A reflection on early chapters of 1 Corinthians, identifying the core problem of self-love and pride in the church and calling believers back to unity and love for God and others, as exemplified by Christ’s sacrifice.
Transcript
Well, you know, a few years ago we began this church and the first book that we preached here, at Roanoke Valley Bible Church, we worked through the book of Colossians. And I chose Colossians because it’s one of those books that focuses on the church and the importance of the body of Christ. And uh and later on we looked at the book of Ephesians, which is the sister book of Colossians. You know, we learned powerful truths about how the church is to function, the giftedness of God’s people. One of the things in chapter four of Ephesians, it tells us why God gives, why God gifts people that Jesus Christ himself sovereignly gives us these gifts, that he has earned the right from the cross. Gives each individual a gift and gifts his church with the people, so that the church itself can be built up and edified. And then now lately for the past several, many months, we’ve been looking at First Corinthians. You know, I think if I were to do this over, I would have started with the book of First Corinthians and we could be looking at these more in depth books now. Because First Corinthians has foundational truths about the local church. It’s core things about the local church and the Christian life as we live our lives out among the people of God. And it’s foundational, it’s it’s basic. And there are so many wonderful things. We’ve gone through 12 chapters in this book so far. And this morning, rather than advance to chapter 13, I really would like to simply talk about those 12 chapters for a few moments. We’re just to think about them again. And uh so I think maybe a text to begin with, uh just to read, is Paul’s introduction to this book. And his prayers for for this church. In chapter one, verse three, he says,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says,
I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in him and all speech and knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you. So that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s a really extraordinary thing to have begun this book because as this book has unfolded, as we have studied it for the past weeks and reached chapter 12, it’s interesting to go back and look at that that prayer of Thanksgiving that Paul prays for the Corinthian Church because here is a church that was particularly gifted in grace by God. God had blessed this church. The people in Corinth were a particularly wicked group of people. The name Corinthian was renowned in its day because of the licentiousness, the the wicked behavior that it uh that it brought to mind. It was a pagan place among a pagan world. And God out of incredible love sent to this city the Apostle Paul who brought to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. And their hearts were awakened to him. Hearts were awakened to the Lord, and they put their trust in the Lord, God saved them and changed them, and he gifted them. He gave them precious gifts that were theirs that uh that they had individually uniquely. And he gave them those gifts so that the church, the body of Christ there could be built up, and so that they could be a light and a witness in the wicked city, in that very dark place. And yet, as we’ve read through this book, we’ve noticed that there is a problem. And I say a problem, there is really one big problem. But as we’ve read through this book, you might remember there have been lots of problems. There was the issue that resulted in, you know, the divisions of one kind or another. The the decision, the division because they took pride in the teachers that they followed, and they formed themselves into little clique groups. And they were proud of their groups. And so these groups became rivals with other groups. They began to compete with with each other over who’s the best. There’s there’s division over social status that we’ve looked at that as we’ve looked at these chapters. Uh, the wise versus the foolish. The Roman citizens versus the slaves, the powerful versus the weak, the wealthy versus the poor. That was even marked out in the way they celebrated the Lord’s table. There was the problem of defrauding one another. So some of the members of this church were cheating other members, and the other members, upset about being cheated, were taking them to court, to civil court, because there wasn’t anyone in the church who was deciding issues like that. There was the problem of tolerating and participating in sexual immorality within the church. One person in particular was was in gross sin, and the members of the church, many of them, was proud of the fact that they were tolerant of this man. And they people got caught up into their own sins. We have a whole chapter uh that that uh that reminds them that they’re they’re not to have anything to do with the harlotry that was going on in the city. There was the problem of asserting rights. Uh they when it came down to a decision about whether you should eat meat sacrificed to idols, the thing that seemed most important to them was that their rights not be violated. They insisted on the rights that they had over their brothers, sisters. So there’s all of these things. But there’s really just one problem. It it before I get to that one problem, which you probably already know, but but I think uh which there’s there’s another step to it that makes it easier to see. There’s the thing about the gifts themselves. You know, if God gives you something, if God gives you anything in this world, if he gives you a house or a car or a building to worship in, if he if he gives you a talent or an ability, a natural talent or ability, or a special gracious talent as a believer, you can use that talent in the way God intended it to bring glory to his own name. Or, you can use that ability in some other way. And that other way is what was going on in the Corinthian church. Glorious gifts from God can and should be used to glorify God. But, uh, when we think about these gifts that have been given to the Corinthian church, uh, we recognize that uh, they weren’t used to the glory of God. How do we know that they weren’t using these gifts to the glory of God? We know that because instead of these gifts creating the unity in the church that God had designed, it was creating divisions. There were some people in the church that felt like that they were so gifted, they didn’t need anybody else. And there were some people in the church who felt who felt like, you know, they didn’t have a significant gift. And so they felt like they shouldn’t belong to this group at all. That’s division. That’s that is that’s a problem. And so all of chapter 12, all of chapter 12, Paul is reminding the Corinthians that the reason that it was it is the one spirit that gives these gifts. These spiritual gifts are coming from God himself. And he’s calling them back to the unity and the purpose of the gifts throughout the whole chapter. So how were they using the gifts? They were using these things to inflate themselves. You know, there’s back in chapter eight, if you look at chapter eight and verse one, it’s a it’s an important verse. Uh, it’s it’s introducing the things sacrificed to idols as you remember. Look at the second part of that.
Knowledge makes arrogant, love edifies.
I like the King James here.
Knowledge puffs up but charity edifies.
It’s a pretty significant verse. You know, when I when you look up the Greek word, the word literally means to inflate or to puff up. That’s what the word means when it says, knowledge puffs up. Now, when Paul wrote those words, he’s not minimizing the important the importance of knowledge. Truth, all truth comes from God. God gives truth, and to know something is valuable. In the very as you as we continue reading, he’s going to say after he gets through chapter 13, he’s going to say, desire earnestly the best gifts, especially prophecy. Why does he say especially prophecy? Well, do you remember that this book is written before the gospels are written? And the early church was gifted in such a way that they had the word of God. And so what he is saying there is that we need to value the knowledge and the truth that comes from God. That is something that is precious and we need to value it. But in this verse, if that’s all you have is the knowledge, then it has a the tendency to puff a person up. You know, that’s we use that word a lot, you know, uh, to puff up a balloon, to inflate a balloon. A person who is very proud, puffs out their chest. Talk about swelled heads. That idea, we’ve got that metaphor, don’t we? That’s what puff is. You know, I know quite a bit about puff because I worked in print advertising for a number of years. And print advertising is quite a lot about puff. That’s what you do. That’s what ads do, you know? It’s puff. You puff the ad copy. You make it seem more important than it actually is. That’s what people do in advertising. And the commercials are like that, aren’t they? You know, your life is going to be filled with peace and joy. Every day you’ll hear the birds singing, and it’s like going to be just like a spring morning if you just buy this product and spread it in the bathroom. That’s puff. And and it’s believable in some sort of a way. And so people do buy the products, and they spread it in the bathroom, and the bathroom may smell a little sweeter, but their life isn’t much sweeter. That’s puff. That’s that’s ballyhoo. That’s just making a lot out of not much. Well, that’s what the Corinthians were doing with themselves. They were exalting themselves. They were puffed up. God had given them a skill, they developed it, they worked at it, they cultivated it, and they were good at it. And they liked the acclaim that they got. They liked the praise. And if they didn’t get the recognition and the applause, then somebody heard about it, or they pulled away. That’s why Paul says to them in chapter four, “What did you what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast about it as if you had not received it?” God gave the gift. God gives the gift for a purpose, for the building up of the body of Christ, for so that somebody else can benefit. You’re to be a blessing to someone, not so that you can be made much of, but so God will get receive glory from it. So anything that God gives you can be misused. If we misuse it, if we boast about our abilities and the giftedness, then there’s that hurts. One of the things that in early in the book, that he cautions them about is being careful how to build. You remember in chapter three, Paul says that he has carefully laid a foundation for them, the foundation of Jesus Christ. And if you build on anything else, then you’re not building on that foundation, so you have to be careful how you build. What does that mean? Who is getting the glory for the work? And how is the work being done? Is it doing any good for people, really? You can build a church with a lot of puff, and people can be exalted and glorified through it. But in the end, it’s going to be just like the balloon that is filled up and it gets the little prick, and you’re going to have just a little bit of rubber band there, and that’s it. No substance. It’s like cotton candy, you know, it looks pretty impressive when you see it, but there’s really only a little bit of candy there. Most of it is just air, it’s no substance. And people can do the work. You can live your whole Christian life. We can live our Christian life, and we can do this work and it not be built on the true foundation. It’s not it’s not Christ who’s getting the glory for it. In some way, somehow, we’re getting the praise. When you do something for the Lord, I should make this clear. God uses you in somebody’s life, and they come up to you and they tell you, you know, you are a blessing to me. That should give you joy. That should be a wonderful You we need encouragement like that. But if you’re living for that kind of encouragement, and the thing that you’re doing becomes so that you can get that kind of encouragement, then you’re the one who is seeking to be exalted rather than exalting the person of Christ. So each man must be careful how he builds, for no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So these little groups, the Corinthians formed, was it really about Jesus? Was it about themselves and how important they were? And if it was, then all of the work that they spend years and years building, goes up in the end like a puff of smoke. And every manifestation of the problem, you know, and this is that’s the thing that is visible. The underlying thing is that the Corinthians the Corinthians really were in love with themselves. That’s the issue. You know, Paul points them in each of these cases back to the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we see families that are fragmented over and over again, fragmented families. Neighborhoods without community. Our whole nation is fractured into tiny ideological splinters. And why is it? Why is it growing? Last week I was looking at the Roanoke Public Library’s website, and I saw one of the things first things that came up was the announcement of a book that they’d acquired recently, it was a long-awaited Oprah-recommended book about a young woman who graduated from graduate school at the top of her class, achieving hopes and dreams that her parents had sacrificed for, reward she rewards herself with a trip to Vegas and overnight she marries another woman and leaves the life she had worked for behind, and learns, and you don’t miss this, this is the moral of the story, that you must love yourself first. And that’s what’s being taught, and that’s what’s being believed, and that’s what everybody in this country has has developed, is this incredible self-love. Paul mentions that, not just in this book, but in in First Timothy chapter three and verse two. He says that such self-love is a sign of the future judgment of God. That in the last days, men will be men people will be lovers of themselves, rather than lovers of God. That’s a there’s a name for that. The name of that is narcissism, and it’s a sin of the heart. Narcissism is the eye saying, “I don’t need anybody else.” Narcissism is the pouting ear that says, “If I can’t be the eye, I won’t be part of the group at all.” So the Christian church is a caring community. And then Corinth, many of the people there loved themselves more than they loved God, and much more than they loved anyone else. And so division followed.
Sin against the brethren,
Paul writes in First Corinthians eight, verse 12.
And sinning against the brethren, you sin against Christ.
And Paul writes later on, he says,
I don’t seek my own advantage, but that of the many so that they may be saved.
So we’re to love him because he first loved us. And so throughout this book, Paul points them back. Points them back to the work of Jesus Christ. Points them back to the gospel message. Jesus Christ, if you’re, you know, in Matthew’s Gospel in chapter 26, it talks about Jesus when he is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and it mentions there that that he sweat drops of blood, and he describes his agony in the garden as as as grief to the to the point of death. I mean, this was the kind of grief that would kill a person, that’s really what it means. And he’s there in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he prays a prayer. He says, “Lord, let this cup pass from me.” And it’s a right prayer to pray for him because, you know, the cup in the Old Testament, there were two cups, there was the cup of God’s blessing, then there was the cup of wrath that was poured out on Jerusalem. And Jesus is looking to that cup, knowing that that’s the next thing for him, to drink that cup of of misery, the judgment for our sins, to drink all of it to the dregs. And so he prays, “Lord, if it be your if possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, your will be done.” And he prays it again, he rephrases that, and prays the same prayer again, and then he repeats it a third time. He could have chosen his own way. He didn’t want to go to the cross. I mean, he didn’t want to take the grief and the misery and and the suffering of that physical death, which he felt all of, as well as that incredible spiritual burden of having the Father turn his back on the Lord Jesus because he’s bearing the guilt of all of our sin. But out of love, he did that for us. Out of love, he did that. So Paul points them back to it. He points them with each of these things back to the cross of Jesus Christ. And he reminds them of the cross. Through the cross, we’re made holy. That was the purpose of it. And so when they’re sinning, he calls their attention back to Christ our Passover. He says, he says basically, cast out the wicked person from among you because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. In the beginning, when they’re proud of their wisdom, he reminds them in that passage that true wisdom, true power comes through the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And all of these things, the love of Jesus Christ, the redeeming love of Jesus Christ brings the change to the heart that we need that makes us able to love God the way we should, more like the way we should, and love our neighbor the way we should. And that’s what Paul calls us to continually through this book. This book is about love. We looked at chapter eight and verse one. But in chapter eight and verse three, Paul says something really profound. He says,
Anyone who loves God, he’s known by him.
Remember Jesus’ words of caution in the in the sermon on the mount, chapter seven when he when he says,
Many will say to me in that day, I’ve done all these works in your name. And I’ll say to you, I never knew you.
You want to be known by God? If anyone loves God, he is known by God. And just in case you don’t get this major point that that runs throughout this whole book, you don’t get that point. He reminds us at the very end in the most stark way. In the closing words of this this this book after just after he says,
Let all you do be done in love.
Just a few verses later, he says,
If anyone does not love the Lord, he’s to be accursed.
This is important. This is important. God, when we put our trust in Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God awakens us to him, to to love him. And if we don’t love him, then it means that we’re not evidencing salvation in our life. If we don’t love our brother, remember that verse I read a few moments ago? If you don’t love your brother, you sin against the Lord. So this is important. That’s really all I have to say this morning. That’s all I wanted to say. It’s the review of these first 12 chapters. This is the theme that’s running through this book. Later, we’re going to look at chapter beginning of chapter 13 at the heart of the book. What it is to love like Jesus Christ loves. And so we’re going to be exploring that and what it means to love like Jesus loves. So we’ll take a little time with it with that chapter as we explore it together. Let me close our time of prayer. Father, as we look at this, as we think about the Corinthian church, as we think about ourselves, Father, as I think about myself, I recognize I don’t love you the way I should. Oh Lord, I want to love you more, more love for thee. We ask, Father, that you show us grace this morning. And as we reflect on the way we treat one another, and as we have treated one another over the years, we pray that you convict us of sins where that’s appropriate. We pray, Father, that you encourage our hearts where you have used us in wonderful ways to encourage and bless. We thank you, Father, for the grace that you have done through each of us. We pray, Father, that in any way that you use us, we be careful to give you the glory. And that we grow in our love for you, and in the love for our brothers and sisters here. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.