Over the last two days we’ve seen how it’s foolish to divide over leaders: they are simply God’s servants who are on the same team, with different roles that work toward the same goal. That goal is the building of God’s church, described by Paul as both a “field” being farmed and a building being constructed.
In the next section he expands on this, warning all those who labour in the church that it is God’s church (not ours) – so be careful how you build it.
Yesterday we saw how foolish it is to divide over leaders. To begin with, leaders are merely God’s servants. Paul reminds us not to see them as anything more (or, conversely, anything less).
In today’s passage we see a second reason it’s foolish to divide over and compare leaders: they have different roles, with complementary functions in God’s work.
So far in our series through 1 Cor 1-4 we’ve seen how the Corinthians were divided over leaders. Over the next few days, we’ll see how Paul shows this behaviour to be utterly foolish. In fact, it’s immature. They think they’re being spiritual, but the fact that they’re divided shows how worldly they still are. They’re still judging others by the values of the world, not God’s values:
3:1-4 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?Last week in our series through 1 Cor 1-4 we saw how the Corinthians were divided around leaders, because they were bringing the world’s status values into the church. Paul refused to play the game, deliberately avoiding the kind of showy public speaking they craved. It meant he was compared unfavourably with other Christian preachers, like Apollos. Paul defended his tactic by pointing out that God refuses to pander to human pretensions, and most of the time chooses to work through the unpretentious. God’s wisdom runs counter to human “wisdom”.
And that’s what drives the next section of the letter – read it now (1 Cor 2:6-16).
In our series through 1 Cor 1-4 we have seen how Paul refuses to play the world’s status games. In Corinth he didn’t try to impress them with the kind of eloquent public speaking they esteemed, which had a negative effect on how they perceived him. Yesterday, we saw Paul begin to defend his approach, showing how God refuses to play our status games, too. We see this firstly in the gospel of a crucified saviour, which is “foolishness” in human eyes (1:18-25).
But not only does God refuse to pander to human pretensions. It seems he also prefers to do his work through the un-pretentious. Through ordinary people, who aren’t trying to pretend to be something better than they are.
In our series through 1 Cor 1-4 so far we’ve seen how the Corinthians were divided. The wealthier members were trying to display their sophistication and importance by hosting the most eloquent Christian speakers. They were still trying to play the world’s game, but doing it in the church. They were attaching themselves to the various speakers like a fashion accessory; a way of promoting their own image to the world.
This week we began a series in 1 Corinthians 1-4, about a divided church. We saw yesterday how they were divided around leaders – specifically, their style of preaching. And we thought about how we do this in our own “entertain-me” culture. (Make sure you read that one first or today won’t make much sense.)
Today,we step back and look at how this is one particular instance of a much broader issue – one that runs throughout this letter to the Corinthians. It’s the issue of when we bring the world’s values into the church.
Yesterday we began a series in 1 Corinthians 1-4, looking at Paul’s letter to a church divided. We saw how even in his opening thanksgiving he was laying the groundwork for his appeal for unity. Given what God has done for us in Jesus, how can we not be united!
Today, we look more closely at the reasons the Corinthian church was divided. And as we do, we’ll keep an ear out for how we might do similar things today.
For the next few weeks we’ll be looking at the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians. Out of all the churches in the New Testament, I think the church in Corinth is the closest to the Western church today in terms of the issues it faced: without the immediate threat of persecution to bind them together, it was easy for them to act out the values of the surrounding culture among the church community. They were divided and status-seeking; they were judgemental about matters of style but often carefree when it came to morality. Sound familiar? Let’s see what Paul has to say to this church…
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