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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 51)
Before we get
started I want to acknowledge all the people who recently started following our
informal Bible study on the www; we’re glad to have you “on board.”
I have no further
announcements for the group, so that leaves us at the beginning of the final
lesson of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian saints. Our Apostle Paul gave instructions to the
Corinthian church concerning the
collection for the saints in Judea in 16:1-4, so last week I decided to contrast
the way this was done in the early church with the way the modern, individual
churches are presently doing it.
Now, some folks in
the modern church may say “That was then
and this is now; you can’t compare the two - our church has many needs.” On the other hand, another group of Believers think
the church today should be more like the early church and this notion has
nothing to do with wanting to hang on to the things of “yesteryear,” for nostalgia
sake, but everything to do with adhering to the practical teachings of the
apostles. The modern church has drifted
away from some of these core teachings. For
instance, Paul preached There is one
body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;
there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is
over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6).
In other words, the
early church was unified; Christians viewed the church as one family, in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:10, 12:25; Ephesians
4:16). But does this describe the church
today – hardly. Instead of being united,
the modern church has splintered into “thousands” of individual churches, the
majority of these calling themselves Christian
churches, yet each one bears a different label, and they hold
individualized church doctrines that vary somewhat or greatly from their neighbor
church up the street or across town. Catholics
don’t attend Baptist churches and Lutherans don’t participate in Presbyterian
Bible studies. Each church group functions
like a private (members only) club. I
saw a sign just the other day that read:
Support Your Local Church. Shouldn’t
this sign have read: Support God’s one Church!
But there’s commonality
to be found in all these organized, religious, corporate entities. Pew Research reveals if you look closely at
any of these church budgets you’ll find they spend the greater portion of their
revenue on salaries, building mortgages, and other material supplements to
ministry. At best 7% of the church funds
is allocated to helping the poor or given to needs outside the church that (on
some level) aid the needy in your
community. Compare that to how the
early church spent its money. Although the
N.T. talks about taking up collections,
it never says this money was used for a building fund, for salaries, or to
support individual ministries within the church. And it never mentions giving 10% of your
income, which is a common value most modern churches attach to regular giving. I have attended a couple of churches that
didn’t pass a collection basket at all and the preacher never mentioned giving
during the service. These churches placed
a basket at the back of the assembly hall and it was generally understood this
was where you placed your “gift” of whatever amount you determined, or as you prospered, before you left the building; or not. The act of giving is between the giver and God
and not the giver and the church leader.
When the N.T.
speaks of giving, it refers to contributing money to the poor (Romans 15:22-29;
1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8-9).
When Paul declared, “God loves a
cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7) for instance, it was in the context of
Gentile churches giving a one-time monetary gift to the poor Jewish Believers
living in Jerusalem.
Another thing that
set the early church apart from the modern church is they took these words of
Jesus to heart: “People SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT
ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD (Matthew 4:4)” In Paul’s day they
valued the written Word of God and they studied it diligently (Acts
17:10-12). Since the Bible has been a
“best seller” for many years, you may think the modern church has finally gotten
one right. But even though most Christians own more than one Bible, and most churches offer a wide
range of Bible study programs, the majority of Christians today exhibit an unprecedented lack of Bible knowledge. Pew Research
reveals 60% of Christians can only
name two or three of the 10 Commandments, 81% don’t believe (or aren’t aware
of) the basic tenets of the faith they profess, and 12% believe Joan of Arc was
Noah’s wife…
However, early
Believers soaked up the Word of God like a sponge. The New Testament letters, for example, not
only contain direct quotations from the Old Testament they also contain
“allusions” or brief phrases that the reader was expected to understand. For instance, the book of Revelation alone
does not contain a single direct quotation from the Old Testament, and yet has
more than 500 allusions to words or phrases from the Old Testament. These allusions could only be picked up on by
readers or Bible students who were intimately familiar with the Old Testament
Scriptures.
If the church today
resembled the early church, we would truly be the Lord’s ambassadors here on
earth, united in thought, word, and deed to the glory of God. Believers would be reaching non-believers
effectively on a regular basis.
Contrastingly, in too many churches today, the congregations are
reaching no one for Christ Jesus in the course of an entire year. There are many reasons for this, one of these
resting at the top of the list is in many churches today the congregations can’t
agree that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to the Father (John 14:6).
********
If
you’ll open your Bible at 1 Corinthians 16:5-9, we’ll pick up our lesson where
Paul begins to write about his tentative plans to visit the church at Corinth,
Greece.
1 Corinthians 16
5: But I will come
to you after I go through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia;
6: and perhaps I
will stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way
wherever I may go.
7: For I do not
wish to see you now just in passing;
for I hope to remain with you for some time, if the Lord permits.
8: But I will
remain in Ephesus until Pentecost;
9: for a wide door
for effective service has opened to
me, and there are many adversaries.
Since
Paul had just given instructions concerning the gift the Corinthian saints were
challenged to make to the poor Jews living in Jerusalem, he naturally begins to
discuss his upcoming travel plans. In
verses 2-3 he indicates when he arrives in Corinth he does not want to have a
collection taken. This gift should be
set aside in advance of his arrival.
Once he arrives, he would write letters to accompany the gift and the
Corinthians chosen to convey it to Jerusalem.
Even
though it’s not mentioned here it should be rather obvious Paul wants to put
this Judean collection matter behind
them so that they can address all the church-related issues we’ve been covering
to date for these are of the utmost importance.
But I will come to
you (v1)
- Paul’s prolonged absence was obviously a point of contention in this
church. How do we know this? Turn back to 1 Corinthians 4:18-19 where we
find this comment from Paul: Now some have become (what) arrogant, as though I were not
coming to you… Some of these
Believers took advantage of Paul’s uncertain travel plans to attack him and his
theology, i.e. his gospel.
Reading
through verses 5-7, I find there is more here than meets the eye: But I
will come to you after I go through Macedonia, for I am going through
Macedonia; and perhaps I will stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that
you may send me on my way wherever I may go.
For I do not wish to see you now just
in passing; for I hope to remain with you for some time, (note how Paul
ends this section) if the Lord
permits.
Permit
me to illustrate: in 1963 the
Moscow-Washington hotline was established.
It links the Pentagon with the Kremlin.
Although in popular culture this is known as the “red telephone” and
sits on the president’s desk in the oval office, the hotline was never a
telephone line, and no red telephones were used. But the hotline does exist and since 2008
both nations have opted to use e-mail to communicate with one another.
If
anyone had a direct line to God (as far as guidance is concerned), according to
Scripture that man was Paul. On a number
of occasions, God gave him special revelation, starting with the appearance of
the Lord on the road to Damascus – that was dramatic (Acts 9:1-9; 23:1-16,
26:2-18). In the book of Acts, Paul
receives a revelation from the Lord on several occasions such as the Macedonian
vision in Acts 16:9, where he and his party are directed to cross over to
Macedonia, i.e. Philippi. Then there’s
the time the Lord appears in a vision to Paul in Corinth after opposition from
unbelieving Jews forces him to cease his ministry in the synagogue. Paul moved his operation next door to the
home of Titius Justus (Acts
18:9-11). (See also 11:27-30, 13:1-3,
20-23, 21:10-11, 27:21-25).
By
“digging deeper” we find that verses 5-7 actually indicate the way in which
Paul normally made his daily decisions and future plans, in humility Paul
sought divine guidance before “stepping out” or taking action. In contrast, the Corinthians thought of
themselves as being “super-spiritual” (1 Corinthians 4:6-13; 2 Corinthians
10:1-2). But we now know, as did Paul,
their decision-making skills left much to be desired from a Christian perspective because he wrote: Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop
sinning; for some have no knowledge of God.
I speak this to your shame (15:34).
I’ve actually had people say to me, “God
spoke to me the other day…,” or “God told
me to…,” as if they were in communication with the Creator God on a regular
basis, demonstrating their “super-spirituality.” This closely resembles what Paul was dealing
with in Corinth.
1 Corinthians 16
8: But I will
remain in Ephesus until Pentecost – this remark proves that Paul wrote this
letter while he was in Ephesus. Paul
delayed his visit to Corinth because he was convinced that it was God’s will for him to remain on at
Ephesus. Two things convinced Paul to prolong
his stay: there was a great need and
there was an opportunity - right now; the door was open - for a wide door for effective service
has opened to me (v9). Thus,
this was not the time to pack up and leave.
If
you were at a social event and a family member sought you out just as you were
bagging your leftovers and loading the SUV, stopping you with the question, “Who
is Jesus Christ,” what would you do?
Would you keep loading and say, “I’ll
catch you some other time” and
drive away? Or knowing the wide door for effective service has opened;
it’s here and it’ NOW, would you take the time to faithfully address the need,
knowing this moment may not come around again?
Paul encountered a similar cross
road in Ephesus and we know the choice he made.
Let’s
be careful to note what this book doesn’t say here. Paul didn’t say, “God has opened a wide door for effective service.” I do think this is what Paul believed so
this is what he wants Believers to understand, but that’s not what he
said. It wasn’t necessary for Paul to
say God “led him” to do this or that.
Furthermore,
it appears that Paul is careful not to credit God with one of his decisions
unless he is certain it was God who directed him, i.e. he knew for certain his
actions aligned with God’s will. Why
point this out to you? I’m glad you
asked – far too many Christians credit
God for a decision they made whether the outcome was good or bad. When
we have made a decision for which we do not have clear, divine guidance, let’s “own” that decision personally and leave God
out of it altogether. Let’s not try to
sanctify it by saying I prayed for God’s will and felt the Spirit leading me, “to marry him/her, and you know how that
turned out…” or “God said I should invest
in that stock; worst decision in my life!” or “I prayed about that job in Seattle, they called me back, so I decided
to accept it and move there next week. I
hope it works out…”
The
way in which Paul dealt with his future travel plans to Corinth provides
Believers with a pattern for discerning God’s guidance and not just as this pertains
to travel.
When
we want to travel somewhere we choose a flight schedule, make airline
reservations, we pack a bag and board our flight and leave the rest to the
friendly skies. Things were a lot
different in Paul’s day. Paul has
already confirmed the fact that he wrote this letter from Ephesus, so looking
at a map from that time period we find Ephesus is in Asia Minor, across the
Aegean Sea from Macedonia where the cities of Philippi and Thessalonica are
located. Somewhat south of Macedonia is the
Roman providence of Achaia, where the cities of Athens and Corinth are
located. Paul could not get from Ephesus
to Corinth without considerable travel and without crossing the Aegean Sea. Now, you just didn’t board ship and sail in
Paul’s day folks, there were a number of factors to be considered. For example, sea travel was only safe and
available during certain seasons.
Note
Paul did not claim to have received any direct revelation or divine guidance
concerning his travel plans to Corinth, he merely speaks as though he is
confident that he will know when and how he will come to them at Corinth when it’s necessary (Matthew 6:34). The other noteworthy item we should take from
the text is Paul did not make commitments regarding the future which he was not
sure he could keep. He kept his plans
subject to the will of God. Paul understood his future (as is our future)
is in the hands of the Sovereign God (Isaiah 55:8-9; Romans 11:33-34; James
4:13-17). Paul just put one foot in front of the other, as any
other Believer should, trying their best to remain in God’s will.
The
wide door for effective service for
Paul that opened in Ephesus was not a “cake walk” or a ministry among
friendlies. Paul has already revealed
something about his work there to us: Why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you
which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If from human motives I fought wild beasts at
(where) Ephesus, what does it
profit me? If the dead are not raised,
LET US EAT AND DRINK, FOR TOMORROW WE DIE (1 Corinthians 15:30-32).
Paul
is explaining to us that his ministry in Ephesus brought many people to Christ
but it also brought about much opposition and danger every hour. (See Acts
19) From this we learn wherever you find
devoted men and women laboring in the name of the Lord, you can also expect to
find opposition. The spiritual battle
between good and evil which began when Satan was cast out of heaven continues
today: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in
the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12; 2 Timothy 3).
Let’s
go to verses 10-11.
1 Corinthians 16
10: Now if
Timothy comes, see that he is with you without cause to be afraid, for he is
doing the Lord’s work, as I also am.
11: So let no one
despise him. But send him on his way in
peace, so that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brethren.
Since
Paul is unable to travel to Corinth at this time, here he offers an alternative
plan saying others may come to their
city so that these Believers can be taught the truth of God’s Word and
encouraged in the faith. But Paul writes
this as a command because he knew personally just how unloving these folks
could be and he didn’t want his young assistant insulted or harmed because of
his youth, his personality, or because he came instead of Paul himself (v
11).
But send him on his
way in peace, so that he may come to me; for I expect him with the
brethren. The Bible doesn’t
say who this involves, but Erastus and Titus are two likely possibilities. According to Acts 19:22, Paul sent Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia seemingly to find out from other saints and
churches whether it would be wise for him to pay the Corinthians that extended
visit or not: And having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him,
Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
As
indicated above Paul awaited their return and their report. According to the text, Timothy was on his way
to Corinth to administer whatever spiritual help he might be able to give to
the carnal-minded Believers there.
Erastus was the treasurer
of the city of Corinth (Romans 16:23).
When Paul finally paid the Corinthians that extended visit, Erastus would be an ideal choice in
helping him urge the Believers there to participate generously in the offering
to be sent by the Gentile churches to Jerusalem. But as we learn from Acts 19:22 Paul sent
these two men to Macedonia, not specifically to Corinth. It may well be the information he received
from these two men was not favorable because in Acts 20:1-3 we find Paul
himself going into Macedonia and as far south as Greece (for 3 months), but
there’s no mention of Corinth, which one would expect had this proposed visit
with them materialized at that time.
Titus - During Paul’s
first missionary journey, a young man named Titus heard Paul preach about
Jesus. Titus was Greek. He had not grown up worshiping the God of the
Bible. As he listened to Paul, Titus’
heart responded to the message, and he believed in Jesus. Paul brought him to
Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1-4) to show the apostles and other Jewish believers
how a Greek non-Jew could love God just as much as they did. Titus represented all the other non-Jewish
people who became Christians and were completely accepted by God through their
faith in Jesus Christ—like most of us.
Titus
continued to travel with Paul on missionary journeys, helping in the work of
sharing the gospel. During the 3 years
Paul was in Ephesus teaching them about the amazing power of God (third
journey), Titus was there. Then, Paul
sent him to Corinth to alleviate tension there (2 Corinthians 7:6, 13-14) and
to collect money for the poor (2 Corinthians 8:6, 16, 23).
I
go by what this book says and it says that Paul left the decision to go or not to go to Corinth to Timothy for Paul
wrote: Now if Timothy comes… This
is one more way in which the early church differs greatly from the modern
church today. Many modern churches
operate like corporations in that they have a “religious hierarchy” wherein
ranking men have the authority to determine where a church leader goes to work
and for how long. Picture, if you will,
a denominational church leader responding like Timothy to a superior who
notified him that he had been reassigned to a new church in the inner city, “You know that’s a generous offer, but it’s
really not in my plans at this time to change churches, but I will consider it
at some later date.” This church
leader would be deemed “rebellious” and called onto the corporate carpet where
he would be not only unsympathetically corrected for his arrogance but he would
be handed the keys to his new assignment in short order or face some rather
stern consequences.
Contrastingly,
even Apollos had the opportunity to
yes or no to the assignment (v 12).
1 Corinthians 16
12: But concerning
Apollos our brother, I encouraged him greatly to come to you with the
brethren
(whoever this may be); and it was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has opportunity (and
if it is the Lord’s will).
Earlier
in this letter we learned that some of the Corinthians preferred Apollos over Paul (1:11-12), perhaps in hopes of inciting a rivalry between them,
i.e. “my pastor’s better than your pastor”
– kind of thing. Now we find Paul encouraging him greatly to come to Corinth
with the brethren. However, Paul has already addressed this conflict-ridden
attitude with these words: Who then is Apollos? Who then is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed,
as the Lord has assigned to each his role.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God kept it growing. So neither the one planting nor the one watering is anything, but only God who causes the growth
(3:5-7 – Berean Literal Bible).
Paul
and Apollos demonstrated by their lives and their individual ministries they
were not rivals but co-workers for Christ.
Paul’s Closing Remarks
1 Corinthians 16
13 Be on the alert,
stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
14: Let all that
you do be done in love.
15: Now I urge you,
brethren (you know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits
of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves for ministry to the saints),
16: that you also
be in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work and labors.
17: I rejoice over
the coming of Stephanas and Fortunaus and Achaicus, because they have supplied
what was lacking on your part.
18: For they have
refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore
acknowledge such men.
The
closing of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is actually sad when you get
right down to it because it begins with mild rebukes that are derived from the
military “be on the alert,” “stand firm,” “act like men,” and “be
strong.” Paul is admonishing this
church to “watch out” to be on the alert
against a factious spirit, heresy, debauchery, and above all pride.
Stand firm in the
faith – this
is another military term for “holding one’s position – at all cost. “In the faith” refers to the Grace Age
Doctrine (Jude 1:3, 20). Paul wants them
to be alert to Satan’s schemes and
to their own tendency to surrender to them as they live the Christian life and thus stand firm in the faith (v13). These Believers had been so concerned about
their own petty interests that they were not standing firm in the faith; they
were yielding ground to the enemy, vast acreage to tell the truth; as the
modern church is doing today.
14: Let all that
you do be done in love. It’s also sad that
Paul had to devote an entire chapter on (agape) love simply because this church
was lacking this essential element – as are many churches today.
15: Now I urge you,
brethren (you know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits
of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves for ministry to the
saints),
The
church at Corinth was the largest church Paul had planted. Because of this, they met in several homes
within the city. Out of all these
household churches there was only “one” who had devoted themselves for ministry to the saints and this was the household of Stephanas. Please note, concerning this, Paul does not
merely say, “be thankful for such a wonderful household of Believers,”
but: that you also be in subjection to such men and to everyone who
helps in the work and labors (v16).
And
then, Paul brings up a matter that should have brought great shame upon the
church at Corinth, “I rejoice over the
coming of Stephanas and Fortunaus and Achaicus, because they have supplied
what was lacking on your part (v17).
These two men came from Corinth to Ephesus to aid Paul in some way.
The
Corinthian Church possessed the means to aid Paul in his ministry while in
Ephesus – they could have helped him greatly in his struggle there. But they chose not to and this is evident
from this passage and from 2 Corinthians 11:7-9.
Therefore
acknowledge such men – Here Paul instructs these saints not only to be
grateful to the men who had so generously supplied him; he instructs them to
give them special recognition. In other
words, those men who serve and sacrifice for the cause of Christ should be
recognized, respected, honored, heeded, and their advice given greater weight
than that of others.
Next
up – Paul’s 2 letter to the Corinthians.
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
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Rights Reserved
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