Articles
Reasons For Uniting (2)
Last week, we switched perspectives in our look at Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, turning from the reasons why the church there was very divided to a look at God’s answers and solutions for their division. Let us continue our look at those solutions, with the aim of learning what we need to be doing to ensure unity among God’s people.
Glory in the Lord. (1 Cor. 1:30, 31; 1 Cor. 10:31) When Paul began the letter, he addressed their divisiveness over who had taught or baptized them, and even over Christ Himself (1 Cor. 1:11-13). What a disaster! Brethren were making such foolish distinctions simply as a way of identifying and highlighting differences so they could divide, even to the point they used the name of the one who should have united them — Christ — as a means of dividing themselves! This was not what the Lord wanted (cf. John 17:20-23)! In this case, they were boasting in the names of men as something of value, and had forgotten what they were all about; later, they were boasting about their superior knowledge of the idols and did not consider the conscience of their brethren who did no have such knowledge (1 Cor. 8:1-7), and were being offended by those who ate those meats offered to those idols.
The answer to the first situation was to not boast in other men, but to remember they were “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” so they would instead “glory in the Lord.” In other words, they should all have been making Christ the only name they exalted. The answer to the latter situation where some boasted in their ‘superior’ knowledge of the worthlessness and lack of meaning in idols, was that they should have stopped long enough to think about how their behavior would affect others, and if doing what they did glorified God or Christ.
Far too often, we human beings insist on doing things how we want to do it, with no regard for others or even for what the Lord Himself has said. Especially in this country, we love to talk about our freedoms and our ‘rights’ to do certain things without restrictions, hindrances, or even inconveniences. We want to do what we want to do and say what we want to say, without anyone telling us it is ‘wrong’ or maybe just not the best thing to say or do. We really don’t like people telling us we “can’t” do or say certain things — even when we profess to be believers and disciples of Jesus Christ.
I am afraid many professing believers have gotten so wrapped up in emphasizing their Constitutional rights that they have forgotten that we who are Christians are guided primarily by the will of God — not the Constitution of the United States of America. Forgetting this, the emphasis is then placed on “my rights” instead of how Christians are to behave and live, and we end up boasting in self or other men and it is not Christ who is being glorified at all! Brethren, let’s remember who we are! Do we identify first as Americans, or as Christians? Only one name will unite us.
Having the Mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:10) Paul noted in the second chapter of the first letter to Corinth that he “did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God,” but had determined to preach and teach only “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” so their “faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:1-3). Apparently, some of the Jewish brethren among them were looking for “a sign” and the Gentiles were seeking “(human) wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:16), making it clear they were again focused on the wrong thing. Paul notes that human wisdom is not the means to salvation, or even the means to know or comprehend salvation, for that was of God.
As long as the brethren at Corinth were focused on human wisdom, they were thinking carnally (cf. 1 Cor. 3:1-3), and were not spiritually-minded; for believers, that is a major problem, since “the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:1, 2). And, with a mind that is thinking only in terms of the material, physical, and carnal things of this world, they could never comprehend the spiritual message that God had sent to them via Paul’s words and teaching, since those words were “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:13, 14).
Brethren, it is no different today! Have you ever wondered why so many in the world seem to think Christians are sort of nutty or complete oddballs? It’s because the world doesn’t — cannot — comprehend the message of God, because they are thinking only in terms of the physical, material, and carnal world in which we live. When we realize this, we won’t be bothered or even frustrated when they don’t understand, but will instead just put the message in terms they do understand [like Jesus using parables to teach deeper lessons].
And here is the lesson for us who are striving to work together in unity: If any among us have this same carnal mind, we will not be able to be united, for some will be thinking in terms [carnally] that are completely foreign to the proper way of thinking [spiritually], and never the twain shall meet! Let’s remember we are supposed to be spiritual people, part of the spiritual dwelling place of God, with a spiritually-focused work. Whenever we forget that, we will not be united in the work the Lord has established that His people should be doing. Just one member of a church, who is thinking in terms of the carnal, will prevent unity from being achieved or maintained. There will never be any agreement on issues because it will always be apples and oranges [spiritual vs. carnal] Let us truly have “the mind of Christ” — a spiritual mind.
Remember Who We Are. (1 Cor. 3:23; 1 Cor. 6:19, 20) In his message regarding their carnal minds, Paul condemned their habit of honoring men, rather than Christ, and plainly admonished them, “let no one boast in men” (1 Cor. 3:21), and reminded them they were not “of Paul” or “of Apollos” or any other man; they were “Christ’s” (1 Cor. 3:23)!
In a later part of the letter, Paul admonished the brethren to remain sexually pure, reminding them, “[D]o you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). In effect, Paul was reminding them they were ‘married’ [united] to Christ, and they should reserve the use of their bodies for Him, and not for their own selfish pleasures. They were to be, like anyone married to another, faithful to Him and not adulterate that relationship by joining their bodies to another in unlawful sexual acts.
Regardless of which situation Paul addressed, the admonition was essentially the same: Remember you are Christians; remember you are Christ’s. This is an admonition we would do well to remember, too. Christians are to no longer “present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but…to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom. 6:13); Christians “live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15). We who are Christians are not our own, but Christ’s. If each and every disciple remembered this, we would all then be guided by His desire, and not our own.
More next week. — Steven Harper
