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Rightly Dividing
the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15)
Established
November 2008 Published weekly on Friday
This is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men (and women) to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1Timothy 2:3-4)
1 Corinthians (Lesson 38)
There were
approximately 40 to 150 people attending the Corinthian church. Some of these folks were Jews but most of
them were Gentiles. These men and women
would meet regularly in “house churches;” one of these was the home of Justus (Acts 18:7-11). However, when the entire church at Corinth
assembled it’s likely they met in a rented dining hall in the city or a large
garden venue (1 Corinthians 11:34, 14:23, 34-35).
One other thing we
know is this assembly of Believers was adversely affected by the sin of pride.
Pride was the root cause of their immoral behavior and their
internal strife and it lies at the heart of
the most recent problem addressed by our Apostle Paul – some of these Believers
did not care about other members of
this church. This offensive attitude
demonstrated a total disregard for one of Jesus Christ’s most important
teachings (Matthew 22:36-40). But the sad
reality is those arrogant,
self-centered members of the church
had created a schism (split) in the body by means of their disrespectful
behavior and Paul could not praise them
for this (11:22).
Paul teaches this
conduct is contrary to God’s design for His Church. God is interested in “body-building.” But here in
Corinth, instead of working together, as one
body, each person exercising their spiritual
gifts for the common good to “build-up” the Body of Christ, these Believers were steadily tearing it down.
“The parts of the body work together. The eyes and ears do not only serve
themselves, but the whole body. The
hands do not only feed and defend themselves, but the whole body. The heart does not only supply blood to
itself, but serves the whole body. Sometimes
there is a part of the body that only lives to serve itself. It doesn’t contribute anything to the rest of
the body, and everything it gets it uses to feed and grow itself. We call this cancer.
I want every member of this church to be a worker. We do not want any drones. If there are any of you who want to eat and
drink, and do nothing, there are plenty of places elsewhere, where you can do
it; there are empty pews about in abundance; go and fill them, for we do not
want you. Every Christian who is not a
bee is a wasp. The most quarrelsome
persons are the most useless, and they who are the most happy are peaceable,
are generally those who are doing (the)
most for Christ.”
Charles Spurgeon
(1834 – 1892)
********
Please
open your Bible at 1 Corinthians 12:27.
1 Corinthians 12
27: Now you are Christ’s
body, and individually members of it.
28: And God has
appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
29: All are not
apostles, are they? All are not
prophets, are they? All are not
teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?
30: All do not have
gifts of healings, do they? All do not
speak with tongues, do they? All do not
interpret, do they?
31: But earnestly
desire the greater gifts. And I show you
a still more excellent way.
Now you are
Christ’s body – using
figurative language, as before, Paul asserts these Corinthians (and every true
Believer) is the Body of Christ. He doesn’t say you might be; he said
unequivocally you are Christ’s body.
In
one sense Jesus Christ and Believers form one
Body (v12), but in another sense He is the Head and we are the Body.
Permit me to illustrate: anyone
who uses both of their hands in their chosen field of expertise to “get er’
done” work diligently in the course of the day to complete their assignments or
goals, but there’s no real unity in
your hands; the true unity starts and
ends with your head. Your head (the
brain) is sending all the necessary instructions to your hands and to various
other parts of your body, telling them how to function, and here’s the thing, you
don’t have to plan any of this. In like
manner, we, the members of Christ’s Body, should let Him, our Head, do the
planning and He should be instructing His Body
(v27).
The
other thing Paul mentioned is all of us don’t receive the same spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit.
If you’ll recall, a couple of weeks ago we looked at the fact that God
loves variety. This was demonstrated in creation and revealed
to us by Paul in regard to the
giving of spiritual gifts, so we’re all different in this respect. So, here’s the other thing, we all will work
joyfully, in harmony with one another, if we allow Jesus Christ to be the source, the Head, of the body.
We covered the meaning of source in
Scripture awhile ago too. The word source, in its fullest sense, communicates the idea of headship and authority. Scripture affirms
it is not only appropriate it’s right to submit to someone who is our head (v28). (Romans 13:1; Ephesians 5:21-33; 1 Peter
2:13-15).
Paul
is also saying it is wrong to value one spiritual
gift over another – tongues in this instance. It is also wrong to equate one of God’s gifts
with spirituality as these Believers were
doing. Each Believer in Corinth had
been Spirit baptized (12:13), but not
everyone spoke in tongues (12:30). Thus,
Paul debunks their theory that speaking in tongues
is the sign of the possession of the Holy Spirit in an individual, because
the answer, “No” is the expected response to Paul’s questions in verses 29-30.
Let’s
go to verse 31.
12:31: But
earnestly desire the greater gifts. And
I show you a still more excellent way.
But (you) earnestly desire the greater gifts – this is a command from God just
in case you’re unaware (14:37). Paul isn’t addressing the individuals who
believed the gift of tongues was
the supreme gift; he’s addressing the entire assembly at Corinth. I’ve added the word you to this verse, which is implied. In fact, you could insert your name instead
into the place where I’ve added the word “you.”
The
Believer doesn’t select his or her spiritual
gifts; the Holy Spirit is in
charge of this operation. However, as a
church we can earnestly desire that
the greater gifts be manifested (appear)
among us. I say this because nowhere in
Scripture does it say that we receive our spiritual gifts at the moment of our
salvation, or that they’re associated with a person’s natural skill set, which means we can earnestly desire (seek) the greater gifts through prayer, and
God may answer those prayers.
What
are the greater gifts? These are
spiritual gifts that benefit the general Body of Christ as a whole.
For example, Paul lists prophesy as a greater gift in 1 Corinthians 14:1.
Our Apostle Paul advised the Corinthians to seek some gifts
more than others because some, more than others, lend themselves in “building-up”
the Body of Christ.
Please
turn to 1 Corinthians 13:1.
Between
chapter 12 and chapter 14 sits one of the most recognizable gems in all of Scripture; many people
refer to as the “Love Chapter.” In
chapter 12 Paul gives instructions regarding spiritual gifts, those
abilities by which Believers minister or serve others; Believers and
unbelievers alike. In chapter 14, Paul
gives explicit instructions on the specific use or exercise of those gifts,
and we’ll get to that in short order. Sandwiched
in between those two chapters is this chapter on (agape) love because the only environment in
which an individual’s spiritual gifts can function properly is in
the atmosphere of love.
The
New Testament was written in Koine Greek. The word Koine
denotes “common” because this style of Greek was the language of the common
person-on-the-street during the time of Christ.
Koine Greek came into vogue
about 300 years before the birth of Jesus, and it became an obsolete language
about three centuries after the Lord’s death.
However, during its time, it was the most precise instrument for
conveying human thoughts the world has ever known. Without a doubt, this language was
providentially chosen by God in giving the world the N.T. revelation of His Son
and the true meaning of the cross.
Koine Greek had several
words representing different aspects of love.
Eros generally had to do
with sexual love. We get our English
word Erotic from this Greek word, but you won’t find it in the N.T.
Storge, a Noun, was a term primarily used to
describe family affection. Paul spoke of
those who were “without natural
affection” (astorgous) in Romans
1:31.
Philia was a very common
word for love during the apostolic age.
It is the word for genuine affection or heartfelt love. Jesus had this kind of love for His closest
friend and disciple, John (John 20:2), and for Lazarus (John 11:3).
Agape was the noblest
form of love. William Barclay
wrote: “Agape has to do with the mind:
it is not simply an emotion which rises unbidden in our hearts; it is a
principle by which we deliberately live.”
Since we’re to be imitators of
Jesus Christ, as is our Apostle
Paul, it is the kind of love that
every Believer must have for all – even our enemies (Matthew 5:44; 1 Corinthians
11:1). The Believer must always act out
of love, i.e. in the best interest
of his fellow human beings – seeking their highest good.
Paul
directs this message to the Corinthian church because, as he said in 1
Corinthians 1:7 …you are not lacking in
any gift; meaning they were saved, they all had received their spiritual gifts, i.e. abilities, but they lacked (agape) love, which is actually the point – it’s not about the individual church
members, it’s not about their gifts;
it’s about exercising those gifts accordingly
for the common good (Romans 12:3-14;
1 Corinthians 12:7). Simply said, they were not obeying the Law of Christ, which in a nutshell
means: seek one another’s highest good. (Matthew 22:34-40; Luke 6:27-36; Romans
12:17-21)
The Excellence of
Love
1 Corinthians 13
1: If I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have (agape) love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.
2: If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all
mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3: And if I give
all my possessions to feed the poor, and
if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me
nothing.
4: Love is patient,
love is kind and is not jealous; love
does not brag and is not arrogant.
5: does not act
unbecomingly: it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into
account a wrong suffered,
6: does not rejoice
in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7: bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
It
is evident from Paul’s statements both in 1 Corinthians 12:11 and 12:31 that
the chapter about the body and its members, was written to correct the
abuse of the sign gifts by the Corinthian church.
The bestowal of the sign gifts at Corinth was without a doubt
related to Pentecost because, as Scripture shows us, Cornelius, his relatives
and close friends, the first Gentiles
to receive the gift of tongues, the
Apostle Peter said: And as I began to
speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning (Acts
2, 10, 11:1-18).
In
verse one, Paul deals sternly with the Corinthians self-centered and unloving use of the gift of tongues saying, If I speak with the tongues (the better translation would be languages) of men and of angels (the verbal communication of both heaven and earth by the way), but do
not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.
If
you have ever stood near a pair of clanging
symbols, or a noisy gong, then
you get Paul’s meaning in verse 1. The
question isn’t, “Are symbols noisy?” The
real question is could an individual with the gift of tongues, a gift from the Spirit, make such a resounding ruckus
before God? The answer is, “Yes.” The person may even speak in an angelic
tongue (language) and still be nothing but noise
before God!
Therefore,
once again, the gift of tongues was
not an indication of spirituality in
any individual for Paul states in verse 2 even the gift of prophesying, was not, in itself, any indication of spirituality, absent of (agape) love: If I have the gift of
prophecy, but am without love, I am nothing.
In
verse 2 Paul reminds these folks of his previous teaching found in 12:8-9,
concerning the gifts of wisdom and knowledge given by the one Spirit, but
here he declares that even the understanding of all mysteries, and all knowledge, and faith, strong enough to remove mountains would amount to nothing, without love.
If
an individual had faith that could
move a mountain, as Jesus Christ spoke of in Matthew 21:21, Paul wants these
folks to know their labor would be in vain, if they lacked love. We know some of these
Corinthians thought too highly of themselves because they supposedly possessed
superior knowledge, but in God’s
eyes he or she is nothing, if they
are not accomplishing something of spiritual value in “building-up” the Body of Christ.
Verse
3:
3: And if I give
all my possessions to feed the poor, and
if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me
nothing.
Paul
goes on to say even if a person was generous enough to sell all he or she had
so that they could feed the poor, in an act of tremendous charity, God would
not even take notice of the act, there would be no eternal benefit, if it was
done without love. Again, this
type of love characterizes God’s
love which was most clearly displayed at the cross: But
God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even
when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by
grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians
2:4-6).
It’s
no secret. (Agape) love is driven
(motivated) by the desire to please God the Father first and foremost, and then
others. It’s not about us. It’s not about drawing attention to oneself or
seeking accolades. Paul said even if a
person was martyred for the sake of Christ, but opted to do so without love; it would be of no eternal
value. Here’s the thing, it does no good
to say you stand for the Truth, while hating the opposition. When God said to love all people, by this they will know you are My disciples,
that’s what He meant (John 13:35). He
didn’t say, pick and choose whom you will love… we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus and some would say
this is the easy peasy part of this command, but we are also commanded to love our enemies.
Food
for Thought
Our
Lord and Savior gave 7 final statements before He died on the cross. His first expression was: “Father forgive them;
for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). He forgave them
because they acted in ignorance. Jesus
Christ could have stepped down from the cross.
He could have called down 10,000 angels to exact revenge on those who
were treating Him so spitefully, but the Lion of Judah became our Lamb of God,
just as the Scriptures prophesied (Isaiah 53:7). His emotions didn’t get the best of Him – He
fulfilled His Father’s will to the point of death (Philippians 2:6-10). But can we say the same thing when someone is
rude to us or does something harmful to us?
Our Apostle Paul wants us to know to love is the greatest achievement in Christ Jesus and the greatest
gift one can either experience or give.
Let’s
go to verse 4.
4: Love is patient,
love is kind and is not jealous; love
does not brag and is not arrogant.
We
know for a fact the Corinthians were NOT patient with one another, they were NOT kind, Believers were jealous of each other’s spiritual gifts, and arrogance was the chief problem
in this church. So, the key ingredient needed for their
fellowship to function as God planned was love;
once achieved, then the
divisions would cease.
Obviously
some of these Corinthians weren’t moving forward spiritually - their spiritual
growth was stunted (1 Corinthians
11:1). We know pride is a deterrent to accepting God’s free offer of salvation and
to understanding the Truths of God. Some
of these folks believed themselves to be spiritual giants but in truth:
- When they needed to be exercising patience with one another, they chose intolerance instead.
- Instead of showing kindness, they displayed indifference.
- Instead of being jealous of another’s God-given gifts, they should have been contented with their gifts, giving thanks to God while putting them to use in the community both within and without for the common good.
- Instead of bragging about their position in the church, based on the supposed ranking of their spiritual gift, they should have adopted the persona of Jesus Christ and displayed humility. For love is not cruel but gentle, peaceful, and peacemaking. As our Apostle Paul put it, love is not in competition with other Believers, “It rejoices with the rejoicing of others and mourns with their mourning (Romans 12:15).
Love does not brag or draw attention
to itself because it is drawn to be the servant of all. I don’t think I need to
point out the Lord Jesus Christ is the best example of the humble Servant in
all of Scripture, therefore He is our example.
There are many Bible verses I could direct you to but if you’ll turn to
Mark 10:45 this verse expresses the meaning quite clearly: For even the Son of
Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for
many.”
(Agape) love does not boast about its vain accomplishments or take glory in
self-achievement. Instead, loving individuals seek to encourage
others, their “building-up” others in the Body
of Christ. Love draws attention to God the Father not to itself.
Let’s
examine verses 5:
5: does not act
unbecomingly: it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into
account a wrong suffered,
To
be quite frank, to act unbecomingly would
be to live as a child of Satan rather than a child of God. You see, the love Paul speaks of motivates a person to live as Christ would have
them live, shunning evil, clinging to what is good (like a barnacle to the
underside of a ship’s hull) and to all that is beneficial in life (Romans 12:9-13). Love
does not seek its own agenda or selfish ambition, but looks to the Lord for
His planning and His instructions. It
views the well-being of others as more important. Love
is not provoked, meaning it does not throw gasoline on the fire of
another’s aggression, insults, etc. (Proverbs 15:1). Love
does not enjoy conflict. Love is quick to forgive and forget,
not holding grudges, or reminding people of their past failures or offenses (1
Peter 2:23).
Let’s
go to verses 6-7.
6: does not rejoice
in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7: bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Those
who love and follow Jesus Christ rejoice with the truth, meaning they
abhor evil and the ways in which the world
conducts its routine business minus God the Father and His Son – they do not enjoy sinning or seeing
others sin or condone it. No Believer
“winks” at sin. Believers seek to
advance God’s truths and the
principles of His kingdom wherever and whenever the Holy Spirit opens the door,
or presents an opportunity because love
does not rejoice in unrighteousness. In
the world you may bump into the
truth on occasion, if you search for it, but there is no falsehood in Christ
Jesus; those who have a relationship with the Lord know full well what it means
to be “set free” by the truth and they operate freely from this
firm foundation (Matthew 7:24-27; John 8:31-32).
Love bears all
things means
it is willing to forgive the transgressions of others; it doesn’t go around
broadcasting other people’s failures to the world, “Do you know what Susan did last night…?” “I called to let you know what David said
about you the other day while we we’re golfing…” Furthermore, it doesn’t break trust; it protects
the dignity of others who have confided in them. It also doesn’t take offense. It doesn’t take things personally; instead it
seeks through prayer and the desire to forgive others to see the good, the truth, in all situations, giving them
the benefit of the doubt, and in all other circumstances remembering God has
said, “Vengeance is mine…” (Romans 12:19).
Love believes all
things. It has the utmost
confidence in God’s Word and holds fast to them in enthusiastic faith. It is not unduly critical of others
understanding discernment and a forbearing spirit ought to go hand-in-hand. Love continually
looks forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Church, and love
believes that God is still at work, able and willing to do great things here on
earth.
Love hopes all
things. Love doesn’t
give up on people and it doesn’t lose faith in God (Psalm 130:5). It keeps hoping, in faith, to see the power of God at work in their lives and the lives
of others, especially when the rough and tough times come (Hebrews 11:1; Romans
8:25).
Love endures. It doesn’t curse those who persecute, it’s
not busy seeking to “get even” with those who have mistreated it, love trusts that God is in control of
every situation and there is a blessing behind the “storm cloud,” or the trials
and tribulations (pressure) that come
our way (Romans 8:28-31). Love keeps doing all that it can to
demonstrate the character of Christ Jesus to a world in need of a Savior and to a church which must have good
examples in its midst.
Verse
8:
8a: Love never
fails - Believers
never do wrong to love. Love is the fulfillment of the law of
Christ, which means we’re seeking others
highest good, putting the needs of others above our own, and worshipping
God with all our being. Since no one can
force us NOT to love them, love is
undefeatable. It is the love of Christ Jesus that enables
people to see their own sin, so love is
powerful (Romans 12:20). The church is
to have and to utilize the love of Christ in its dealing with one another and
with the world (John 13:34-35). Lost
people ought to see Christ in us, if not we’ll lose whatever influence,
whatever impact God meant for us to have on society. This begs the question, if we can’t demonstrate the character and the love
of Christ for one another in the church how are we going to be good examples to
a world, who’s watching keenly?
8b: but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will
be done away; if there are tongues,
they will cease; if there is knowledge,
it will be done away.
9: For we know in
part and we prophesy in part;
10: but (behold the
underlying truth) when the perfect
comes, the partial will be done away.
11: When I was a
child, I used to speak like a child; when I became a man, I did away with
childish things.
12: For now we see
in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will
know fully well just as I also have been fully known.
13: But now faith,
hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
No
one was more charismatic than our Apostle Paul.
He wrote to the Corinthian church, “…you are not lacking in any gifts (1 Corinthians 1:7), so when it
came to spiritual gifts no church had more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit
than these saints in Corinth, yet Paul said he spoke in tongues more than all of them (1 Corinthians 14:18).
Despite
being the most gifted church Paul planted, the Lord revealed to Paul that the
sign gifts
were going to cease: but if
there are gifts of prophecy, they
will be done away; if there are
tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge,
it will be done away.
In
verse 8 Paul speaks specifically of the gift
of prophecy, the gift of tongues,
and the gift of knowledge (13:1-2),
and states the Lord Jesus Christ had revealed to him (11:23, 15:3; Galatians
1:11-12) a time was coming when these sign gifts were going to cease to function within the
church. The reason for this is given in
verses 9-10.
9: For we know in
part and we prophesy in part;
10: but (behold the
underlying truth) when the perfect
comes, the partial will be done away.
The
gift of tongues, prophecy, and knowledge during the Acts period were only in part, meaning they were incomplete; they did not communicate the
full knowledge that the Lord had to
reveal. But the Lord revealed to Paul
that which is perfect was
coming. Paul wasn’t writing about “the
coming” of “He who is perfect” as many assume, he’s writing about the coming of a thing, the full knowledge of God, which is perfect: For I
want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea
and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be
encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full
assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is
Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians
2:1-3).
When
that which is perfect came, then the gifts which were only in part would cease – they would no longer be necessary. Paul said it would be like the difference
between being a child and becoming a grown man, or between seeing someone’s
face reflected in a wavy ancient Greek mirror, and seeing the person
face-to-face.
(To
be continued)
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
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Rights Reserved
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