The Church is supposed to be a community of people united by the Spirit of God. While this is what it is supposed to be, sometimes churches have problems. Pride, gossip, slander can all come in and do harm to the bride of Christ. You know, those sins that are border line accepted in American Christianity. Oh, let’s not forget gluttony. Okay, I digress.
The apostle Paul had his fair share of experience putting out fires in local churches. We see a plethora of problems addressed in Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth and he offers a solution that we need to apply to our contexts.
The Problems
Looking at it from our perspective, the Corinthian church was a mess. There was quarreling, cliques forming, a man sleeping with his father’s wife (probably not his mother), wealthier people not eating with poor people, and spiritual gifts were being turned into acts of pride.
There was a lot to address for Paul. Despite all of the surface issues, there seems to be an underlying problem that was plaguing this congregation. In their culture it was common to try and pursue a sense of goodness on an individual level. People would try their hardest to reach this standard of good. As people strived for this good, many would encounter Christianity and they would view it as a way in which to achieve this good standard. They simply began to view Christianity as the new vehicle for achieving this level of moral superiority.
As they progressed in their goodness, they begin to view themselves as above moral norms. The moral standards of the society (or even the church) became below them. In other words, they thought they had arrived and because of that they were no longer held to the same standard as the common folk. This desire for reaching goodness came from the Arostotelian ethical system. The irony in all this is that as a person got closer to being the good man, their moral standard diminished. Weird, huh?
This is the same problem that occurs in churches today. In the pursuit of becoming better Christians, they begin to look down on others because they are not at the same level of spirituality. At the same time, they are, in fact, committing sin because of their pride.
So, you have a community of believers who are quarreling, forming cliques, allowing sexual immorality in their midst, discriminating upon socio-economic lines, and letting pride consume their spiritual gifts. What do you do? How do you solve all of these issues? Paul offers the solution.
Paul’s Solution to Church Problems
If you read the letter, 1 Corinthians, which I totally recommend you doing, you’ll see that Paul leads the Corinthian Christians to this one solution, this one principle that they are to live by. He brings it up as he is discussing a very important topic: spiritual gifts. He tells them that they should “earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all” (1 Corinthians 12:31 NLT). He tells them that they are all part of the body, that is the body of Christ, and they should use their gifts for the edification of the body and the glorification of Christ. And he tells them that he is going to show them a better way to do so (better than any spiritual gift they may have).
So, here’s the solution:
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13 NLT)
The Corinthian Christians were elevating themselves above the body of Christ. They were elevating themselves above the Spirit of God. Paul’s plea with them is that if they would get love right, everything else would fall into place.
In every problem inside the Church this question should be asked and answered: are all parties seeking to love each other as we are called to love by Jesus?
Church, we HAVE to get love right. After all, Jesus did say, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35 NIV). When we get love right, we will see amazing things happen in our lives and in the lives of those around us. In everything, let’s choose to love, every time.
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