When Is The Church Going To Get Serious? (Part 1)

The church has learned all the tricks of the trade as far as marketing and fund raising, but few take the time or energy to help believers sort out their faith from a scriptural perspective. Doing that takes more time, patience and grit than just paying some people to make a slick Sunday presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for theater lights, nice buildings and facilities, but those things don’t make mature believers.

If we think this only applies to today’s church, all we have to do is read 1 & 2 Corinthians.  The apostle Paul, after planting the church in Corinth on his second missionary trip and spending 18 months teaching the word of God to the new believers, has to correct mounting errors in attitude, judgment and theology in the new church. I have to say there is some comfort for me as a person who has planted a number of churches, that even when someone like Paul builds a ministry it doesn’t mean there won’t be problems in theology and practice.

1 Corinthians 3:1-3

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? 

It is so easy to be unaware of Satan’s whisperings in our ears to get us off track from following Christ as we should. Adam and Eve, though sinless, lost their walk with God and their blessing of living in a garden that was awesome. We also need to remember that what God may give us can be spoiled as it was for Adam and Eve. Satan can’t take away God’s blessings and gifts but he can persuade us to forfeit them by rebelling against the Lord’s word. There is too much theology in the church today that promotes a twisting of scripture so that we think we are totally safe from Satan’s counsel and schemes.

Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 

Paul made it very clear that though God has given us the armor of God we must chose to use it or we will be overcome by what the enemy does to us or through others. Paul says Satan is scheming against us so we better take the warning and act accordingly. The strength of the Lord comes when we are equipped with all the armor Paul lists. If we take up the helmet of salvation but neglect to put on the breastplate of righteousness we open ourselves up to the arrows Satan shoots at us.

Ephesians 6:10-11

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 

So the church in Corinth opened itself to Satan’s schemes and evidently he was winning the battle against these believers. Paul called out these people who were caught up in jealousy and strife with each other as “Carnal Christians” or infants of the faith. This was no compliment and shamed those who were involved in such behavior. When we don’t apply ourselves to the word of God to become mature and wise we act and think like the world, while believing we are acting spiritually. This is flat out deception masquerading as truth. The church today is acting just like the church in Corinth.

When generals prepare for war they want to know the strength of the enemy they are confronting. The average believer rarely hears about Satan scheming against them. Nor how to combat Satan’s tactics in their lives. Truth be told we are generally given self-help principles which in and of themselves are good, but not if we don’t understand about spiritual warfare. Let me also put a disclaimer here. When I refer to spiritual warfare I’m not talking about getting engrossed in end times prophecy to the point of excluding how to walk as a healthy child of God. Nor am I talking about thinking every bad thing that happens in our lives is caused by a demon or Satan. Spiritual warfare is understanding how to walk strong in the Lord and how to discern when spiritual darkness is hindering our progress. Paul said it well when he said we are not IGNORANT of Satan’s schemes and we don’t over exaggerate him either.

2 Corinthians 2:11

That no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

In this series of articles I will be going through the problems the Corinthian church faced in the hope we can learn from their mistakes and mature. If there is one gift lacking in the body of Christ today, as it was in the Corinthian church, it’s having the ability to discern what is truly spiritual and what is carnal thinking dressed up to look Christian. Some people have a gift of discernment but all of us can grow in discernment as we learn the scriptures. The apostle Peter said it well: we need to prepare our mind for action and be sober in spirit so we don’t fall back to living as we did before knowing Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 1:13-15

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. [14] As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, [15] but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. 

Questions:

1) When you read 1 Corinthians do you see yourself overcoming their problems or making the same mistakes? The Holy Spirit is the one who can help you get the mind of Christ.

2) Do you regularly fellowship with people who reflect the poor traits of 1 Corinthians? If so you need to find some new friends lest you learn their bad habits.

Loving God’s word and the wisdom it gives,

Pastor Dale