Notes:
1. Introduction
2. Spiritual people vs. People of the flesh (Jealousy and strife)
a. Milk (infants of Christ) vs solid food (mature Christians)
3. Major problem in the church of Corinth: factionism / divisionism
a. Paul and Apollos as humble servants of God, not as esteemed teachers/philosophers
4. Paul plants while Apollos waters but it is God who gives the growth (Division of labour, not divisive work)
a. We are One in Christ (fellow workers, God’s field, God’s building)
5. Conclusion / Questions of reflection:
a. Are we spiritual people of people of the flesh?
b. Are we drinking milk or eating solid food?
c. Are we maturing in our faith and in our understanding of God and self?
d. Self-centred vs Self-giving
Good morning, brothers and sisters in Christ. Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
For the past few weeks, we have been looking at the first two chapters of Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth. Today, we will be looking at the beginning nine verses of chapter three. Ancient Corinth was a city-state, much like Singapore, situated halfway between the two great cities of Athens and Sparta. Corinth was one of the largest and most important city in Greece at that time. The church of Corinth was founded by Apostle Paul about 50 years after the death of Jesus Christ. Just as the city was thriving, so too, was the church. But a growing church is often met with much growing pains. As we have been told, the church at Corinth was a church that was deeply divided. Yet, it was a church that was also deeply loved by Paul. His letters to the church of Corinth was a heart-felt letter of admonition, a gentle reproof of the conflicts and concerns among the community of believers.
In the passage we had just read, Paul begins with a stern address to the church. He calls them brothers, yet, he also said that he could not address them as spiritual people but as “people of the flesh,” as “infants in Christ.” The church at Corinth were also not ready for solid food. Paul had to feed them spiritual milk. The word “infants” has the meaning of being “childish” rather than being “child-like”. The word “flesh” here simply means the corruptible human body. The phrase “people of the flesh” was translated in earlier passages as “natural man.” That is, humanity in its most natural state. Humans, with our human weaknesses and human desires. Rev. Wee Khong told us last week that a natural man is a man without the Spirit of God. A natural man is one who continues to live only for himself and not for others. We are actually quite familiar with this. When we were young in our Christian faith, we are often concerned with matters relating to our personal well-being. Why do you believe in Jesus Christ? Because I want to be saved. Why do you come to church or read the Bible? Because I want to worship God and to know God better. The motivation for the things we do in the Christian faith often stem from self-interest. The “I” in us, or what psychologists call, the ego, or id, is very strong.
At the crux of the matter, the main issue was self-centredness. This is the deeper meaning of being “infants in Christ” and being “people of the flesh.” As infants, we are only concern with our immediate needs. As people of the flesh, we allow our human desires to control us. This self-centeredness is often reflected in the things we pray about. When we were younger, we pray for good weather so that the games day we planned for church camp can go smoothly. We pray for good results for our exams. We pray for good health. We pray for success in our career. We pray that our boss would promote us over our colleague. We pray for God to choose for us a good and faithful life-partner to marry. Please understand that inherently there is nothing wrong with praying for these things. These are our petitions that we can ask God for. But if our Christian faith does not grow from these personal concerns, then we remain as “infants in Christ.” When we only pray for things that concern us, then we are only drinking spiritual milk.
Even though Paul calls them infants in Christ, he recognises their faith in the Lord. They may not always be spiritually matured, but they remain very much in the body of Christ. Paul was not speaking to atheists, [people who dot not believe in God], but he was speaking to the brothers (and sisters) in Christ who were members of the church at Corinth.
Now, we are left to ponder. Is it possible to be in Christ and yet remain unspiritual? Sounds contradicting. But it is not. For Paul, it is possible. The Corinthian church was quite a young church. Paul left Athens and first came to Corinth at about 50 AD and had only stayed there for 18 months according to Acts 18:11. One scholar (Anthony C. Thiselton) suggests that 1 Corinthians was written when Paul was in Ephesus, around AD 54. So, the church in Corinth was only about 4 years old!
The community at the church in Corinth was relatively new to the Christian faith. They were considered new believers in Christ, but many were still stuck in their old ways. Just as Paul reminded the church at Ephesus, “to put off your old self…and to put on the new self…” (Eph. 3:22-24) the church at Corinth had similar issues. As we may well know, there is often a huge gap between our identity as a new creation and our Christian lifestyle. Even though Christ has already washed us clean with his blood on the cross, we still struggle with many sinful human desires in our daily lives. The Christian lifestyle does not match up to our Christian identity. We are Christians, by what Christ has done on the cross, but we can also remain unspiritual, by our lifestyle. Paul’s call here is a call for spiritual maturity.
Some of you may know of this well-known Canadian professor of psychology, Prof. Jordan Peterson. His book, 12 Rules of Life, was the number one bestseller around the world recently. Sometimes, during interviews, he would be asked if he believes in God. Yet, he never provide a straight forward answer. Recently, when he was again asked the same question, he responded with this.
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