and nationality of the kingdoms of this world under the tyrannical rule of Satan. We were by nature children of wrath, alienated from God on account of unrepentant sins. We were strangers from the covenants of promise, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. At that time we were without Christ, having no hope and without God in the world. That’s what we were.
As Gentiles in the ethical sense, we were not seeking a relationship with what is Real and Eternal; we sought a short-term relationship with the Sensual; for we were carried away to dumb idols. It’s as if Gentiles and Dumb Idols go together. Ignorant Gentiles and Dumb Idols are Perennial Partners.
A Plurality of Voiceless Idols signifies our previous profession of Pantheism (Eros, Silver and Gold). Ignorant and thus easily “led away.” Ignorant of the agents that carried us to the shrine of idols. Now we know that we were moved, impelled, urged on by the lusts of our flesh. We were lovers of pleasures and attracted to the spectacular.
We were too ignorant to recognize an absence of dialogue and reciprocity. Talking to statures, images, things that never answered, never spoke a word, never exchanged one single idea.
Our practice, our custom was to go with the flow, follow the crowd, latch on to the popular fad; just carried away by every wind of doctrine. No stability – carried away! No conviction – just carried away! No commitment – just carried away! No integrity of character, no sense of the real and eternal – just carried away to the shrines of the Sensual and the Secular!
We once were Gentiles in our Ignorance and Idolatry but now a transformation has taken place, for Paul now calls us “Brethren-Adolphoi.” Brethren connotes that Reconciliation has occurred between God and us. Through the expiatory death of Jesus on the cross, God’s wrath has been avenged on our ignorance and idolatry so that new He can be Just and at the same time justify us guilty sinners. A relationship of love has now been established by God for us. We are no longer His enemies but now His adopted sons and daughters. By the blood of Jesus we have peace with God and peace with the children of God. Now are we no longer Gentiles but “Brethren.” Now are we fellow-members with the saints; fellow associates with the patriarchs and apostles and prophets. WE have been Reconciled and translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, Christ Jesus the Lord.
So now that the Darkness has been dispelled, now shines the Light of Spiritual Enlightenment. Therefore in verse 3, Paul draws an enlightened inference. He reasserts something already known; he says, I make known to you what you already knew from personal experience.
So let’s consider the Main Thing – Spiritual Enlightenment.
Spiritual enlightenment is basically a revelation of Two Pneumatical Principles regarding the Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit.
First, the Holy Spirit will always Glorify the Lord Jesus – verse 3a. He will never influence any to “Dis” Jesus – verse 3a.
‘oujdei;"’ is emphatic: no one, not one person, none speaking. ‘lalein” has to do with form (i.e., preaching, teaching, lecturing, ordinary conversation, chit-chat).
Dative of agency ejn pneuvmati qeou’ - by the power of, inspired by, actuated by
jAnavqema jIhsou’" – lays a curse on Jesus; says Jesus is an accursed person (that is, rejected by God, doomed to hell). The Holy Spirit will always praise, speak well of, celebrate, glorify Jesus Christ.
Second, the Holy Spirit is the Author of the confession unto Salvation – verse 3b.
“No one without exception - duvnatai eijpei’n (present indicative and aorist infinitive) means has the ability to say once or one time:
1. Lord Jesus or
2. Jesus is Lord
3. Except by the agency of the Holy Spirit
The gift of the Holy Spirit is so spiritual and we are so carnal, is so mysterious and we are so material that we are very apt to forget His value. But let us always remember that Christ on the cross is of no value apart from the Holy Spirit in us. In vain that blood is flowing, unless the finger of the Spirit applies the blood to our conscience; in vain is that garment of righteousness wrought out, a garment without seam woven from top to bottom, unless the Spirit wraps it around us and arrays us in its costly folds. The river of the water of life cannot quench our thirst till the Spirit presents the cup and lifts it to our lips. All the things that are in the paradise of God itself could never be blissful to us so long as we are dead souls, and dead souls we are until that heavenly wind comes from the four corners of the earth and breathes upon us that we may live.
The Holy Spirit is the Great Teacher of the Father’s children. The Father begets us by His own will through the Word of truth. Jesus Christ takes us into union with Himself, so that we become in a second sense the children of God. Then God the Holy Ghost breathes into us “the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father.” Having given us that spirit of adoption, He trains us, becomes our great Educator, cleanses away our ignorance, and reveals one truth after another, until at last we comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths and lengths and breadths, and know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; and then the Spirit introduces the educated ones to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
