July 25, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let\u2019s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ\u2019s body!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul now turns his attention to a third aspect of the life of the church in corporate worship, namely the exercise of the spiritual gifts. The Corinthians seem to have been elevating the gift of tongues above the others, as it was more \u201cshowy\u201d or impressive in their eyes than the others. Paul rebukes this kind of thinking and reminds them that all the gifts are empowered by one and the same Spirit, that every one of the gifts is necessary for the overall health and upbuilding of the church, and that the entire point of the gifts in the first place is to use them to build others up, not ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This, once again, goes back to the way in which we approach corporate worship and the church in general. So many of us approach the life of the church looking to see what we can get out of it, how we can be \u201cfed\u201d or benefitted, and we buy into this consumeristic mindset that is worldly and unspiritual. Paul reminds us here that if all you are doing is consuming and never contributing you are being a leech on the body of Christ!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The metaphor Paul uses of the church being like a body is one of the most vivid and beautiful descriptions in the Bible of what the church is meant to be and how it is meant to function. Like a body with all its individual members, the building up of one builds up the whole. If one is harmed, the whole body suffers. Each member is absolutely necessary to the whole. This picture of mutual care and upbuilding and love is something we miss so frequently in the church today, and something we need to strive for!<\/p>\n\n\n\n