Letters from Paul: We Must Grow—Psa.92: 8-15; I Cor.3: 1-11
They say confession is good for the soul. However, I will not be confessing today. Instead, I will tell you a story of “If I had done that…” (wink, wink, nod, nod) if you get my drift? Almost twenty-two years ago, I was in a high school summer program which trended on the far side of boredom. The only thing I retained from that summer was 23 pounds of extra weight. Now, my roommate in the dorm for that program was one of the most obnoxious, pretentious, rude human beings I have ever met in my life.
He smarted off in a way that really cut me hard one day. And here’s where we go to the hypothetical part of this story. IF and I say IF I were somewhat childish about it and wanted to get revenge, I would have put some of the saline solution for my contacts in his large bottle of Hawaiian punch he kept in the room to cause him to need the restroom quickly and often for the next day and a half. Now, I’m not admitting to this at all. I plead the fifth, if you will. And it’s a total coincidence that he got an upset stomach from the cafeteria food.
As we continue our series on Paul’s letters to the churches, and what we can learn from them today, we see Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians about their need to grow and find maturity in life. We will have two weeks on growth and maturity. Paul spent a lot of time on the topic. What does it mean to grow? How do we grow? There are three things Paul tells us: Growth means moving our souls towards God’s spirit; Growth means seeking a place of commonality together; and growth takes work, sometimes hard work.
First, growth means moving our souls towards God’s spirit. Paul identifies the problem with the Corinthians very quickly. They’re childish. He says to them that he has laid the foundation for them of Jesus—the person, the teachings, and the grace, but apparently the Corinthian church stopped there. Paul identifies a few of the issues here, namely they argue and complain bitterly with one another, and have no desire to be God’s people. Now, there were actually more than a few issues in Corinth. Paul goes on to discuss violent divisions, sexual immorality as a religious practice, weaponizing the Lord’s Supper, claiming status from spiritual gifts, worshipping temptation, lying about the Gospel, and abusing love.
What it all came down to was that they loved their selfishness and childishness more than they loved God. And because of that they failed to grow in any conceivable way in their faith. A growing faith seeks an answer of grace and love in every situation. And for a very opinionated society, that’s hard. But a growing faith seeks to offer grace first, then everything else that might needed second, including accountability. Remember when you first went to church and believed in God it was because you hoped in a love bigger than yourself and what humanity could imagine. Offer the same to others.
In doing so, the bitterness, division, childishness, and selfishness that can harbor up within us will melt out of us into the love and grace that is supposed to be the foundation of our faith. When our souls move closer to God’s spirit, there we find grace and love from the start.
Second, growth means seeking commonality together. I realize that in saying we must work together in harmony for the sake of God’s kingdom might get me labeled all sorts of fun names in today’s society. But isn’t this the exact indictment Paul gives the Corinthian church? He writes, “You still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other.” Paul makes clear in multiple letters that contention, discord, bickering, confusion, and anything that is not peace and fellowship is not of God. You may draw your own conclusions about “Christian” politicians who revel in such things.
The problem for Corinth was they chose people who seemed strong and raised them up as their own godly leaders when they selfish not Godly. It was the childish following the selfish. Some claimed they came in Paul’s name, others in Apollos, others claimed power by their gifts and abilities. Growth cannot take place in the midst of fighting and chaos. If you need an example, look at the churches that constantly have fights. They don’t grow. They don’t minister. They don’t become mission-minded in their communities. They die. People leave, and they die.
Faith seeks a common ministry, common mission, and a like-minded fellowship to do the work of God’s kingdom. A fractured and quarrelling church can offer no real help and no real hope because it looks just as ugly as the world we need some kind of saving from. Growth means we work for peace, purpose, and wholeness in a broken world. Our denomination says those very words as our opening sentences, “We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a [broken and] fragmented world.”
Lastly, growth takes work. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.” There are two parts to this. First, we are all part of one ministry. But second, a bit of work is required to grow: planting, watering, weeding, nurturing.
Paul knew that the Corinthians had not put much effort into following God. Paul knew that they liked being petty, childish, and selfish. Growing is not easy in life, and they chose not to. Paul encourages them with these words, “And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.” Engaging in the work of growing closer to God and growing in faith brings a reward and peace in life.
If you learn how to work together and engage in mutual commonality, your life will be filled with people who help and work together. It’s a reward. If you sacrifice arguing, bickering, grudges, and so on, you will be free from the burden of that spiritual ickiness. Growing in faith can teach us a healthy and peaceful response to much of the rest of society’s messiness. Plutarch once said, “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Too many of our churches and church goers have the Corinthian struggle. They are comfortable living at the foundation, and they do not want to do any work towards growing. Some even enjoy the drama of being the quarrelers, trouble causing, and problem-makers instead of problem-solvers. Faith is meant to be a place of growth with watering, pruning, and nurturing till our lives match the love and gentleness of Jesus and not the profoundly sick society around us.
We all have times where we act in a childish way. No matter how old we get, from time to time, a temper tantrum will creep up. I understand this. I for one cannot condone any hypothetical situation of revenge that involves giving someone intestinal distress now that I’m a mature and growing Christian. As we continue through life, may we never become stuck like the Corinthian church. Faith works when we grow into each day drawing closer to God’s spirit, finding a mutual sense of mission and ministry here on earth, and doing the hard work.
The Corinthian church lived in a childish and selfish place. And if we were honest, we would have to say too many churches share that same struggle. They argue instead of talking, they seek to support themselves instead of all humanity for whom Jesus offered grace, and they seek complacency over disciplined growth. May we never follow that same dead-end pathway. God has done and will continue to do great things in our lives and in our world if we remain committed.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1775839089561085