Let's Roll!

I love studying the Corinthian church.  The city of Corinth was like Las Vegas on speed with the worst kind of immorality and debauchery you can imagine.  It was a major trade city whose most visible landmark was a temple to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.  There were also a thousand prostitutes who worked the temple during the day and the streets at night. And yet, there was a growing church with congregants who were "not lacking in any spiritual gift." (1 Cor 1:7) What a contrast!

As you could imagine, there was a good deal of cleaning-up and reprogramming that to be done with the Corinthians.  These folks were coming out of all sorts of immoral lifestyles and had all kinds of habits that needed to be broken.  Their faith was sincere, but their attitudes and actions needed some adjusting so Paul got right down to business after a brief nine verse greeting.

Underlying many of their issues was their immaturity. They had "played favorites" among the apostles and had divided into the "Paul" clique and the "Apollos" clique and the "Cephas" clique.  They were also impressed with the limited knowledge the Lord had revealed to them, and had even let some of their members go hungry when they came together to observe the Lord's Supper!  So Paul set them straight IN A HURRY.

As I studied this first letter, I tried to imagine what this group of believers would have been like.  Interestingly enough, the mental image I got of them was one of middle schoolers!  I remember my early teen years, and it hasn't been long since my OWN kids were that age.  Remember those years... everybody wants to impress everybody else...  everybody wants to be popular...  they KNOW everything... and everybody wants to have the coolest stuff.

Funny side story: my kids' assistant principal once told me that watching middle schoolers interact was like watching horses come out of the gate at a race.  They are all clamoring and jockeying for position, everybody trying to establish rank.

This seems to describe the Corinthians!!  They were impressed by who baptized them, they wanted to follow a popular disciple, thought they were smart, and when we get to chapters 12-14 they seemed to have a preoccupation with the stuff of spiritual gifts, and in particular speaking in tongues.

Paul set them straight AGAIN and corrected their thinking by explaining that EVERYBODY has gifts, God decides who gets what gifts, and that it's the Holy Spirit Who is working the will of the Father IN THEM.  He used the analogy of the body to make his point - everybody can't be an eye or an ear, every part is necessary, and the parts that are often in the background are often some of the most important.

The application of this passage is simple: Discover your gifts, Develop them, and DO THEM!  But at the end of chapter 12, he essentially told them, "hold that thought - I want to tell you something that's even better than gifts -- LOVE." He picked back up in chapter 14 and continued his instruction explaining that EVERY GIFT should have one goal -- edifying the church.

When I define "edify" I use words like, build up, strengthen, encourage.  But I love the Strong's definition for edify: "the act of one who promotes another's growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, holiness."  BUT you can't promote the growth of ANOTHER if your focus is on promoting YOURSELF.

Unfortunately this problem wasn't limited to the church in Corinth.  We see this way too often in churches today as people strive to be in areas of public service.  Unfortunately those in public ministries are often recognized over those who quietly serve in the background.  How this must grieve the Holy Spirit and disappoint our Lord.

He died because EVERY ONE of us is important to Him, and He designed and gifted us because EVERY ONE of us has a job to do in the Kingdom, and EVERY ONE of those jobs is important!!  It doesn't matter if we are singing solos on the platform or changing diapers in the nursery -- if it's what He's called and gifted us to do, it's important to Him AND to us!

And we shouldn't consider any job to be beneath us.  If there is anything we can do to "promote another's growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, holiness" then let's get busy with it!!  If there is a need in OR out of the church, we should be willing to roll up our sleeves and get to work. After all, it wasn't beneath Jesus to grab a towel and wash His disciples sweaty, dusty feet.  (A prayerful read of John 13:1-17 will cure any haughty notions we may have about getting our hands dirty.)

There is work to be done in the kingdom.  The fields are ripe for harvest (John 4:35), the workers are few (Luke 10:2)... these are scary times but we've been equipped to do God's work (2 Tim 3).  LET'S ROLL!