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Christian Living
By Warren Zehrung – July 2, 2011 |
Brethren, in the words of the apostle Paul, we have come out of the world, as charged by God.
II Corinthians 6:17-18 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
We have been asked by God to come out of the world, and we do not consider ourselves to be part of the world, but we consider ourselves to be a different people.
We have done this in God’s church. We do not observe the pagan days, nor do we eat their unclean foods, and we are a people set apart. We are a holy people. We are as strangers and pilgrims (resident foreigners) on the earth, because our true citizenship is in heaven, and we live here only for a time.
We are witnesses to history unfolding, but we, you and I brethren, have a higher calling.
What is it about Christian living that we are to understand? Our true Christian calling is to be living as Christ lived, and how He would have us to live.
America was founded on the belief in a Creator God who bestowed on us the nation-building laws, statutes and judgments that we needed to succeed in this new land.
Our founding fathers looked to divine guidance for direction. They literally sought God’s help in the founding of this nation. He was our God, and we were His people. As Americans we are not His people perfectly by any means – but we openly proclaimed ourselves to be a Christian, and a God-fearing nation. You ask most people, and there are areas of society were they will tell you, “Yes I am a Christian.” How many times can you go into a restaurant, even a McDonalds, and see somebody pause and ask God’s blessing before they eat their hamburger and their fries? There are those who look to God, though imperfectly, in our country.
As a result of God's fulfillment of His promises, we have enjoyed the freedom of religion to openly practice our faith. I know that there are those that will say that they cannot get a job because of the Sabbath, but brethren we are able to practice and live our faith without persecution.
Why is that? It is only because we are Abraham’s children that we are the recipients of these national blessings of freedom and greatness. God promised:
Deuteronomy 28:2 “All these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God.”
If we would listen to God, all of these blessings would come upon us. Well we did, we did that for a while. But today if you mention “Christianity,” a lot of people are immediately turned off.
Why is that? Let us recognize the facts.
“Christianity” has a bad name, and I am sad to say, often deservedly so.
Take history for example, and see how many wars all across Europe have been fought in the name of “Christianity.” We have had battles to and fro, north, south, east and west, all fought in the name of Christianity. That is not right, and that should not be.
Today, unethical teachers, judges, crooked politicians, and immoral priests continue to give religion a bad name.
Look at the outlandish wide-eyed religious “kooks” that the news media so frequently represent as typical of all preachers and ministers. It seems like whenever they do a television series, or a movie, or even the evening news, they pick out the worst examples of people who are just “off the chart” when it comes to outlandish prophesies or healings. They are the ones that they portray in the media.
And, too many mainstream “Christians” say one thing and do another, causing some people to say that all Christians are hypocrites.
There is another way that “Christianity” is suffering a reversal.
While many citizens would still hold that America is a Christian nation, there are strong secular forces at work who wish to remove every vestige of faith-based religion from society.
The mainstream media, and the liberal left, are actively working to impose the removal of every trace of God, prayer, religion, and the Ten Commandments from the public domain. It is an effort to make America a full-fledged atheist nation, and then America will be in unity with the godless heathens of the world. That is their design, and that is what they want. Christianity is suffering in that way.
The current political trend is to totally eradicate the Judeo-Christian principles upon which our great nation was founded.
Those who do not recognize that it was God who bestowed great national power and wealth on our modern Israelitish nation, are usurping the Constitutional form of government this nation was built upon. We are no longer a nation of rule, we are becoming very much a dictatorial nation, and dictators hate God. You might be saying, ‘Yes but I am a true Christian, I am not a part of what goes on in the world’.
It is true that we in God’s church tend to stay above the fracas, knowing that we are true Christians who enjoy a special relationship with God. But, brethren, therein lies a potential danger. You might say, what is the danger in being a true Christian?
The purpose of my message today, is to show that there is a potential danger even for true Christians, those who know their God. They have been given much spiritual meat, and know the truth of God. We can find ourselves in a haughty category saying, ‘I know, I am impervious to what is going in the world, but I am above all of that’. In doing so, we can make void our relationship with God, and we can become substitute Christians, or false Christians.
We must be careful, because Satan is able to sow the seeds of spiritual vanity in us, when we take for granted our unique status as children of God. Satan is more subtle than any beast of the field. That means that he is awake twenty four hours a day, all year long. He knows all of the tricks, and he knows all of our human frailties and weaknesses. And, Satan can plant a seed in us. He can plant a seed of arrogance, a seed of vanity, a seed of self-justification, and a seed of better than thou. All this can easily be justified as we look around and say, ‘I am better than those people that go to church on Christmas and Easter. I am better than those people in Congress who get rid of the Ten Commandments’. All of a sudden we are better and better, and we forget how a Christian is supposed to live.
We are talking about Christian living, and how a Christian is supposed to live.
We know and keep the Ten Commandments, but sometimes it is almost by rote. We almost do not have to stop and think, ‘I am not going to work on the Sabbath, I am going to sleep in, and I am going to listen to a prepared sermon’.
We are appreciative of our national blessings, but almost to the point of smugness. They have always been here, we are entitled to them. It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we are just a little better than others. This takes some spiritual wisdom, brethren. Is it better to be a true Christian? There is a mindset that goes to pride, arrogance, and vanity, because we will think that we are better than other people. We have to stop and put that in the correct perspective.
We do not want to be like the man who prayed “…God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are." (Luke 18:11)
He felt that he was in a group all of his own, a class all of his own, and better than other people. He was not a lowlife, as he pictured other people who were going to the temple.
The next thing you know, we can get to thinking that we are privileged persons, because “We deserve it,” or that “We have a right to it,” or “It is ours by birth.”
Brethren, let us not be forgetting that “judgment is upon us” – the people of God, right now, and not on the world.
I Peter 4:17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
We are being judged right now, but the world is not being judged.
Many, who should walk as Christians, live and act too much like other people in the world. When we get to thinking, we do so much “church stuff” that we forget the finer points of Christian living. We need to be living our Christianity.
These are the things that we should be practicing:
Are we practicing laying down our lives for one another? What does that mean? How often have we done it? Have I done it recently? Have I ever done it? Do I try to lay down my life without being in jeopardy? Laying down your life means putting your physical life in jeopardy, and putting what you have in jeopardy.
Are we practicing judgment, mercy, and faithfulness? As the scripture says,“they are the finer points of the Law.”
What about forgiveness, and Godly Love? Are we the kind of people that forget to stick to our commitments? Do we forget to honor our parents? This is all a part of Christian living.
We have to be careful not to disregard the fact that we are to be living sacrifices.
Sometimes, we fail to remember to keep our word, we get a little independent, and we forget humility and reconciliation. All of the while “knowing” what good Christians we are, because we have come out of the world. We think that we have come out of the world and have left that all behind. We have been baptized. We are going to church, and we are in the right group. Brethren, there is more than just what we put on paper. It is more than just the ceremonial actions that we go through.
Coming out of the world is not enough, we have to put on Christ. We have had entire sermons on putting on Christ. We must be putting on His words, His practices, His example, and living up to the same principles. We must be putting on the character of Jesus Christ.
Let us not forget that our high calling calls for a conduct quite a few notches above the rest of this passing world that we live in.
II Peter 3:11 “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conduct and Godliness.”
What is it talking about? Wall Street, Main Street, your town, your country, everything that we can see, and all of the things that we possess, shall be dissolved.
II Peter 3:11 …what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conduct and Godliness.”
This is the bottom line, and this is Christian living. This is the key scripture for today, and I would like for everyone to make a note of that.
We find how to live Christian lives by looking into God’s Word. We do not find out by asking the postman, the policeman, or our neighbor, unless they happen to be Christians as well.
Over and over in the scriptures, we find how the first century Church of God let down, how they went off course, and missed the mark. Many fell away; sometimes significant numbers of true Christians fell away. We must realize that we live in jeopardy of the same thing. There are scriptures that tell us what to do so that we will not fall away. How long has it been since we read them?
Satan is still busy distracting and leading the brethren of God’s church away from the truth of God. And all of the time the brethren who are being led astray think that they have their eyes wide open. They think that they are Christians as much as the Pharisee that went up to Christ and the disciples, and told them that they were harvesting on the Sabbath. In his mind he belonged to the synagogue, he was righteous, he was close to God, and he was reprimanding those who were harvesting on the Sabbath. They were actually just nibbling on a few grains of wheat, yet in his mind he thought himself righteous. Yet he was missing the mark. Those stories are put in the scriptures for us to apply in our Christian living lives today.
We are not impervious to Satan’s tactics, but we are vulnerable, and we are at risk to Satan’s devices. But sometimes it seems like, in the Church of God, we think that we have become entitlement Christians. We think that it is ours by right. We think that we have come out of the world and we have it made. We think that somehow we have paid our dues, and we have our union card punched. We have been in the church for a long time, and we have become so comfortable that we might even begin to think that we have begun to live a life of privileged rewards. It is like we are retired Christians, and all that we have to do is sit back in our Christianity now, and just wait for the final day to be ushered into the Kingdom of God. We do not have to work any more; we do not have to strive any more. We live like we are in a privileged class, and we think that we are above the masses, and above the law, and we are exceptions to the law.
Why has God preserved these Biblical epistles, the letters from the writers of the Bible that have been codified for us? They are given to us so that we may know how to live according to Godly Christian principles, so that we have God’s instructions for Christian living. It is not given to us so that we can work our way around them, or go around the corner and find substitute religions. It is not just to become rote Christians, and Christians that do things and say, “Okay I am clean with the Lord because of the degree to which I keep the Sabbath, or how many prayers I have said, or how long I have prayed.” Those are all things that are to be done, but they are to be done in a spiritual way and physical way too, but not in a carnal way.
We know that Jesus Christ came and became servant of all! But how often do we find that in God’s church? A servant is the last thing that people want to be. People want to be the Pastor General, or the top dog.
In Paul’s letters, we are given a snapshot of life in the Corinthian church. This is an incredible blessing that we can go back and see this. It takes a good bit of study.
First of all, it is in a different language and we have to try and decipher what was meant and what was said, and really find out the background. What was on Paul’s mind, and what was on the mind of the brethren? What was the past life of the new converts like? What was their history like back before they heard Paul preaching the gospel? We put all of those things into context, and study them over and over in conjunction with the rest of the scriptures, and a picture emerges, and we find Paul dealing with a Christian congregation very much like our Christian congregations. It is a snapshot in the life of the Corinthian church. We will take a brief look, just a small picture of that.
God is very honest to reveal the sins of His men in the Bible, and even those that He used mightily. God reveals the sins and proclivities of great men like King David and Moses. We are shown, the same with the Corinthian church, their misconceptions, sins, carnality, and we are also blessed to receive the inspired correction that was given to them so that we can apply it into our lives. This is so that we can become more like Christ in our Christian living. We see the instruction that was given to the Corinthians, and it was not just to them for it is given to us. We may say that we did not do the same sin, we did not go to the temple of Diana, and therefore it does not apply to us. Brethren, we have to be more spiritually wise than that. We must apply it to today’s culture and to today’s society, and to understand what it means to put on the mind of God.
These words are words of life for us, if we apply the principles and the lessons in our Christian living lives today.
In this world of darkness that we live in, the world that we have tried with all of our might to separate ourselves from, our lives represent shining lights as Christ tells us to be. We are not to put our light under a basket, but our light shines as we live like Jesus Christ, and as Christ gave us example.
Paul loved the Corinthians. He had raised up the church. Paul told them that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. He was the One who was prophesied in the Old Testament to come, and the One who would establish the Kingdom of God. Paul went to these people, and he went to their synagogues. They went to the synagogues, and they had the Old Testament scriptures to read from, and to have read to them. But they did not know Jesus Christ, and they did not know that He was the Savior. They did not know that Christ delivered them from their sins, and reconciled them to God the Father. All of these are technical doctrinal points that Paul had to teach to the Corinthians.
We are now looking at different issues that were being addressed.
I Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto those who are spiritual, but as unto those who are carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
Paul starts right off telling them that they are not spiritual, or that they are certainly not as spiritual as they should be. Brethren, when you come to I Corinthians 3, you will see a few phrases here and your mind will say, I have seen that many, many times. I know what this chapter is saying. Let us dissect it, and take it apart, and let us try to understand what was in the mind and the heart of Paul. Let us try and understand what was in the heart and the mind of the Corinthians. Let us try to understand why God wants these words to be saved, and read, and studied by us.
It is almost degrading when he says, “but as unto those who are carnal.”He is saying, ‘You are like the people in the world; you are not like the people in the church’. He says, “…even as unto babes in Christ.” He told them that they know very little, just the first precepts almost of what it means to be a Christian. So Paul is laying the groundwork, because some of them had become haughty, and they thought that they knew it all. They thought, ‘I go to church on Saturday, I know about the Ten Commandments, and now I know that Jesus is the Messiah, I am off and running’. They did not put it into practice in their lives. They overlooked a lot of things.
The Corinthian congregation was being plagued by those who entered their congregation and took the church off on various tangents, when what they really needed was basic foundational doctrine being lived in their lives.
I Corinthians 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to handle spiritual meat, neither yet now are ye able.
Brethren, the things that Paul had given them he calls milk. In fact if you go out into the Protestant world of today, you would find that a great many of the churches believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior, a lot of people will believe that Jesus Christ is King and Master. So we must ask ourselves what is the spiritual meat that Paul is talking about? So Paul is writing them a letter and telling them that for some reason they cannot handle spiritual meat. They had not lived what they had been taught, they had not put it into practice and they had not internalized it. They had not developed a relationship with God. They could not handle spiritual meat. They had not grown spiritually, as they should have, had they been living their Christianity.
In the exact same way that the early church was carnal, we cannot hear spiritual things because of our non-spiritual carnality. We should admit, ‘I do not know it all’. That is the definition of humility, as far as I am concerned. If you have somebody that knows it all, he is not going to hear. Maybe you have had the opportunity to talk to somebody, and you have something really good to say. You could say, I know where the gold is buried, but they cannot hear you, because they know it all already. It is a shame, but we are not able to digest all the truly spiritual meat that comes our way, and we miss out. How many times have you heard a phrase and, bing, it finds root and you start studying it. It has been there all of the time. Let us admit, truly spiritual meat sometimes goes over our head. The closer we are to God, the more we live His principles in our lives, the more we become like a sponge that can soak up more spiritual meat. But to hear it in passing, or for it to be playing while we are thinking about something else, does no good at all. We do not grow in Christ as we could, and should, because of our carnality, and we all have a degree of carnality.
I Corinthians 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas you are divided among yourselves by envying [jealousies], and strife [contention], is it not evident that you are carnal, and walking as people [of the world]?
We cannot say that was referring to the people two thousand years ago, today we are all spiritual. There was division and fighting in the congregation, and we have talked about this many times. Paul says that when this exists, and we certainly know how much it exists in God’s church and even in families today, it is evident that we are carnal.
I Corinthians 3:4 For while one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; can you deny that you are carnal?
He says that you are, in effect, saying my guy is better than your guy. My Dad can beat your Dad. My guy is smarter than your guy. My guy is holier than your guy. Paul says that is not right in God’s church, and yet the Church of God is plagued with that today. Men will not lay down the gauntlet and go and shake hands with their brother. They hold a grudge that they will not let go of, and they will not meet with them. I am not saying that we can meet with everybody. If there is a man who teaches the trinity doctrine, or if there is a man who is an adulterer, they are the things that prohibit us from fellowshipping with everybody.
The Church of God is one; we are one Bride of Christ. We are one people of God, and we need to recognize each other as so.
To this day, it seems that congregations are prone to look to the man rather than to God. If you go on the internet and you do a search, it is not, “Are you a Christian, do you follow the things of Christ, but it is what man are you with?” Congregations should be prone to look to God in His word. This is what the Bereans did, they searched the scriptures. No, let us talk to this man over here, and see what his spin is on whatever it happens to be.
I Corinthians 3:5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, they are but [servants] by whose administration you believed, and was it not the Lord who gave to every one of you a measure of his success?
God is the One who gives of His Spirit, God is the One who opens up the mind, and God is the One who does the calling. So Paul is saying that it is all about team work, and about being one Body. Spiritual gifts are for everyone’s profitability. If you have a spiritual gift it is not to foster your career, it is for the benefit of the entire congregation.
I Corinthians 3:6-7 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. [made the seeds grow] So then neither is he that plants [Paul is self deprecating here] anything, neither he that waters is anything [Apollos is simply doing God’s bidding]; but it is God alone Who gives the growth.
Paul gave them the scriptures that talk about the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Paul planted. He came to town, and said whatever God led him to say. People wanted to hear and see more, and begin to change. Apollos watered. That means that he came and he added the details. He explained some things, maybe about some of the things that Jesus said, and some of the things that Jesus did. He was adding to what Paul had done. God gave the increase, and Paul is giving God the credit for this. He is pointing all of it back to God. God does all of this. God is the one that made the seeds grow. Three times Paul says that it is God doing it, God is giving it.
Brethren, let us understand that we do not call anybody, we do not convert anybody, nor do we give anyone God’s Holy Spirit. It is God who gives the increase.
I Corinthians 3:8 Now he that plants and he that waters are one: [There is the unity of the Spirit, There is the one Body of Christ] and every person shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
Paul is saying that he and Apollos are one. What does he mean by that? He means that there is the unity of the Spirit. There is the One Body of Christ that they are a part of. In the second part of the verse there is another subject being introduced here.
“Every person shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.” Paul is saying, in effect, do not worry about saying I am with this big evangelist over here, or I am with this apostle, or senior pastor, over here. There is going to come a time when that apostle, and that evangelist, will receive their reward, and there will come a time when you will receive your reward. Your reward is according to your own labor. It is not who you team up with, not what they do, not what they believe.
Brethren, let us understand that Christian living is a demanding, difficult and arduous life. Some people think that becoming a Christian makes life become easy. It is quite the opposite. But there are good and generous rewards. No one is more generous than God is. Can you imagine the reward program that God has? Go through an orchard and look at the peaches or apples. God puts more on those little trees than they can bear. I have seen pear trees where the branches begin to break, and fall out of the tree, because they have so much fruit on them. Not just 60, 90 or 100 fold, God’s blessings and rewards are going to be extremely bountiful. Nobody is more generous than God.
Jot down a few of these scriptures to look at later. It talks about the fact that we will not be rewarded according to who we know, or to which man we looked up to. We just saw that everyone will receive his own reward, according to his own labor. Labor entails getting something done, and it requires energy, time, and work.
Revelation 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
We see that our reward is commensurate with the amount of work that we put into it. How diligent we are, how striving we are to do God’s will. It is not to make an organization big, or to make a man famous, or to get glory in our bonnet, but to do the will of God. Where do we work, what is the venue that we do this in? It is in our Christian living, it is day to day, and not just two hours on the Sabbath. It is all of the time.
Revelation 22:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
So, again there it is, according to works.
Romans 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
I Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
This is an instruction that fits in perfectly with what we are talking about. We do not work for that reward, but we work to be a part of the will of God, to be part of the plan of God, and to be a part of the family of God. But we are told that our labor is not in vain. We will be rewarded according to the labor that we put in. How many sacrifices did we make? How many times did we lay down our life? How many times did we go out on a branch for our brethren? How many times did we try to show, by our example, how we should live? How many times did we keep our word or our promise to do what we said? How many times did we live what we had been taught?
Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shown toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
We must be ministering to the saints. It is all about serving.
II Chronicles 15:7 Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded.
Paul says that everyone will receive his own reward, according to their own labor.
I Corinthians 3:9 For we are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
We are working alongside God, and we are pulling the same way, and we are yoked to God.
What is ‘husbandry’? This is not a word that we use today. This scripture starts off by saying that we are fellow workmen. This means that we are trying to accomplish the same thing that God is trying to accomplish. We are working towards the same goal. At the same time that we are working with God, we are also the product that God is producing. We are God’s garden, we are the vineyard, and we are the farmland. We are tilled soil for crop production, and we are under cultivation. So what it is saying is that at the same time that we are fellow laborers with God, we are also being turned into the product, which is Christians. We live our Christianity. What does God want with a building? We will see that this is headed toward the fact that we are a “temple” and this has a spiritual connotation.
I Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the [A] foundation, and another built thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon.
When he says, “the grace of God,” Paul is giving God the complete credit for what he has received, by way of the knowledge that he has been taught since he was a young man. Whatever preaching skills Paul might have had, he gives God the credit. If you look up the Greek for master builder, it is the word for architect. Paul is going to show that Jesus Christ is the true foundation. Jesus Christ says that you cannot build with substitutes for true Christianity, but you have to build with really good materials. There are a lot of Christian substitutes out there. It would be like building a house out of newspaper, straw or Styrofoam. We will see that instead of stone and granite, we will see even more precious things like gold.
Paul clarifies himself here:
I Corinthians 3:11 Forno one is able to lay another foundation - other than the foundation that is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the foundation.
I Corinthians 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation [Jesus Christ] gold, silver, precious stones, or another man with wood, hay, stubble;
What Paul is saying here is that some are very diligent and enthusiastic in their practice of their Christian living and their Godliness. They use gold, silver, and precious stones. Whereas, some are lackadaisical, falling asleep, and not getting busy. They are not calling, not writing, not praying for people, and so forth. Or they are even apathetic in their Christianity, and that is building with wood, hay, or stubble. Who wants to build a house out of stubble?
Paul says that it all comes out in the wash.
I Corinthians 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day [of trial] shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
When it says “the day,” that can picture the day of Christ’s coming to judge all things, or it could be a time to come, a day of trial to test our character and our works. It is not physical fire, but figurative fire as a refiner’s fire. It does not get rid of the gold, it just makes it better. So it is speaking of the trials that we go through. The trials will reveal whether we have produced gold, or whether we have produced stubble.
I Peter 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
We are all tested and tried, because that is how God knows what we are made of. God will see us through it, and we will see what still needs to be purified in us. We can say, yes I do have this shortcoming, I do have this problem. Trials will help us to build Godly character.
I Corinthians 3:14 If any man's work abide [endure] which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
Now that is talking about anything from building a congregation, to overcoming sin in our personal life, and that is what our work is.
I Corinthians 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
Trials can bring personal setbacks, and sometimes severe personal setbacks. But let us be assured that Jesus will not leave us, or forsake us.
I Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
Now he is bringing along the spirituality in showing that we belong to God, and that God is in us to guide us and lead us.
I Corinthians 3:17 If anyone defiles [ruins] the temple of God, him shall God destroy [ruin]; for the temple of God is holy, which {temple – not in text} ye are.
The temple of God is holy, and you are holy.
I Corinthians 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool [according to the world], that he may be wise [according to God].
Sure, we seem foolish to the world, but God will confound them, and uphold His people.
I Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He takes [ensnares] the wise in their own craftiness.
Look at the stock market; it is going to go away like dust in the street. The people in Wall Street that are greedy and envious will be entrapped by their own greed.
Job 5:13 He takes [captures] the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
I Corinthians 3:20 And again it is written, The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise [of the world], that they are vain.
Psalms 94:11 The LORD knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
Spiritual pride is detestable, and it causes some to think that they are above the rest, and better than others. They think that it gives them license to be above the law, or at least giving them privilege to do things that others would not be allowed to get away with.
I Corinthians 3:21 Therefore let no man glory [make his boast] in men. For all things are yours;
This is very important and very interesting, brethren: “For all things are yours”
What does Paul mean when he says, “all things are yours”? Is the bank on the corner yours; is all of the property in Texas yours?
Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Paul is comparing and contrasting here. The world thinks they have it all now, but it will all blow away, and that is what vanity means. We cannot have that in the church. But you, brethren, will inherit not only the world, but the universe.
Revelation 21:7 He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
This is what Paul means when he says, “all things are yours.”
I Corinthians 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.
We do not have to worry that we are not getting enough glory or recognition. All things, everything that we can imagine and grasp, are ours.
I Corinthians 3:23 And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.
The problem with those brethren back in the Corinthian church, and with the brethren in the Church of God today, is that they make excuses for not doing what God so clearly requires of His people. What is the practice of true Christianity? That is what we have to understand. Not the play acting that goes on at church, or the substitute religion that goes on in church. They went to Sabbath services and they participated, but there was a glaring deficiency in the practice of their Christianity. They were failing in their Christian living.
As we go into I Corinthians 4, and we will do that next time, let us understand and realize that Paul picks this one example, the division in the congregation. Some people were claiming to side with one minister against another, or claim that one minister had a better product than another. God does not work that way. God gives spiritual gifts for the benefit of all of the brethren, and we need everything that all men are putting forward. We need the music that the choir provides. We need the sermonettes that the sermonette men provide. We need the sermons that the sermon men provide. We need somebody to go out and raise up churches. We need somebody to feed the flock, to counsel and to perform the marriages and the funerals. We are a part of one Body of Christ.
Brethren, let us understand this concept of saying that we do not need others. It is not according to the Christian living that is being taught in the scriptures. We are one as Paul and Apollos were one. We are one as Christ and the Father are one. We are one as a husband and a wife are one. We are one as Christ and the Bride are one. We are one with each other, and we are one with all of the brethren. It is our job to diligently seek out those who are led by God’s Holy Spirit. We are to work with all who are willing to work with you according to God’s Holy Spirit. Work not only because your reward is commensurate with the things that you do, and the things that you provide to the brethren, but so that you and I will be one with God the Father and Jesus Christ in the Church of God, in the Family of God throughout all eternity.
WZ/pp/sl
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"Christian Living" |
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