Category: Devotions

The last day of 2024 and I have some challenging questions for us who live in a world where appearances are everything and so much so that there are even jobs with the titles of a ‘social media influencer’ and it pays well! Within the Church there exists an arena of celebrity preachers with polished presentations and with an expert backroom team who can make anything look and sound good! That’s our world inside and outside the Church.

I have some questions but first let’s read Paul’s comments.

“But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. ²⁰ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. ²¹ What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?” (1 Corinthians 4 v 19-21)

So here are the questions:

• What is of most importance? The world knowing you are spiritual or actually walking in the power of God?
• Do we tell people about Jesus or do we just talk about doing so?
• Do we really expect powerful acts of God when we pray for someone or would we prefer they be blessed with a lesser expectation?
• Do we welcome a challenge over any blind-spots? Do we ask to be challenged?
• When confronted with our errors and blind-spots do we respond with humility or pride?
• Do you need a ‘rod of discipline’ because you have become impressive to your world or do you need a ‘loving and gentle’ approach to encourage you to stop living like you are unimpressive to everyone?

These questions come from Paul’s challenge over our Christianity being more of words than the power of the Spirit.

As we approach a new year let us do so with a desire that our Christianity be seen more regarding a demonstration of the Spirit’s power than our skillful words, arguments and presentations. Let us seek not to be filled with pride but with His power which genuinely expresses itself through humility, love and transformation. We may not be slick but we can serve for the glory of God. We may not be skilled but we carry the presence of the Spirit who is greater in us than he that is in the world.

We have heard that quotation many times and probably every time it was misattributed to the wrong person, even by John F. Kennedy in a speech in 1961. It is a quote from the 18^th century and wherever it did originate from it carries a truth that the Church needs to heed. That remaining neutral or doing nothing when the situation calls for a voice and action is a big mistake.

Here’s another quote which is not misattributed. Paul is addressing a serious issue that had developed in the Church, arrogance.

“Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. ²⁰ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. ²¹ What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?” (1 Corinthians 4 v 18-21)

A serious issue had happened in the church. It wasn’t the division, Paul has addressed this. We will find out soon enough what it was. But it was a sexual immoral situation which the Church leaders did nothing about and instead they became arrogant over the issue if that is possible (which we know it is). Like children misbehaving when their parents are not in sight  or school children with the teacher out of the classroom acting however they want, they just didn’t think Paul was going to come to them. Paul writes and says not only will he send Timothy but he is coming himself. Out of sight is not out of mind for Paul. He is coming and they need to be ready. The language used reminds us of another coming, that of Christ. It is easy for us to be lulled to sleep behaving like Jesus will not return in our lifetime. But if Jesus was to come again in 2025, how would you live your life now?

Back to the problem. They had done nothing about the issue but in Paul’s absence they were also attacking his apostleship turning people away from him. So the issue was sexual immorality which the leaders were not only not doing anything about but they were taking advantage of the absence of Paul. It is the same today when the orthodox, faithful-to-the-Bible are present in the church then generally those who would prefer to turn a blind eye or even promote such error don’t hang around because they have no room to spread their alternative gospel. But when the orthodox, faithful-to-the-Bible are not present or if they’re present they are not courageous enough to do and say what is right, then the arrogant rise and issues of error grow.

As Christians (especially if you are a Christian leader) then your responsibility is to say something. Doing nothing is not an option. We are not only messengers of good but we are activists of stopping wrongdoing creeping into the church.

We now know the problems of this Church. They were quarrelling over immorality, marriage, idolatry, worship, finance and theological issues like eternity. Above all they were dissatisfied with Paul’s authority as an apostle. Some were following him, others Apollos and others Peter. The Church was political and full of jealousy. Their need as Paul saw it was a lack of father’s. It still is the lack. The attack on the family is the attack on the father and similarly in the Church.

“I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. ¹⁵ Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. ¹⁶ Therefore I urge you to imitate me. ¹⁷ For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.” (1 Corinthians 4 v 14-17)

When people see you, do they see Jesus? What kind of Messiah do you have?

The Jewish Messiah is a political leader descended from King David. A professional of the Jewish law and the commandments within it. A charismatic leader. A military leader. A great judge. The most important thing is this: the Jewish Messiah is a human being, not a god or a demi-god. He has certainly not come from heaven and once he is dead he doesn’t rise again. Political, professional, charismatic, a fighter, a judge, human, not divine. Some of those Messiah type figures can be found in churches today.

It would not have been strange if Paul had supplied a list of behavioural functions in order to help us to imitate him. He did have such lists and uses them elsewhere and it was not unusual in that culture for disciples to want to copy their rabbi.

So what does Paul say?

There are many instructors, guardians or guides. These guardians were the ones who tutored people and kept supervision on their conduct and there are many of these in the Church But not many Fathers.

“I have become a father and I have a son (Timothy). Now imitate me as I imitate Christ.”

His use of language in these verses are clearly revealing God the Father and God the Son.

• The Church needs more Fathers who send and more sons who go. John20:21 “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” There are trapped sons today. The fathers will not send, they keep to themselves, they want to build empires, to preserve their name. Sons want to honour but they want to go.
• The Church needs more Fathers who love and more sons who know they are loved: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” Luke 3:22. This is sacrificial love. The sacrifice of the father to send the one he loves to people who are on the verge of rejecting Him.  The sacrifice of the son to be sent. The Father sends and the son dies. The church wants to live, God wants the church to die.

The ministry of Jesus was to reveal the Father. As people looked at the lifestyle of Jesus, saw his personality and character, they saw the beauty of the Father. Do people see the Father in us? Christ’s passion hasn’t changed now that he is in heaven. It is still his desire for our lives that we know the Father. What kind of Father do people experience from the Church? From you and me?

Remember what Paul said at the start of his letter about the Corinthian Christians (1:26-31)? Their righteousness, holiness and redemption had nothing to do with what they had achieved, or learnt or earned. Paul used words like foolish, weak, lowly, despised and nobodies. Yet God called them.

But now Paul writes contrary to that opening.

“Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! ⁹ For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honoured, we are dishonoured! ¹¹ To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. ¹² We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; ¹³ when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.” (1 Corinthians 4 v 8-13)

What is Paul doing? This is satire at its best. Paul’s use of sarcasm is masterful. Why?

It is because they look and behave anything but their Lord (who died on a cross).

It is easy today with the use of the internet to see some mansion of a boasting televangelist. It is easy today to watch a successful Church online that seems to have more worldly influence than the Spirit and whose success metric is not in the shadow of the cross. In 1978 Ron Sider published his book with a challenging title, ‘Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.’ Nearly 50 years later, “the world produces enough food to feed all of its 8 billion people, yet 733 million people (1 in 11) go hungry every day.” (https://www.concern.net/news/world-hunger-facts-figures)

It isn’t wrong to be rich but what you do with your riches could be. It isn’t wrong to be successful but how you view your success could be.

Paul is not looking for sympathy. Far from it. He is simply exposing the pride of the Church for what they have and their embarrassment on what they’re hearing of their apostle.

And what of us? I guess we are somewhere in the middle. We don’t want the pride but a little more riches, success and recognition would be desirable. We want the presence and power of God in our lives but some don’t want to pay the price. Paul’s way is definitely to be avoided if we can. I don’t think v10-11 would look good on someone’s social media profile. Not if you were wanting to be invited to speak at the Western Church conferences. The cruciform of Christians seem to be in the shadows and the message of the cross is muted. Perhaps we need more satire to shock the Church back into the shape it was created for, the cross.

All is Grace. Everything we have has been given to us. We can claim nothing.

Paul uses 3 questions to literally say 3 of his most important theological truths.

We live in a world of self-obsessed self-made success stories. But these stories come with a burden of self-glorification and are devoid of joy and true gratefulness to the truth of what really happened.

“For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”(1 Corinthians 4 v 7)

Question 1: “For who makes you different from anyone else?”

Truth: this confronts taking any credit for our unique qualities over others.

Question 2: “What do you have that you did not receive?”

Truth: this asks for us to try and list anything that was outside God’s sovereign choices.

Question 3: “And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”

Truth: brings us the judgment for our pride in making the gifts we received look like achievements.

All is Grace. This truth leads us to live differently.

• We live with thankfulness not pride.
• We live with humility not arrogance.
• We live with generosity for we have received generosity.
• We celebrate others above ourselves.

All is Grace is a beautiful, freeing place to be. We rest in our identity as a recipient of His amazing grace.

Do not go beyond what is written. It was a saying then and Paul uses it, In many ways it hasn’t changed.

“Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.” (1 Corinthians 4 v 6)

But what is written?

We have to go back a few chapters to when Paul and Apollos are described as farmers, then as construction workers on a building and then as servants and stewards. Those descriptions are what Paul is referring to.

Paul is saying don’t be presumptuous but be grounded in what I have written. He didn’t draw on some article that some colleague had written that month. No. His findings were grounded in the Old Testament and he quotes from it as we have seen. Every time he does so he is contrasting the futility of human wisdom with that of the wisdom of God. The same applies today. Don’t go with the wisdom of the world but be guided by the Bible.

In doing so it will prevent the arrogance that was taking place with the Church. Most division is caused by people thinking more highly of themselves, sticking their chest out, puffing themselves up, ‘look at me, listen to my views’.

We don’t want to look at you nor listen to you. We need to keep to the Bible for it is there where God’s wisdom is known.

I am pleased that today we have landed on this verse. At least I can make reference to Christmas without taking it too much out of context!

“Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.” (1 Corinthians 4 v 5)

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2

When God comes He always brings everything out from hiding and the motives of every heart is made plain. That happened at the first Christmas and it will happen at the last day.

The difference between God and man is that He judges the motives, what is unseen and He patiently waits to do so. In contrast to these Corinthian celebrity-chasers who judge what is seen and do so before life is over.

Life is not over and your judgment is not here, no matter what people have said to you this year! Today of all days, tell yourself, you can keep going; give God your heart and commit to living for Him not man.

Having a wholesome self-awareness and good emotional intelligence are keys to the Christian life that are often overlooked.

These next few verses have themselves been abused by people who never want to be held accountable, ignoring the wisdom of peers and being above correction. We need to win what Paul says back into what actually is best practice.

“This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. ² Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. ³ I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. ⁴ My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” (1 Corinthians 4 v 1-4)

Apollos, Cephas and Paul himself have been fought over as to who is the greatest leader. Paul now clearly lays out who he is, what he does and who he serves. In doing so he distances himself from his fans!

This is who I am: I am a servant. Paul uses a word for servant which was originally used as the rowers of the ships but those down in the lower deck, unseen but essential.

This is what I do: I am a guide to the gospel. The word Paul actually uses is ‘stewards’. Trusted with their master’s resources they are not free to live whatever life they want, they must be found faithful. Isn’t that different to the wisdom of the world? Find yourself popular, and successful, NO. Find yourself faithful. This blows aside all that many look for. God doesn’t look at any of the things that we think are important. He looks for faithfulness to the truth.

This is my focus: I am accountable to God. Here is where we have to be careful. Paul is not being arrogant. Instead he is saying human standards, whether praise of criticism, from others or even ourselves cannot be the final assessment on how well I have lived my life. They may be helpful but they don’t have the final word, God does.

Maybe today we can stop thinking of what people think of us. Are we so focused on the metrics of the world to see how our life is doing? Are we as concerned about our faithfulness to God? Are we being a good steward of what God has given to us? Are we willing to be unseen, to go to the lower deck and do essential work without the praise of anyone?

The reason for doing this is so that he can expose the sheer arrogance from those who are dividing the Church. The arrogance is cloaked with deception.

It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church. Matthew Henry

 “Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” ²¹ So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.” (1 Corinthians 3 v 18-23)

Quote 1: “He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away.” (Job 5:13) Paul is quoting the cheap words of Eliphaz. His listeners know the whole story. Eliphaz had been saying to Job that he has seen his suffering and knows the reasons why he is in so much trouble. There are reasons why he has lost his children and wealth. Eliphaz gives Job a theological study on those reasons. He also informs him this s not only himself who believes the reasons for his suffering but his friends do too.

Why do the arrogant always try to fit the solutions to the complexities of life into their own self-inflated experience which is far more limited and narrow than they know?

Using the words of Eliphaz Paul exposes this wisdom as foolishness because the friends of Job had not seen the purposes of God. They were wise in the world but Paul calls them deceived!

 Quote 2: “The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile.” (Psalm 94:11) Paul is quoting the Psalm that everyone will know who is listening to Paul’s letter. Most probably the Psalmist was looking back on the 55 year reign of the worst king ever to come out of Judah, Manasseh. He didn’t intend to become corrupt, he wanted to do good but found that good could come from evil actions. Yet God never did honour him like he had hoped. A corrupt throne will never fellowship with God. Maybe you know of someone, perhaps a leader like Manasseh who truly believed that they were above the law, or the policy and procedures or just plain goodness because they were the leader or simply because they could and their world allowed for it. They managed to delude themselves into thinking they’re wrong behaviour was for the greater good. Power and popularity can intoxicate.

Using the words of the Psalmist Paul exposes the wisdom of the world which leaves a trail of broken people behind and in their arrogance begin to believe that their behaviour is acceptable to God even though it is foolish and will be punished.

Division is caused by the arrogant who are deceived and these 2 quotes that Paul uses are great examples of how it is seen.

From fields to buildings and now to the dwelling place of God, the Temple. That’s what Paul has been heading towards in his pursuit of clamping down on the divided church.

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3 v 16-17)

Verse 16 is plural. It heralds a concept which has been revolutionary since the day of Pentecost. Gone are the days of the physical Temple in Jerusalem where God’s people went there to experience His presence. Now He has come to them. The Holy Spirit is amongst them individually and corporately. We are not just individual temples we are forged together into one dwelling place for God.

How we treat one another matters because other believers are also houses of the Spirit.

Keeping the unity of the Church is primarily about the protection of the presence of the Spirit.

Do we live and speak in a way that recognises that our fellow believers are God’s temple?

If not then we are guilty of destroying the temple.

Paul has already told us how that destruction happens. It is through jealousy and quarrelling, v3. There are certainly other ways but these 2 attacks are from within.

The Church does the devil’s own work at times from Clergy who think their anointing gives them the right to abuse and those in the pews who believe they have the righteous right to gossip and complain about anything and everything. All this and many other things we have witnessed damage the church. I heard the other day of a mature Christian scold a young teenager within Church for not dressing correctly, the girl was 12 years of age! That mature Christian is very immature and is guilty of destroying the Church. God will not stand back and watch what we may have seen. He will step forward and deal with the person that destroys the sacred.

Fear of His presence needs to return to the Church. We need to be far more careful with the Holy Presence of the Living God. The Church is His Temple.