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Spiritual Maturity and Unity in the Church
1 Corinthians 2:14-3:19
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”[a]
But we have the mind of Christ.
The Church and Its Leaders
3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Background: Paul now starts to challenge some of the problems with the church in Corinth. One of these is spiritual arrogance – they think they are more spiritual mature than they really are.
Monday
14 The person without the Spirit doesn’t accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. These things are foolish to them. They can’t understand them. In fact, such things can’t be understood without the Spirit’s help. 15 The person who has the Spirit can judge all things.
Think about this question – at what point did the Spirit start working in your life?
Some of us might be tempted to answer – the day I gave my life to Christ. But if we think a bit longer, we’d probably realise that God’s Spirit had been at work in our life long before that. Whatever we felt we understood, at the moment of coming to faith, was only because the Spirit had revealed it to us. He’d already been at work in our thinking. It wasn’t because any of us were super-clever and worked it out on our own!
Jesus prays in Matthew 11: I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to little children. In one sense, the spiritual things we do understand are quite astonishing, and are not understood by those who don’t know God.
Thank God for the understanding and wisdom he has given you.
Tuesday
1 Brothers and sisters, I couldn’t speak to you as people who live by the Holy Spirit. I had to speak to you as people who were still following the ways of the world. You aren’t growing as Christ wants you to. You are still like babies. 2 The words I spoke to you were like milk, not like solid food. You weren’t ready for solid food yet. 3 You are still following the ways of the world. Some of you are jealous. Some of you argue.
One morning you start work, open your computer and are outraged to read this in your inbox:
From: Your minister.
Sent: Today
To: You.
CC: Your Bible Study group
Subject: Grow up.
Stop being a baby! You think you are so spiritually wise – but you’re kidding yourself. You have lots of philosophical discussions about complex spiritual issues – but in fact you’ve no idea what you’re talking about. You don’t even get the basics.
From: You
Sent: Just seconds after reading previous email and violently hitting Reply All.
To: Your Minister
CC: Your Bible Study group
Subject: RE:Grow up.
How dare you! That is so rude. What gives you the right to be so insulting!?
“Ping” – a reply comes into your inbox.
From: Your minister
Sent: Straight away
To: You
CC: Your Bible Study group
Subject: Re:Re:Grow up.
Do I need to point out that you spend your whole time arguing about really stupid things – like who’s got the most gifted minister, or which church has the best worship. You get jealous of other Christians in ministry; arguing who has the best gifts! You’re not thinking as a Christian should. You’re thinking like the rest of the world does.
Wednesday
3 You are still following the ways of the world. Some of you are jealous. Some of you argue. So aren’t you following the ways of the world? Aren’t you acting like ordinary human beings? 4 One of you says, “I follow Paul.” Another says, “I follow Apollos.” Aren’t you acting like ordinary human beings?
Paul is really hammering his point here. Literally four times he says – you are acting like non-Christians. Being competitive, quarrelling about who has the best gifts; plus then this silly argument about whether you follow the teachings of Paul or Apollos, just goes to show you don’t get it. That’s not how Christians treat one another. That’s not how you resolve differences.
Of course, churches in Scotland would never split over whether they follow the teachings of one person over another – would they?
Working for the Mission means we strive not to get caught up in pointless arguments. We actively choose not to feel we have to defend our doctrinal opinion on some contentious issue or another. That’s not how we do things as Christians. The more mature response is to park them at the door, seek to think more highly of the other person, and strive to serve them and build them up.
Thursday
5 After all, what is Apollos? And what is Paul? We are only people who serve. We helped you to believe. The Lord has given each of us our own work to do. 6 I planted the seed. Apollos watered it. But God has been making it grow. 7 So the one who plants is not important. The one who waters is not important. It is God who makes things grow. He is the important one.
The work that each of us does in the Mission is something we believe God has given to us and laid on our hearts. It is his mission field, not ours. We’ve merely accepted his invitation to come and join him in the work he’s already doing.
Paul and Apollos had different jobs in Corinth, and of course it’s the same in the Mission. Some of us our pioneers, some of us are relationship builders, some of us keep buildings functioning whilst others love making spreadsheets (!). Enjoying your work and exercising the gifts God has given you is one way we give him glory. It also makes it very apparent that boasting about our gift or being jealous of another’s gift is just ludicrous. You can’t boast about something that was a gift and you didn’t receive because of anything you did. Besides, gifts are meaningless unless the Spirit is there – nothing grows without God.
Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour in vain. (Ps 127)
Take joy in exercising your gifts today.
Friday
8 The one who plants and the one who waters have the same purpose. The Lord will give each of them a reward for their work. 9 We work together to serve God. You are like God’s field. You are like his building.
In the New Testament, there are various images used to describe the Church: a bride, a human body, a flock of sheep and a lampstand. Here, Paul says we are a Field. To state the obvious, fields are places where plants can grow. It’s a place where seeds can be planted, but the conditions needs to be right for it to germinate and grow. Seedlings will be small and fragile, but then can mature to be tall, strong and fruitful.
The Mission is a part of the Church in Glasgow. It’s a place where seeds are sown. Do we also create the conditions so it can germinate? Do we see shoots of growth and tenderly care for them? Are we a place where these plants can become fruitful through finding a place to serve?
Finally, (if you’ll permit a bit of nerdy science) there are 17 essential atomic elements that plants require to grow up healthy*. If any one of those is missing – the plant will grow up sick and unhealthy. 17 elements needed in the field to help life to grow – and you are most certainly one of them!
Sat/Sun
Why not make this paraphrase a meditation for your weekend:
Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when
they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck- up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.
Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with
everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.
(Rom 12:14-21 MSG)
Phil Wray
Head of Projects
Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash
* nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, boron, chlorine, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum, and nickel.
