Carnality and Divisions
by Dr Jeffrey Khoo
In 1 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul tells the Christian not to remain a baby in the faith but to mature into spiritual adulthood. He must not just keep drinking the milk of God’s Word but progress to feed on the meat of God’s Word (1 Cor 3:1-4). Spiritual retardation will lead to carnal behaviour. A spiritual retardate will bring trouble not only to himself but also to the church.
The spiritually retarded believers in the Corinthian church displayed carnal behaviour. Paul rebuked them for their babyish faith. Three years had passed since they were converted. They should have by this time matured sufficiently. But no, they remained spiritually childish. They were still infants in their knowledge of Christ (cf. Heb 5:11-6:2).
When spiritual vitality and growth is lacking in believers, they become susceptible to sinful temptations and worldly seductions. Instead of keeping to the simplicity and purity of Christ and His Word, they begin to prize the power and prestige of Satan and his world. They backslide, becoming worldly and carnal (sarkikos) in their thinking and actions. Adopting the ways of the world, they become trouble makers in the church.
This was what happened in the Corinthian church. The carnality in the Corinthian church resulted in factions within the church. These unbiblical divisions in the church were due to a wrong understanding of the Christian ministry (1 Cor 3:5-4:5). By hinging their faith on certain leaders in the church, these carnal believers reveal a faulty perspective of Christian leadership and ministry. Paul had to instruct them concerning the place of Christian leaders in the spiritual life and growth of the church. The church leaders were but mere servants of God. The Apostle used the illustrations of farming and building to explain this truth (1 Cor 3:5-17).
Paul and Apollos were but farmers in the Lord’s vineyard (1 Cor 3:5-9). They simply planted the seed and watered it. They had nothing to do with its growth. God was the one who caused the growth. Paul preached the gospel, Apollos taught the Word, but God alone gave life. Christ is Saviour, not any man.
Paul likened himself to an architect (1 Cor 3:10-11). Christ, the Chief Architect (who Himself is the Key Foundation or the Cornerstone), had given him the blueprint for building the church. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he had laid the foundation. In other words, he had given to the church the inspired Word of God which is supremely authoritative and all sufficient for faith and practice (cf. Eph 2:20, 2 Tim 3:16-17).
The builders who build upon that foundation must be careful how they do it (1 Cor 3:12-17). There are two sets of building materials, one is good, and the other is bad. The first set—gold, silver and precious stones—are expensive, beautiful, and durable. The second set—wood, hay and stubble—are cheap, ordinary, and easily destroyed.
One day, all believers will be judged by Christ. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor 5:10). This judgment is a judgment of service, not salvation (3:15). Every work for Christ will be tested. Some will be rewarded, others will be shamed (Matt 6:1-6, 25:1-40). It all depends on the quality of work we have done for the Lord. Is our work for the Lord Christ-centred or self-motivated, Christ-driven or strife-driven?
Paul warns believers against worldly wisdom (1 Cor 3:18-23). To be wise in the world is to be a fool in God’s sight. If anyone wants to be wise before God, he must become a fool to the world. To support his point, Paul cites two Old Testament passages: Job 5:13, “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness,” and Psalm 94:11, “The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.”
Believers should only and always follow their infallible Lord and His inerrant Word and never the philosophies and methods of fallible human beings no matter how big a name they have or how powerful a position they hold (cf. 1 Cor 1:12, 3:5). Everyone and everything belongs to God. Only He deserves all the glory. What is the Christian’s main purpose in life? It is only this: “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”
What is the key to Christian spirituality and unity? It is (1) to be founded on our perfect Lord who is the same yesterday, today and forever, and (2) to be grounded on His perfect Word which is forever infallible and inerrant. Amen!
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THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: Chapter XX
John 20:17-18
Through Tears of Love and Joy
Now that Mary had found her Lord alive and transformed in all His resurrection glory, her first reaction was to fall at His feet to kiss Him (cf. Matthew 28:9). In the process, He retreated a step: “Touch me not” (or cling not to Me – a phrase which Simon the Pharisee had used when he saw her, a sinful woman, caressing His feet as He reclined at table, and protested that had He been a prophet, He would have perceived what sort of woman she was who was thus “clinging to Him”. Luke 7:39. (David Smith).
Now since He permitted His disciples, according to Matthew, to touch Him (cf. John 20:37), what reason had He for restraining Mary from doing the same? Calvin says the answer is easy to find so long as we understand the women were not repulsed from touching Christ until they touched Him overmuch. For as far as removing doubt, He certainly did not forbid them to touch Him, but when He saw that they were too much occupied with embracing His feet, He tempered and corrected their thoughtless zeal . . . manifesting as it were their desire to keep Him in the world.
In the words, “For I am not yet ascended unto the Father”. Christ showed the purpose of His resurrection. It was not what they had imagined, that when He returned to life He would be as He lived with them before, but rather that His resurrection would lead to His ascension. His resurrection took Him to a new dimension from which He would dwell with His own by the Holy Spirit Whom the Father would send.
Having understood the truth of this new relationship between disciple and Master, Mary Magdalene with tears of joy was sent to tell His “brethren”. What a wonderful relationship between us and our Lord! He is not only the Risen Saviour to save us from our sins, but the Ascended Lord to heaven from where He rules the world now, seated at the Father’s right hand. “All power is given unto me, in heaven and in earth” with His ascension. And because Christ is ascended on high He occupies such a vantage position as most efficaciously to hear and attend to the prayers of His children. With joy let us also go out to witness to our Risen and Ascended Saviour, from where He will soon return to judge the world.
John 20:19-23
The First Lord’s Day Evening with the Risen Lord
This passage must be read in conjunction with Luke 24:13-45. The Risen Saviour had first appeared to Mary Magdalene (Jn 20:14-18); second, to the women returning from the tomb with the angelic message (Mt 28:8-19); third, to Peter (Lk 24:34); fourth, to the Emmaus disciples towards evening (Lk 24:13-31). This was the fifth appearance. What excitement after throbbing excitement!
From Luke’s account and John’s we see that the disciples were gathered hush-hush behind shut doors. There were Mary Magdalene’s and the women’s report of Christ’s Appearance early that day. Peter related his experience how the Lord had come to assure him of forgiveness. Then came in the two disciples, running some seven or eight miles back from Emmaus and reporting on their travelling Companion. In the hushed excitement amidst muffled mouths and open eyes, suddenly stood Jesus in their midst and greeted them, “Peace be unto you!” Luke tells us the disciples were affrighted, supposing to have seen a Spirit. To prove Himself, Jesus offered His hands and feet to be felt, while He ate a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb to enhance his credentials. John who saw the blood and water flow from His side adds Jesus also showed His side. This brought joy in the hearts of the uncertain disciples.
What was more important than proving His resurrection (now that it was ascertained) was the great commission to send them with the salvation message into all the world. He also gives them the Holy Spirit and power to forgive sins. The power to forgive sins is not vested in priest or pope, but in the preaching of the Gospel, when blessed by the Holy Spirit. It is not an executive, but a declarative ministry. And this ministry is committed not to Peter alone, as the Roman Catholics claim, but to all the apostles.
The First Evening of the Resurrection was the inauguration of a new order for the Christian Church, who must now spread the Message to all the world. And that new order is committed to every Church, old or young. How much have we carried out this Commission?
