A Display of God's Glory/Conclusion

From Gospel Translations

Revision as of 19:18, 16 July 2008

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is a wonderful letter to read and meditate on if you want to understand more of what life together as a church entails. What you find there is that we as a church are to be marked especially by Holiness, Unity, and Love.

Why is the church to be like this? Because the character of the church is to reflect the character of God. We are to be holy and united and loving essentially because God is like all these things. We are to be holy because God is holy. We are to be united because God is one. We are to be loving because God is love.

First, we are to be holy in the sense of being strange to the world, but special to God. We are to be pure. Holiness is to be an attribute which marks the church. It is to be a trademark; it is to be common among us, and typical. When someone considers our particular church, they are to think, “That is a holy community.”— not meaning a bunch of self-righteous, prudish people, but a community that in our conduct holds out hope of a better, more humane, more God-honoring way of living. That’s why all these matters of membership and teaching and discipline are important. We are to be holy because God is holy.

Also, we are to be united because God is One. It’s very interesting in I Corinthians chapter 1, when Paul begins with the ill report he had heard of the various divisions and factions in the church, that the apostle deals with the issue theologically. Look at the question he poses to them in light of their divisions in I Corinthians 1:13: “Is Christ divided?” What a fascinating question! When you think about it, no local church has any other basis for being. When Paul looks at the divisions in the church and then turns to ask, “Is Christ divided?” the powerful theological assumption behind it is that the church is the body of Christ. That idea reminds us of the serious responsibility we have to reflect God. Our divisions take on an added seriousness because, as with any unholiness or blame, they reflect on the One whom we are to image. Our disunity is really a lie about God and what He is like. As Paul said in I Corinthians 12:27, “You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Where do you think Paul got that idea? I think he got it in the very hour he was converted. In Acts 9 when Paul is stopped in his tracks by an appearance of the Risen Christ, he was on his way to persecute the Christians in Damascus. What did Christ say to him? “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Christians?” No. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting the church?” No. He said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” This is how closely Jesus relates to His church. He views it as His body, and us as members of that body!

One of the main reasons that we are called in I Corinthians to “get rid” of those committed to their sins more than to Christ is because we are to be united. Unity was supposed to be one of the hallmarks of the church. This unity was to transcend the old divisions of Jew and Gentile(I Cor. 7:19), along with every other worldly division. This is why Paul was so upset by the report of divisions in the church. Even at the feast of the their unity—the Lord’s Supper—they were divided. When churches divide for carnal reasons, we start being about other things—we are the church of modern music, or of this pastor, or the church of the homeschoolers, or of the Democrats, or the church of the blue carpet. All of these unities are different from true Christian unity. The church is to be united.

Finally, we are to be loving because God is loving. The only way that we can be united is in love. In I Corinthians 8:1, Paul writes that “We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” This becomes Paul’s basis for his large excursion in chapters 8-14 on letting love and consideration for others be the governor of what we should do. Paul had a love for God’s church at heart. So he wrote in 14:26,“All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” And in verse 31, “so that everyone may be instructed and challenged.” Paul was quite sensitive to the church’s health, wasn’t he? No wonder then, when you look at 15:9 and remember his history, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the