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1 Corinthians 3
“Oh you’re a
Christian!?” they remark. And
usually they say it with a bit too much surprise for your own
liking. “You, a
Christian?” And then comes the
inevitable follow up “What kind
of Christian are you?” And the
question just hangs in the air. “What kind of Christian are you?” How do you answer?
Because how you answer
that question will speak volumes about an even more basic question “What
is a Christian?” Your
answer to the question ‘What kind of Christian are you?’ will be a
witness to your friend, for good or ill, about the very nature of
Christian faith itself. The
stakes are high. The world is
watching. So what’s your
response? “What kind of Christian are you?”
Here’s how I’m always
tempted to answer: “I am a Christian but I’m not the sort of
Christian who does this, that or the other.” “I’m a special kind of Christian, not like that whole mass
of Christians who have a bad name. I’ve shopped around and found a wiser,
more credible kind. Forget the
rest, try my brand.” That’s my
temptation when the question is asked “What kind of Christian are
you?” But to respond like that is
to think just like the Corinthians.
Look at verse 4 of our passage:
One says “I follow
Paul.” And another “I follow Apollos.”
Literally they were saying “I belong to Paul.” And another
“I belong to Apollos.” It
wasn’t enough for them to be Christians – they took pride in what kind
of Christian they were – they defined themselves by Church
labels. And such thinking is not
just petty, it causes divisions that tear churches apart. Paul takes this problem very seriously. He spends the first four chapters of
the letter trying to knock it on its head. It’s the first issue he addresses. The divisions and party-spirit of this
church was enemy number one.
So “What kind of
Christian are you?” Are you
tempted to say “I’m an Anglican. Not just an Anglican a 1662
Anglican.” But another will say “Oh
no I could never be so establishment, I grew up free-church – and the
best sort of Reformed Evangelical free-church don’t you know.” And on it goes. But we don’t just label ourselves, we
label each other. So one set of
Christians looks down on another and calls them “Happy Clappy”. And they in turn look down on the
other group and call them the “Frozen Chosen.” And you’d never get the idea that ‘these are brothers and sisters
following the same Lord’, instead we take differences of secondary importance
and make them central. We endow honest differences with moral and
spiritual significance and we sneer at one another.
What kind of Christian
are you? “Well you may
belong to Paul, I belong to Apollos.” And Paul says to all that “Grow up!! GROW UP!!”
Verses 1-4:
Brothers,
I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in
Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not
yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are
still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are
you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when
one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow
Apollos," are you not mere men?
“You Corinthians are
immature, unspiritual, carnal, squabbling children – grow up!” That’s a hard message to hear, if
you’re a Corinthian. The
Corinthians think they’re a world-beating church, Paul tells them they’re
still in Sunday school. In fact,
they’re still in the creche. The
word in v1 for ‘mere infants’ is a word for little children, still
breast-feeding (v2). The
Corinthians pride themselves on their wisdom and spirituality, Paul says,
Grow up, you’re still babies in the faith. When you are divided into factions, when you find your
identity in Church labels, that’s infantile. And Paul says ‘I’ve had to treat you like babies.’ Verse 1: I couldn’t address you the
way I wanted. Verse 2 I’ve had to give you milk, not solid food.
What has been the milk
that Paul has given the Corinthians?
What’s been Paul’s basic training? Well let’s look back to the way Paul has addressed
the Corinthians. I think there
we’ll see the milk.
Look at verse 2 of the
letter. Here’s how he’s addressed
them:
To
the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and
called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ-- their Lord and ours:
So this letter is
addressed to Corinth but it’s also for “all those everywhere
who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and
ours.” So even as Paul addresses
the Corinthians he wants them to know they’re not special. They’re not the only ones receiving
apostolic ministry. The Word of
God is for all those everythere who call on Christ. And he even adds at the end of v2 –
‘their Lord and ours’ just to rub it in.
The Corinthians don’t have exclusive possession of Christ, Christ
owns the Corinthians and He owns all those everywhere who
call on His Name.
So Paul has gone back
behind the question “What kind of Christian are you?” And he’s answering the more basic
question “what is a Christian?”
And his answer?: Anyone in any place who calls on
Christ as Lord. This is the milk,
this is Paul’s basic training, and it’s just what the Corinthians
need. They need to stop aligning
themselves with human leaders. A
Christian is anyone who calls on Christ as Lord. And they call on Christ as Lord
because v9 – God has called us “into fellowship with His
Son, Jesus Christ.” You see a
Christian is a person called, summoned, drawn, wooed by the Living God
into fellowship with His Son.
What a truth! The
Corinthians need to be reminded of this.
Anyone who wears Church labels as their identity needs to know
this – our fellowship is not with certain factions, groups or leaders –
our fellowship is with Christ Himself!!
The word there for
“fellowship” is a tremendously rich word that speaks of a deep
relationship, a partnership of mutual sharing, a devotion to common
life. And throughout Corinthians
we see that Jesus Christ is committed to sharing with us in a
profound way. Chapter 6 tells us
we are “one spirit” with Him.
Chapter 10 tells us we share in His body and blood. Jesus Christ shares His very body,
soul and spirit with us. And in
Chapter 3, which we’re studying this morning, we’ll see He also shares
with us His inheritance – all things, heaven and earth. Fellowship with Jesus is a
mind-blowing reality – but it’s the most basic definition of a Christian.
So here is the milk,
here is the basic training for the Corinthians. The question is not ‘What
kind of Christian are you?’ The
foundational question is ‘What is a Christian?’ And Paul’s answer is, ‘A Christian is someone called by God
to fellowship with His Son, Jesus, and the Christian calls on Jesus in
return. That’s a Christian.’
If you’re just looking
into Christian things this morning – that’s what you need to know. Christianity is not about buildings or
meetings or a moral code or a religious philosophy or a social or
political organisation. It’s
about Christ. The heart of it all
is a Person, it’s Jesus. And if
you’re looking – don’t stop short of anything less than fellowship with
the Son of God. Perhaps join our
Christianity Explored course (ask me for details afterwards) and
investigate the Person of Jesus because it truly is all about Him.
But even if you’ve
been a Christian for 50 years, we all need to be reminded of the
basics. And this is the basic
truth: Fellowship with Christ makes me who I am. If I forget that then I’ll find my
identity in leaders and factions and theologies and church
practices. We must remember the
truth of all truths: we belong to Christ.
So, back in chapter 3
verse 5 “What is Apollos? What is
Paul?” (chapter 3, v5). It’s a stark contrast. Compared to our divine fellowship with
Christ – What is Apollos? What is
Paul? What is Martin Luther? What is John Calvin? What is Bob Mason? What is Neil Green? What is (add a Christian leader who’s
been important in your life)?
What are these Christian leaders whom we’re tempted to lionize? It doesn’t even say ‘who are they’
they’re being de-personalized here.
What are they? Answer,
(v5) “Only servants, through whom you came to believe.”
That Sunday School
teacher who led you to Christ, that Christian minister who led you to Christ,
Remember that that’s exactly what happened. They led you to Christ. You don’t belong to them, you belong to Him. That’s your identity.
So Christians, take
your eyes off your Christian leaders – they are not your gurus, they are
not your identity. Remember them
in prayer, obey them, imitate their faith – to the degree that they point
you to Christ, let them point you to Christ. But don’t belong to them.
Belong to Christ.
To help us view our
leaders properly, Paul gives us three pictures to mull over. Verses 6-9: the field. Verses 10-15: the building. Verses 16 and17: the temple.
In each picture
Christian leaders are shown to be servants who work for the approval of
God and not their congregations.
In verses 6-9, we see
the field illustration. Different
workers take on different work on the farm. But only God gives life to our work. That’s the picture.
Next Sunday we’re
celebrating our Harvest Thanksgiving Service. And the question is Who are we thanking for the harvest
this year? I assure you, none of
our hymns will celebrate the contribution of East Sussex Irrigation
Services. We’re not thanking the
seed distributor. None of that can create life. God has given the growth, to Him be the praise. How ridiculous it would be to think:
‘We’ve had a bumper crop this year, that farm-hand we hired in May must
have had the magic touch.’ It
would be ridiculous to think like that. Growth doesn’t come because one
worker takes part in one limited aspect in the life of the farm.
There’s no such thing
as a celebrity farmer. There are
celebrities that go and become farmers – that’s very popular. But no-one goes into farming to become
a celebrity. Why? Because there’s no such thing as a
magic touch that will guarantee the growth. There’s just a lot of hard work and at the end of the day
God gives the growth. There is no
such thing as a celebrity farmer.
But then why are there celebrity Christian leaders?
You know what happens:
an evangelist comes to town and hundreds make decisions for Christ. And we think – he has the magic
touch. And in a second we forget
about the hundreds of people who planted seeds in those people’s minds
before that night. And we fail to
consider the hundreds of people who will continue to water that seed as they
go on in the Christian life.
Instead we conclude that this evangelist has the magic touch. And of course the big thing we’re
forgetting is that only God gives the growth. A farmer cannot create botanical life and a Christian
leader cannot create spiritual life.
All they can do is labour away like a farmer and trust the results
to God. So think of your
Christian leaders as farmers not celebrities.
And then v10-15 – Paul
gives us the picture of Christian leaders as builders. And here the emphasis is on the
faithfulness of a leader’s work.
Paul says (v10) he’s laid the foundation of Jesus Christ in the
Church. He has preached Christ
and Him crucified because that is the one and only foundation possible
for a church, and Paul expects others to keep building the same way he
has – that is, by preaching Christ.
But then, here comes the warning, v12. It is possible to be a cowboy builder. It is possible to cut corners. Some builders build with gold, silver
and costly stones. Some builders
build with wood, hay and straw – the cowboys. And maybe their building gets very large. Maybe they have a whole empire of
wood, hay and stubble and they’ve covered it all with gold paint. But, v13 – there will be a survey done
of the building. And this survey
will be very thorough. On the
Day – the Day of all Days – Jesus Christ will be revealed in
fire. And this fire that’s
mentioned is not a punishing fire, it is not a refining fire, it has
nothing to do with purgatory – there’s no such thing. No look at what it says in v13 – this
fire shows us, it brings to light, it reveals and it
tests. That’s what v13
says. This fire acts as like a survey
of the building. This is not the
test of every Christian. It’s not
even, strictly speaking, a test of Christian ministers. Strictly speaking this is a test of
the work of Christian leaders.
It is a survey done on their ministry to see what’s been done of
eternal value and what’s been a waste of time.
Every Christian
involved in some kind of leadership, must exercise that leadership
knowing the Day is coming. What
we are building will be surveyed.
Now we must not fear for ourselves. If we are trusting Christ – if we are on His foundation we
are eternally safe. There is no
condemnation for those who are in Christ. Some imagine that this verse is about some Christians who
blow it and they just get into heaven by the skin of their teeth. Nonsense. We all blow it, if I got flames for every time I’ve blown
it I’ll be a cinder before I ever make it to glory. No if we’ve trusted Christ, if we’re
on His foundation at all then He has taken all the flames that are due to
us. No-one gets into heaven by
the skin of their teeth, we get there by the work of Christ – and His
work was unimprovable. These
flames are not meant for us, but they will test a Christian
leader’s work. Whatever is
worthless will go up in smoke in front of our eyes. Whatever is worthwhile will endure for
eternity. So then the Christian
leader has something so much grander to motivate them than worldly
popularity. There is work I can
do that lasts forever and the Lord will let me keep it as reward. There are people I can invest in and I
can bring Christ to them and I (and they!) will enjoy the fruits of that
ministry for eternity. So this is
a word to leaders. Here’s a word
designed to prevent the whole popularity game. Don’t play the celebrity game. Don’t work to gain a following. Don’t work to look good now, work to look good then. Don’t cut-corners trying to fake an
impressive building – build well with an eye to the Day and keep your
eyes off your reputation.
So that’s the field,
the building, and then Paul asks us to consider the temple. Verses 16-17. “You – Corinthian church
– You are God’s temple.” You,
corporately, are the place where the Holy Spirit of God dwells. It’s
important we see that Paul’s using the plural here. Paul is concerned with the destruction
of the Church through in-fighting, he’s not talking about destroying our
individual bodies. Some have
horribly mis-interpreted these words to refer to suicide – as though the
temple spoken of here is our individual bodies and they conclude
that God will treat suicide as an unforgiveable sin. Nonsense. Horrific nonsense, that’s a million miles from what Paul’s
speaking of here – he has no interest in suicide here, he has every
interest in church divisions that destroy God’s dwelling place. Paul is bringing to mind the Jerusalem
temple, which was still standing when this was written. And he’s saying ‘That’s not the real
dwelling place of God. You
are. You together, the body of
Christ. You are the dwelling
place of God’s Spirit. And if
it’s sacrilege to tear down the Jerusalem temple – how much worse is it
to tear apart God’s church. Stop
it.
So think about the
field. Your leaders are like
farmers, only God gives the growth,
Think about the building – you don’t have to weigh the quality of
their work, God will do that.
Think about the temple – you together are the dwelling place of
God on earth, to tear yourselves apart like this is sacrilege.
So Corinthians ‘Grow
up.’ Then Paul says, Wise
up. That’s verses 18-20: Wise up. Here the problem was not so much fellowship with Church
leaders, but fellowship with the world.
The Corinthians, v18 were measuring themselves by the standards of
this age. They wanted to be
thought wise in the world’s eyes.
Paul tells them – that’s not the fellowship they should be
concerned about. They should
become fools in the world’s eyes, then they’ll be wise in God’s
sight. Notice – you can’t
be wise in God’s eyes and the world’s eyes. So wise up. Become a fool. All
that the world thinks of as wisdom is in fact a trap – verses 19 and 20. The wise of this world cannot think
their way to God any more than a drowning man can pull himself up by his
hair. Wise up – make that choice
to look foolish in the world’s eyes.
Throw your lot in with Christ and Him crucified. Count fellowship with Him as more
important than fellowship with the world. Wise up.
And then, finally,
Cheer up. That’s how Paul
finishes the chapter. ‘Cheer
up’. Do you see in v21, Paul says
“So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours.” What an incredible thing to say, but
if fellowship with Jesus is real then it’s absolutely true. Christ owns the universe, but He
shares it with His friends. And
one day, on The Day, all will be revealed – the whole inheritance. And Jesus will share it with all who
have called on Him. All things
are yours. Which just goes to
show an underlying problem at Corinth.
They just weren’t happy enough.
That’s the problem with anyone who’s divisive. I’ve never met a happy divisive
person, it’s psychologically impossible.
So Paul says Cheer up.
These Corinthians were like a bitter family squabbling over a few
trinketty heirlooms all the while being ignorant of a gargantuan
inheritance. They’re suing each
other over grandma’s carriage clock unaware they’ve inherited
Cornwall. How can you squabble
over trivia when you’ve inherited everything.
And look what they’ve
inherited, v22. First it’s
Christian leaders: Paul, Apollos
and Cephas (that’s Peter). And
this turns Corinthian thinking on its head. They claimed to belong to these leaders. Paul tells them –
they belong to you. They’re
yours, they’re part of the inheritance.
The Corinthians went round saying ‘I’m an Apollos guy’ ‘No, I’m a
Peter guy’ and Paul says ‘They’re all your guys. You don’t belong to
them, They all belong to you.’
So let the Pentecostal teach you about prayer, let the
Anglo-Catholic teach you about reverence. You don’t need to sneer at each other any more, you don’t
need to be precious about this stuff any more. It’s all yours.
Cheer up.
And then Paul goes
cosmic as he spells out our inheritance.
V22: The world, life, death the present, the future. We live our lives in fear of these
powers. Paul says, Cheer up – you’re not under their power. These powers belong to you. It’s all
part of the inheritance. Verse 23
tells us there is a chain of possessing from God the Father to His Son,
Christ, to the Church to all things.
And if you belong to Christ, He belongs to God and all things are
yours. So don’t squabble, Cheer
up!
We’re looking on
Sunday evenings at the life of Abraham in Genesis. I’m really struck by Abraham living in
tents. You see the LORD promises to Abraham the land and Abraham trusts
Him and so lives in tents among all the nations surrounding him. He doesn’t settle down in any of the
cities, he doesn’t throw his lot in with the nations in the land. Instead Abraham would move up and
down the length and breadth of the land and would survey everything that
was promised to him. And I wonder
if we need to do that? I wonder
if we need to walk through the land where we live and say to ourselves –
‘That’s my inheritance, and so is that, and so is that. And when we watch the travel
programmes on television. I’ll
have that, and that, and that.
It’s all coming to me. It
belongs to Christ, He’s sharing it with me. Mine, mine, mine.’ And the more we can anticipate the
future, the more we can live in tents now. The more we appreciate our coming inheritance, the more we
cheer up, the more we can just pass through in this age and not have to
make unholy alliances.
So then, no more
boasting about men. Grow up. Wise up. Cheer up.
What kind of Christian
are you? Hopefully after studying
1 Corinthians 3 you can say: “I’m the kind of Christian who doesn’t need
a label. I’m the kind of
Christian who’s mature enough, who’s wise enough, who’s happy enough to
let go of labels and simply cling to Christ. I don’t need to have fellowship with the world in its
so-called wisdom, I don’t even need to get an identity from Church
leadership. I have fellowship
with Jesus Christ Himself and I have everything in Him.”
Let’s pray.
Father, we see what’s on offer here if we’d just grow up, if we’d
just wise up, if we’d just cheer up.
Lord, what unity in the Church there could be, what witness to the
world, what contentment in Christ could be ours if we truly wrap these
truths around our heart and believe them. Help us Father.
Thank you for calling us to fellowship with your Son. Thank You that we have all things in
Him. Help us to believe, help us to be happy in Jesus, help us to be
united in Him. In Christ’s Name,
Amen.
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