STUDY THEME: BEING GOD’S AGENTS IN CRISIS TIMES. 5-19-02
"MINISTRY IN TIMES OF CONFLICT."
1 CORINTHIANS 1:10: 3:3-4, 5-9, 10-15, 16-17.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO 1 CORINTHIANS 1.
Our lesson this Sunday studies conflict in the church at Corinth. By analyzing the causes and reasons for the conflict in that church, and how Paul dealt with it, we might learn how better to deal with conflict in churches today. All of us are aware that there is far too much conflict between Christians within our churches. One of the great problems of trying to win people to faith in Christ today is that non-Christians see far too often that we as Christians are in conflict with each other. Because they see such bad attitudes on our part, they often cannot trust or believe that we have something to offer them. This lesson is therefore very timely for us today.
This lesson will seek to answer the question, "How can I help build unity when conflict arises in my church." The suggested "Biblical Truth" is that Christ desires unity in the church. The suggested "Life impact" is to help us build unity in our churches.
Paul had a long and complicated relationship with the church at Corinth. Paul visited Corinth for the first time on his second missionary journey in Acts 18. He had just come from Athens, where he had not been well received, and he began his work in Corinth with a sense of weakness, fear, and trembling. A special revelation from the Lord in a night vision altered his plans to return to Thessalonica. He was told to speak freely and boldly in Corinth.
Corinth was famous for almost every asset and liability to which seaport towns are heir. It had wealth, culture, and a cosmopolitan population of a half million, 50% of whom were slaves. There was a considerable sprinkling of Jews, and at least one synagogue.
Until Paul came to Corinth no Christian is believed to have been living there. Perhaps the first converts were Aquila and Priscella, Jewish tent makers with whom Paul stayed. Before Paul had completed 18 months in the city a church of no mean size had been organized to continue evangelizing the unreached, and growing itself in spiritual depth. Sometime after Paul left to work elsewhere, the young church broke out with a rash of problems.
During the latter part of Paul’s ministry at Ephesus on his third missionary journey, from some people from the household of Chloe learned that some quarrels were causing divisions in the Corinthian church. This led to Paul’s writing 1 Corinthians. This was probably sent by the hands of Titus.
Paul considered the Church of Christ to be the most important society established. Not all persons placed upon it such an appraisal, nor has the conduct of its members always vindicated its claim to a divine origin and a unique mission. While the circumstances under which the question of the Corinthians arose was largely local and temporary, their treatment by the Apostle is of immediate interest and abiding value today for the reason that he discusses each one in the light of some permanent principle. All who are concerned for the peace and purity and progress of the church should seek to apply these principles to the pressing problems of the present day.
In the Amplified N.T. vs. 10 reads, "But I urge and entreat you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in perfect harmony, and full agreement in what you say, and that there be no dissension or factions or divisions among you; but that you be perfectly united in your common understanding and in your opinions and judgments."
The problems with which Paul deals in this letter are varied and commonly listed as ten in number. This includes church factions, scandal, trials at law, impurity, marriage, meats offered to idols, the behavior of women in public worship, the administration of the Lord’s Supper, spiritual gifts, and the resurrection of the dead. The more carefully one considers the arrangement of those disconnected subjects, the more he appreciates the wisdom of the order adopted by the apostle.
In the nine verses, which open the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul dwells on the relation of the believer to Christ; and it is this vial relationship which gives unity to the epistle; unity with Christ is dishonored by factions (Ch. 1-4). Paul's first words are an exhortation to Christian unity. The most obvious defect in our modern church life is its divisions: its failure to present to the world a united front, a harmonious message, or a picture of brotherhood.
In vs. 10 Paul is emphasizing the unity of doctrine in the local assembly of believers. Doctrinal unity, clearly and completely based on Scripture, must be the foundation of all church life. Both weak commitment to doctrine and a commitment to disunity of doctrine will severely weaken a church and destroy the true unity; the only source of truth on which true unity rests.
Vs. 12 indicates that four divisions had developed in the fellowship of the Corinthian church. Each group built their fellowship around a different person as its center of focus: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ.
Why these four names became the focus of attention is understandable. Paul established the church in Corinth. Many loved Paul because he was their spiritual "father." Apollos came to minister in Corinth after Paul left. He was a powerful preacher who greatly helped new believers. Cephas (Simon Peter) was the acknowledged leader of the Christians in Jerusalem. Christ was the Lord Jesus whom the Corinthians had trusted for salvation. The Corinthians grouped themselves around these four and argued and fought which group was right or best. The church was filled with dissension and divisions. Paul made an urgent plea for unity.
Instead of a healthy appreciation and love for various ministers, the Corinthians were developing a partisan spirit that focused on one person and excluded all others. They were arguing whose minister was the best and why that was true. Paul’s plea was that the church members agree with one another and to have no divisions among them. They needed to think alike about the true nature of the church and the legitimate place each minister had in the church.
PLEASE TURN TO CORINTHIANS CH. 3.
Nothing could be more childish in Christians or more indicative of low spiritual life than divisions, and denominational rivalries and factions. Thus when Paul is rebuking the members of the Corinthian church for their party spirit, he tells them that they are showing themselves to be mere "babes in Christ" and are acting like the unregenerate men of the world.
This was a sharp thrust, for the Corinthians prided themselves on their spiritual gifts and attainments, and Paul’s critics had sneered at the simplicity of his teaching. The apostle retorts that this simplicity was due to their immaturity. He had merely adapted himself to their incapacity. As a spiritual man he "could no speak to them as to spiritual men, simply for the reason that they would not have been able to understand or to accept such teaching.
Paul does not mean that the Corinthians we not Christians, but that he had found them in a state of spiritual infancy. They had experienced a new birth but the old nature and disposition were hindering in them the action of the Holy Spirit. They were undeveloped. They were "babes in Christ."
The proof of this immature, underdeveloped, worldly state was found in their envying and strife and divisions: "
Mature Christians, "spiritual" Christians, rejoice in the unity of the church. To them the Spirit of God has revealed the deeper things of God and made them feel that they are one with all the children of God. They seek to maintain and to manifest the oneness, which the Spirit gives, in the bonds of peace, "
till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."Two words in vs. 5 require special attention: servants and Lord. How imperative it is that these categories be recognized and respected. God’s servants are many, but He alone is Lord. And the roles of servant and Lord must never be confused. Obviously the Corinthians were giving a devotion to some servants of God that rightly belonged only to God.
Paul has been showing that the party spirit in the church would be corrected by a true view of the gospel as a message from God revealed by the Spirit of God. Such a conception would make it impossible to glory in men or to divide the church into factions, which boasted of the various messages delivered by men. Paul now proceeds to show that such a spirit of division would be restrained further by a right view of Christian ministers as being servants of God, and not masters of men. The word "minister" is in itself beautiful and suggestive. It means a "servant." It never means the pastor of a church or the head of a congregation, as it commonly does in modern speech.
Paul declares he and Apollos and other gospel messengers are merely servants, belonging to God, and that it is absurd for the Christians at Corinth to divide into parties, saying that they belong to men whom God has sent to serve them. The gospel messengers belong to God. Those who have received the message belong to God, and should be thankful to God for the service his messengers have rendered. They should not be proud or envious because of the various benefits his workmen have bestowed. Such a true view of the Christian ministry would unite believers in common gratitude, not divide them by a spirit of rivalry and faction.
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What then is Apollos?" the writer asks of his Corinthian readers, "and what is Paul?" Surely they have not come as leaders of parties, as founders of sects, as lords over Christian believers. They are servants of God who have come to form and to strengthen a united church composed of all the followers of Christ. "They are "ministers" through whom ye believed." Each one has performed a task, which the Lord assigned. Paul has done the planting. Apollos has done the watering, but it is God who has made the plant to grow. "So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth." They are nothing in themselves or of themselves, or in company with God, for it is "God that giveth the increase".The preacher who plants and the one who waters have one purpose. Paul’s and Apollos’ common purpose was to obey their Lord and do their respective tasks so the lost Corinthians could come to Christ. In this common purpose, one was no more important than the other. Both were links in God’s chain of evangelistic outreach in Corinth. Since God had called Paul and Apollos and had sent them, Paul said that God would reward them according to each man’s labor. The basis of God’s approval is never the size of he crop but always the intensity of the toil. This is an encouraging truth for all Christians. It means that every believer has equal access to God’s favor.
The church did not need to reward Paul and Apollos by making each man a focus and leader of a party in their fellowship. Paul insisted that they were not to elevate Christian leaders too high in their thinking. He and other leaders were not anything compared with God, who makes things grow.
Such a conception of the Christian ministry will secure unity for the church and promote humility and sympathy among the servants of God.
While various forms of service are allotted to different servants of Christ, each is responsible for the quality of his work. These forms are depicted by Paul in speaking of the church as a field in which his task had been to plant and that of Apollos to water.
However, better to suit his purpose, Paul changed the figure from that of a field to that of a temple. Christian ministers are fellow workmen. Each has a different part in the building, and each is responsible for the materials he employs and for the work he does. Everyone should strive so to build that his construction will stand the test of Christ’s judgment and will merit a reward.
As for himself, Paul declares that he has acted as a wise maser builder. He guards against seeming to be proud and presumptuous by asserting that his wisdom was due to "the grace of God" which had been given him, and therefore, the merit is not his own. He had "laid a foundation." He had begun the church at Corinth, and all that other teachers were doing was to build on the foundation he had laid. These teachers should take heed to the character of their building. One thing was certain: whatever their work might be, they could lay no other foundation. For the Foundation he had laid was Jesus Christ.
Nevertheless, it is possible to build upon this foundation, structures of various materials. One Christian may build with durable and rich materials, such as gold and silver and precious stones. Another may employ those materials which are perishable and paltry, like wood, or hay or stubble. The test that the Christian’s building will have to meet is fire on the day of judgment. If he has used combustible materials like wood, hay, or stubble, his work will be consumed in the flames. He himself will be saved, he will not lose his soul. If has been building upon Christ as a foundation, he may be saved even though his work perishes. He will be like one who escapes from a burning building.
Although this bears directly upon the theme with which Paul is opening the epistle, namely, the divisions in the church at Corinth. It contains practical messages for the church of today. First, if there is and can be but one Foundation, then all persons who are united with Christ belong to Him.
Secondly, if Paul founded the church by preaching nothing but Christ, and Him crucified," then for members of the church to proclaim themselves followers of some other teacher is to turn away not only from Paul but from the Christ he preached. To repudiate Paul is to abandon Christ.
In the third place, while some preachers may enjoy great popularity and while their followers may make for their work extravagant claims, the real test of service is not the praise of men but the judgment of Christ. Some of the very leaders who are being lauded as he expense of Paul may be disappointed in the day of Christ’s coming; they may not be lost, but they may be denied any reward.
What is the foundation for unity in our church? Jesus is the basis for all Christian unity in a local congregation and in the larger Christian church. Sometimes, however, unity is grounded more in the members having similar economic levels or ethnic identities. We sometimes like to be around people like us. We join clubs with other people who share common hobbies or interests. A church’s unity however should not be based on common political loyalties, hobbies, or careers. The foundation for Christian unity is Jesus. Paul was concerned that the church at Corinth was fragmented because of loyalty to human leaders. When they focused their attention on Jesus, their unity would be restored.
Paul not unnaturally closes the paragraph with a solemn warning. There was insight but no warning in the agricultural metaphor of vs. 5-9. There was sobering but assuring warning in the building metaphor of vs. 10-15. But in the temple metaphor of vs. 16-17 there is strong warning only. It is one of the severest pronouncements in Paul’s writings.
Divisions damage a church and can destroy it. God’s temple, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, is sacred. Any local body of Christ is God’s temple. To defile the church with false doctrine or improper activities is to destroy God’s temple. Such action is serious. In the ancient world a temple was considered a sacred place where people could expect to encounter God. Paul noted that God’s Spirit lives in believers. God is present in His Church. In 1 Kings 8:10-11 God signified His presence in the temple by filling it with the cloud of His glory. Now He lives in His people by filling them with the Holy Spirit.
If by a spirit of faction, if by pride and vanity, a man causes divisions in the church, he will suffer the punishment of God. "
If any man destroys the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are you."CONCLUSIONS;