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By Joe Chesser
How sad it is for Christians to make foolish threats towards other Christians. How wrong it is for worldly minded Christians to bully the church into getting their way: “If I don’t get my way, I’ll never come back to this church!” How disheartening it is when Christians act like mere men instead of having the Spirit of Christ.
I suspect that being sad and disheartened, maybe even shocked, were some of the feelings the Apostle Paul must have felt when he heard about what was going on in the church at Corinth. In the church! Christians acting like the rest of the world! There was jealousy and quarreling. There were people arguing and dividing over who their favorite preacher was. He wanted to address them in a spiritual way, but it was all too obvious that they were incapable of comprehending what he would have said. Babies can’t be fed solid food, and it was shocking that they were still acting like babies (1 Cor. 3:1-4).
Fast forward 2000 years, and churches are still troubled with Christians who are acting like worldly-minded babies. It would be shocking to us if it wasn’t so common. If I were a betting man I’d wager a bunch of money that every one of you reading this article knows of a church that’s troubled right now by quarreling, jealousy and/or division over preachers.
I’m sorry that the church in Corinth was having trouble. However, I am thankful that the Holy Spirit included their story in the Scriptures. It helps us realize that there will always be churches plagued with problems of spiritual immaturity. It gives us hope that churches in trouble can find solutions to their problems. But most importantly, the trouble in Corinth teaches us what the major solution is. Actually what is alarming is not that the church in Corinth had problems. What is most surprising is that the solution is so simple. You want to stop the fussing and fighting and division in the church? The way to do is to listen to the Spirit of God instead of the spirit of the world. Just look at the larger context of 1 Cor. 2 & 3.
Paul said, beginning in 2:6, that he was speaking a message of wisdom to the spiritually mature, a message God had in mind before time began, revealed by the Spirit. However, the “rulers of this age,” or worldly-minded people, could not understand it. They didn’t have the Spirit’s help. In 2:12 Paul wrote, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” Living by the spirit of the world is different from living by the Spirit of God. When people, even Christians, listen to the spirit of the world instead of the Spirit of God there will be quarreling and jealousy and division (3:1-4). When Christians listen to the Spirit of God there will be peace, love, patience, gentleness, kindness, etc. (Gal. 5:22-23). Threats and bullying come from worldly-minded people. Dividing over preachers comes from worldly-minded people. As Paul said in 3:16-17, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys the temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” Selfish, worldly-minded thinking will destroy God’s sacred temple, the church, and dishonor God. No church anywhere in the world is immune to this. However, Spirit led thinking will bring peace and unity to the church, and glorify God.
The trouble in Corinth doesn’t have to be our trouble. We can grow up and do better.
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