Only God can judge me. That is essentially Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 4:1-5. The Corinthians have been judging Paul. More specifically, they have judged Paul as inadequate to be their leader and teacher in the faith. They believe that they have outgrown his weak preaching and humble presence. In these verses, Paul scolds them for this attitude. He tells the Corinthians that their judgments mean very little to him because he is not their servant. He is God's servant and as a result it is only God who can judge him as to whether or not he is a trustworthy servant. Paul says that even his own judgments of himself don't mean much because even if he considers himself to be guiltless, what is that before the judgment of almighty God?
But wait a second. Isn't Paul judging the Corinthians? Isn't that what he has been doing throughout this whole letter; judging their behavior? And doesn't he actually encourage them to judge one another? In the very next chapter of the letter when Paul urges the Corinthians to remove the sexually immoral from their midst, isn't he urging them to make a judgment about that person's behavior? Is Paul just encouraging a double standard here where he judges the Corinthians and encourages them to judge one another but they are not allowed to say one bad word about him since he is their father and leader in the faith?
I think it is often tempting for us as Christians to take precisely that attitude where we want to tell other people what they are doing wrong but as soon as anyone speaks to us about something our attitude becomes "You can't judge me. Only God can judge me." Or "That's between me and Jesus." Obviously, there is some truth to that idea. If there wasn't, Paul wouldn't have spoken of it here. There is a very real sense in which we will one day be judged only by God and no one else. Perhaps some of us could even use a little more of that kind of attitude; that is, we could care a little more about what God thinks of us and a little less what others think about us. After all, who among us hasn't failed to proclaim the gospel in one way or another at some point in our lives because we were afraid of what someone else might think?
But we can only fully understand what Paul is saying here by reading it along side his larger body of writing and the rest of scripture as a whole. Paul does constantly exhort, not only the Corinthians, but all the churches to which he writes concerning their behavior. In fact, that is usually the very purpose of his writing; to correct something he sees as an error in their life together as a community. Of course, Paul is not alone in this. The other letters in the New Testament carry much the same task. Jesus himself condemns the entire religious establishment of his day and in doing so stood in a long line of Israel's prophets who called upon the people of God to correct their ways and turn back to God. So we can be sure that when Paul says "only God can judge me" he is not saying that brothers and sisters in Christ can not correct each other in the faith.
Instead, what we must recognize is that there is a difference between accountability and correction on the one hand and the kind of judgment that Paul is talking about on the other hand. Accountability and correction are absolutely essential aspects of the Christian life and what it means to be the Church. We must be willing to speak the truth in love to one another, pointing out our sins and weaknesses to one another within the Church as the Spirit leads us. And if we use an attitude of "only God can judge me" as a shield against our brothers and sisters holding us accountable in the faith, then we have deeply misunderstood what Paul is saying and the nature of our faith as a whole. Such an attitude will certainly lead us away from Christ.
The Corinthians, however, were not calling Paul to account for a specific behavior that they regarded as sinful. Instead, they had simply judged Paul himself as inadequate and irrelevant. They had judged him as too weak and lowly to be their teacher and leader. They were ready to toss him aside so that they could move on to bigger and better things. This is evident not only from what we have seen earlier in the letter but even in what Paul says in these verses. In v.5 Paul says "Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes...". It seems that the Corinthians were not merely calling Paul a lousy preacher. Instead, they were trying to pronounce God's judgment on Paul in God's place as if Jesus had already returned, God's kingdom had already come, and Paul had been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
It is that attitude that causes Paul to say that only God can judge him. Paul is, in effect, saying "I don't care what you think of me as a preacher and spiritual leader. My task isn't to impress you. Instead, God has entrusted me with proclaiming the mystery of the Gospel and I am going to do that even if it doesn't win me any popularity contests. And in the end, only God can judge whether or not I have been faithful to the task that God himself gave me as his servant and steward."
As the Church, we are called to what can be a difficult and sometimes awkward task. We are undoubtedly called to hold each other accountable. We must point out to our brothers and sisters what we see as sin in their lives. God wants us to help each other grow in righteousness and holiness by correcting one another. But nowhere in Scripture are we ever called to make a judgment about someone's eternal standing before God. That is an attempt to be God ourselves, to take God's place and make judgments that only God is entitled to make. On the flip side, we also must be willing to be held accountable ourselves for our own sin. We must have the humility and love that allows others to correct us where we have gone wrong. We can not use these verses as a shield for our own un-Christ-like behavior. To say that only God can judge us is not an excuse to turn a deaf ear to the prophetic voices around us. But neither should we be held captive by mere popular opinion. We must imitate Paul in his robust confidence, proclaiming the Gospel even if we are regarded by others as weak and lowly in the process.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Temple of God
There are at least two things that are exceedingly important for understanding Paul's profound statement concerning the Church in 1 Corinthians 3:16. The first of these is grammatical in nature. In English when we address someone in the second person we use the word "you" whether we are addressing one person or a group. The word "you" is both the singular and plural form of the second person address. Likewise, the form of the verb "to be" does not change from the singular to the plural form. In both instances, we would say "you are". This is not the case in Greek in which there is one pronoun and verb form for addressing a single individual and another for addressing a collective group. The closest parallel we have in English is the southern variation of "ya'll" used to distinguish an address to a group from an individual. In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul uses that plural form of the second person Greek pronoun and verb. In other words, Paul is not saying in these verses that each of the individual Corinthians are themselves God's Temple (although he will say something like that in 1 Cor. 6:19). Here Paul is saying, in effect, "Or don't ya'll know that ya'll are the Temple of God in Corinth and that God's Spirit dwells among ya'll?" That is to say, that Paul's statement here is, in fact, a statement about the Church and not about individual believers. The Church is the place where God's Spirit dwells.
The second thing we must recognize in order to appreciate Paul's statement here is the vast significance of the Temple to 1st century Judaism. The Temple in Jerusalem represented the presence of God with the people of Israel. This was God's house. The very place where God's Spirit dwelt. It was the salvation of the Jewish people that God had chosen to make his dwelling among them. It is difficult to overstate just how meaningful the Temple was to Paul and his contemporaries, how much it signified God's presence with his people. This was so much the case in Jeremiah's day that it seems some believed that no harm could possibly befall Jerusalem as long as the Temple still stood because, it was thought, God would not allow his holy dwelling to come to ruin. The Temple = God's presence.
So when Paul tells the Corinthians "you are God's Temple", he is making a bold statement about the Church. Paul is telling the Corinthians that the Spirit of God is no longer limited to dwelling in the Temple. God has actually made his home, his dwelling among the Corinthians themselves. This is the significance of Pentecost; that God's own Holy Spirit has been poured out on all those who place their trust in Jesus Christ. While that Spirit certainly works in each of us individually, here Paul is emphasizing that it is in the Corinthians relationship with one another that God's Spirit dwells and is at work. It is in their coming together as a unified community of faith that they are God's Temple. When we call ourselves the Church we are saying nothing short of claiming that God's Spirit resides among us as a people.
Of course, this serves well the point that Paul has been making all along. He has been telling the Corinthians for three chapters now that they must be unified rather than fragmenting themselves into different groups centered around different leaders. Here, Paul reminds them they are all together the Temple of God. Therefore, if they destroy their relationships with one another then they are destroying God's Temple. Paul is telling them that their lack of unity is actually destroying the very place where God's Spirit wishes to make his dwelling. The Corinthians are destroying the house of God by destroying their relationships with one another. This means that disunity in the Church is more than people just not getting along. It is a driving out of the Spirit of God; the very thing that makes us who we are as God's people. It is a failure to be the Church at all.
Paul finishes this section by reminding the Corinthians (again!) that human wisdom is not God's wisdom. Therefore, they should not boast in men (or human leadership). And he goes on to say "For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present of the future- all are yours, and you are Christ's and Christ is God's". I think what Paul is essentially saying to the Corinthians here is that they have taken to small and narrow a view of things. Here the Corinthians are striving after mere men, mere human leaders and their positions of honor and authority and Paul is saying "Why would you strive after those things. As followers of Christ, as the Temple of God, everything already belongs to you. You have already been given everything you could ever ask for. God's very own Spirit has made you his home. The Spirit of the almighty God and creator of the universe is at work in your relationships with one another and you want to strive after merely human positions of honor? God has given himself to you and you want to trade that for human leaders who are nothing but servants of that very same God!"
But, of course, this is what we continue to do. God has given himself to us, made his own Spirit to reside among us, and all we can seem to think about is "if we just had a little more money... if we just had a little higher attendance...if we just had a few more young able bodies to do the work...if we just had....". We have the Spirit of God among us! What else do we need to do the work God has entrusted to us when God has entrusted his very self to us? Paul encourages us to take a larger view of things; encourages us not to dream so small that we go after these merely human things but instead to remember that we are the Temple of God and that in itself is a truly miraculous things. God's Spirit has made his dwelling among us.
The second thing we must recognize in order to appreciate Paul's statement here is the vast significance of the Temple to 1st century Judaism. The Temple in Jerusalem represented the presence of God with the people of Israel. This was God's house. The very place where God's Spirit dwelt. It was the salvation of the Jewish people that God had chosen to make his dwelling among them. It is difficult to overstate just how meaningful the Temple was to Paul and his contemporaries, how much it signified God's presence with his people. This was so much the case in Jeremiah's day that it seems some believed that no harm could possibly befall Jerusalem as long as the Temple still stood because, it was thought, God would not allow his holy dwelling to come to ruin. The Temple = God's presence.
So when Paul tells the Corinthians "you are God's Temple", he is making a bold statement about the Church. Paul is telling the Corinthians that the Spirit of God is no longer limited to dwelling in the Temple. God has actually made his home, his dwelling among the Corinthians themselves. This is the significance of Pentecost; that God's own Holy Spirit has been poured out on all those who place their trust in Jesus Christ. While that Spirit certainly works in each of us individually, here Paul is emphasizing that it is in the Corinthians relationship with one another that God's Spirit dwells and is at work. It is in their coming together as a unified community of faith that they are God's Temple. When we call ourselves the Church we are saying nothing short of claiming that God's Spirit resides among us as a people.
Of course, this serves well the point that Paul has been making all along. He has been telling the Corinthians for three chapters now that they must be unified rather than fragmenting themselves into different groups centered around different leaders. Here, Paul reminds them they are all together the Temple of God. Therefore, if they destroy their relationships with one another then they are destroying God's Temple. Paul is telling them that their lack of unity is actually destroying the very place where God's Spirit wishes to make his dwelling. The Corinthians are destroying the house of God by destroying their relationships with one another. This means that disunity in the Church is more than people just not getting along. It is a driving out of the Spirit of God; the very thing that makes us who we are as God's people. It is a failure to be the Church at all.
Paul finishes this section by reminding the Corinthians (again!) that human wisdom is not God's wisdom. Therefore, they should not boast in men (or human leadership). And he goes on to say "For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present of the future- all are yours, and you are Christ's and Christ is God's". I think what Paul is essentially saying to the Corinthians here is that they have taken to small and narrow a view of things. Here the Corinthians are striving after mere men, mere human leaders and their positions of honor and authority and Paul is saying "Why would you strive after those things. As followers of Christ, as the Temple of God, everything already belongs to you. You have already been given everything you could ever ask for. God's very own Spirit has made you his home. The Spirit of the almighty God and creator of the universe is at work in your relationships with one another and you want to strive after merely human positions of honor? God has given himself to you and you want to trade that for human leaders who are nothing but servants of that very same God!"
But, of course, this is what we continue to do. God has given himself to us, made his own Spirit to reside among us, and all we can seem to think about is "if we just had a little more money... if we just had a little higher attendance...if we just had a few more young able bodies to do the work...if we just had....". We have the Spirit of God among us! What else do we need to do the work God has entrusted to us when God has entrusted his very self to us? Paul encourages us to take a larger view of things; encourages us not to dream so small that we go after these merely human things but instead to remember that we are the Temple of God and that in itself is a truly miraculous things. God's Spirit has made his dwelling among us.
Monday, January 31, 2011
On Unity, Leadership, and the Gospel
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says that he still can not address the Corinthians as spiritual people. Instead, he says they are fleshly, mere infants in Christ. By saying that the Corinthians are fleshly and not spiritual, Paul is not saying that the Corinthians aren't Christians. After all, he describes them as being in Christ and in the previous chapter he said that they have the mind of Christ. Paul acknowledges the Corinthians as the body of Christ. He knows that they received the Spirit. In saying that he can not speak to them as spiritual, neither is Paul saying that the Corinthians aren't religious enough. He is not saying that the Corinthians need to focus more on their "spirituality" as opposed to their every day physical needs. Instead, Paul is driving home the same point that he has been making throughout the letter up to this point: the Corinthians have the Spirit of God among them but they don't yet fully understand what that means for their behavior.
As we've seen in the previous passages in 1 Corinthians, the problem in Corinth is not a lack of zeal for the Spirit or spiritual things. Paul almost certainly uses the term spiritual here to describe what the Corinthians are not precisely because that is how they saw themselves; as deeply spiritual. So when Paul says that the Corinthians are not spiritual but fleshly, it is not so much a comment about the quantity of the Corinthians spirituality as its quality. Paul is not saying that they are unconcerned with "spiritual" things but that they are approaching the Spirit in the wrong way. They are seeking to use the Spirit for their own advancement just like they would use any other tool or philosophy in life. Paul is telling them that even though the Spirit of God is among them they are still acting like the world acts by striving to exalt themselves. Their spirituality is fleshly, that is, immature.
Paul says that the evidence of this fleshly, immature spirituality are the divisions and strife that exist among the Corinthians. If the Corinthians had a mature understanding of the wisdom of God revealed in the cross of Christ, they would realize that a genuine spirituality would mean submitting to each other in unity and common mission. Instead, they are allowing themselves to be fragmented by attaching themselves to different leaders. In all likelihood, the Corinthians were doing this because they saw those leaders as more "spiritual" and more "wise" than Paul so they thought they could advance further in the faith. This in turn causes Paul to address what it means to be a Christian leader.
For Paul, to be a Christian leader is actually to be a servant. He says in v.5 "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed". Whatever authority Paul or Apollos have, they are ultimately still nothing more than servants of God. As servants, they are each given different roles within God's mission. Paul says that he planted the church and Apollos watered it but it always ultimately God who causes the growth. Only God can grow and mature his people. That is not a human task. Paul says "neither the one who plants or the one who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth." Therefore, Christian leadership is not a matter of exalting oneself. It is not a matter of gathering as many followers as you can. It is not even a matter of growing your church since that is something only God can do. The task of Christian leadership is nothing other than submitting oneself to God as a servant, ready to do whatever work God calls us to in his field.
Of course, this is really more than Paul's view of leadership. It flows from his view of the Christian life as an imitation of the pattern that he sees in Jesus; that paradigm which is summed up so well in Philippians 2:5-11. Christ, who is God and had every reason to exalt himself, instead chose to humble himself taking the lowest of low positions, even death on a cross. "Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth to the glory of God the Father." Paul believes this is what all Christians are called to; this humbling of oneself. This is very thing Paul has been referring to as the wisdom of God.
Of course, this is such a difficult pattern for us to incorporate into our lives because it runs contrary to everything we know. Everything in our world from the corporate ladder to school to the military to sports to social gatherings to kid's karate classes is about "moving up", advancing, being the best we can be, being of higher rank, getting ahead of others around us. This is simply the way the world works. How high can you ascend in the pecking order?
But Paul tells us that this is the root of the Corinthians' problems. They lack unity because they strive after "more spiritual" leaders and they strive after those leaders because they misunderstand the role of Christian leadership within the Church and they misunderstand the role of leaders because they misunderstand the real meaning of spirituality in the Christian life. The root of all the problems Paul will address in this letter is that the Corinthians have failed to recognize that the gospel of the crucified messiah which they believed calls upon them to be a people of humility, sacrifice, service, and submission, a people whose wisdom is not of the world but is ordered and shaped by the cross of Christ.
As we've seen in the previous passages in 1 Corinthians, the problem in Corinth is not a lack of zeal for the Spirit or spiritual things. Paul almost certainly uses the term spiritual here to describe what the Corinthians are not precisely because that is how they saw themselves; as deeply spiritual. So when Paul says that the Corinthians are not spiritual but fleshly, it is not so much a comment about the quantity of the Corinthians spirituality as its quality. Paul is not saying that they are unconcerned with "spiritual" things but that they are approaching the Spirit in the wrong way. They are seeking to use the Spirit for their own advancement just like they would use any other tool or philosophy in life. Paul is telling them that even though the Spirit of God is among them they are still acting like the world acts by striving to exalt themselves. Their spirituality is fleshly, that is, immature.
Paul says that the evidence of this fleshly, immature spirituality are the divisions and strife that exist among the Corinthians. If the Corinthians had a mature understanding of the wisdom of God revealed in the cross of Christ, they would realize that a genuine spirituality would mean submitting to each other in unity and common mission. Instead, they are allowing themselves to be fragmented by attaching themselves to different leaders. In all likelihood, the Corinthians were doing this because they saw those leaders as more "spiritual" and more "wise" than Paul so they thought they could advance further in the faith. This in turn causes Paul to address what it means to be a Christian leader.
For Paul, to be a Christian leader is actually to be a servant. He says in v.5 "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed". Whatever authority Paul or Apollos have, they are ultimately still nothing more than servants of God. As servants, they are each given different roles within God's mission. Paul says that he planted the church and Apollos watered it but it always ultimately God who causes the growth. Only God can grow and mature his people. That is not a human task. Paul says "neither the one who plants or the one who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth." Therefore, Christian leadership is not a matter of exalting oneself. It is not a matter of gathering as many followers as you can. It is not even a matter of growing your church since that is something only God can do. The task of Christian leadership is nothing other than submitting oneself to God as a servant, ready to do whatever work God calls us to in his field.
Of course, this is really more than Paul's view of leadership. It flows from his view of the Christian life as an imitation of the pattern that he sees in Jesus; that paradigm which is summed up so well in Philippians 2:5-11. Christ, who is God and had every reason to exalt himself, instead chose to humble himself taking the lowest of low positions, even death on a cross. "Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth to the glory of God the Father." Paul believes this is what all Christians are called to; this humbling of oneself. This is very thing Paul has been referring to as the wisdom of God.
Of course, this is such a difficult pattern for us to incorporate into our lives because it runs contrary to everything we know. Everything in our world from the corporate ladder to school to the military to sports to social gatherings to kid's karate classes is about "moving up", advancing, being the best we can be, being of higher rank, getting ahead of others around us. This is simply the way the world works. How high can you ascend in the pecking order?
But Paul tells us that this is the root of the Corinthians' problems. They lack unity because they strive after "more spiritual" leaders and they strive after those leaders because they misunderstand the role of Christian leadership within the Church and they misunderstand the role of leaders because they misunderstand the real meaning of spirituality in the Christian life. The root of all the problems Paul will address in this letter is that the Corinthians have failed to recognize that the gospel of the crucified messiah which they believed calls upon them to be a people of humility, sacrifice, service, and submission, a people whose wisdom is not of the world but is ordered and shaped by the cross of Christ.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Proclamation in the Spirit
In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul continues with much the same point that he had begun in the second half of chapter one. There, Paul reminded the Corinthians that God's wisdom was not human wisdom. While the world's wisdom consists of wealth, power, and influence, God wisdom consists of righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. This wisdom has been revealed specifically is the scandal and foolishness of a crucified messiah, namely Jesus. However, Paul also says in chapter one that it is revealed in the Corinthians themselves; that is, many of them were weak, lowly, and despised when God called them but God's Spirit worked them in spite of, or perhaps precisely because of, their lowliness.
Paul continues this argument in chapter 2 by saying that his own preaching fits precisely this same bill. Paul did not come to the Corinthians preaching with high and mighty flashes of rhetoric or with worldly wisdom. It wasn't because Paul was an especially skilled speaker that the Corinthians believed. Instead, he spoke in weakness and in fear and in trembling. It wasn't that Paul offered persuasive arguments that the Corinthians couldn't logically refute. Instead, Paul says that he resolved to know nothing among the Corinthians except Christ and him crucified and that it was because of demonstrations of the Spirit and power that the Corinthians believed.
This word that is translated as demonstration (ἀποδείξει) is a term that Paul borrows from the art of rhetoric. It means something like a convincing proof that follows logically from the premises that have been argued. Paul's use of this word here then is full of irony. Rhetoric, the study of speech and persuasion, was a highly regarded body of knowledge in the Greco Roman culture of Paul's day. It seems pretty obvious from what Paul has said in this letter that it was highly regarded among the Corinthians as well. But Paul says rhetoric, persuasive words of human wisdom, are precisely how the gospel did NOT come to the Corinthians. But the gospel did come with its own convincing evidence; not flashy speeches or well respected philosophies but with powerful acts of God's Holy Spirit which transformed the Corinthians and confirmed the truth of Paul's preaching among them.
In v.6 and the following, Paul goes on to fine tune and summarize the point that he has been making all along; the gospel is indeed wisdom but not according to the worlds standards. Paul says that if the wisdom of humanity was compatible with the wisdom of God, then the rulers of the world would not have crucified the Lord of glory. If they had known God's wisdom, then they would have recognized Jesus as that wisdom and not put him to death. Paul then says that this is just as it is written "what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, what no human mind has conceived, the things that God prepared for those who love him". It is widely debated as to what exactly Paul is quoting here since there is no Old Testament reference which matches these words exactly. It could be a conglomeration of Old Testament texts or a reference to some writing now lost to us. However it is worth noting that it closely parallels the idea of Isaiah 64:4 which is an appropriate context for the point Paul is making. Isaiah 64 is a call for God to "rend the heavens and come down" and thereby set the world right according to God's righteousness. This is, of course, precisely what Paul believes God has done in Jesus. God has come down to earth, setting the world right by the righteousness of God; only God is doing it in a way that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, in a way that no human being could have possibly thought up, by God becoming human, a crucified human.
Paul says that God himself has revealed all of this to us by his Spirit. And this is a decisive point in Paul's argument; that we can not learn these things on our own. The mystery of God's wisdom is not something that we can just figure out, it is not something we can logically deduce. If we could, it would be just like every other form of wisdom and the Corinthians would be right to approach it that way. Instead, Paul says, God's Spirit must reveal it to us. After all, who can possibly know the mind of God? Paul says by analogy we can't even know the thoughts of another human being unless they reveal them to us. How much more with the infinite and immeasurable God? We can't possibly come to recognize the crucified messiah as the manifestation of God's wisdom unless God's Spirit reveals it to us as such.
Fortunately, God's mystery does not remain a mystery. God does reveal it to us by his Spirit. Paul ends this section of his argument by saying "but we have the mind of Christ". Paul's point in this passage is not that the Corinthians are ignorant of the mystery of God but only that they did not come to know it by their own ability. The Corinthians do indeed have the mind of Christ but this is only the case because of what God's Spirit has done among them.
The Church would do well to remember this. The Word is not something given to us to do with as we please. Nor is our faith something of which we can logically convince those around us. We could not and would not ourselves have come to know God through the mystery of the crucified messiah were it not for the revealing work of God's Spirit among us. As a result, all of our proclamation, all of our words and actions as the Church mean precisely nothing if God does not make them his own words and actions by the power of His Holy Spirit. Our preaching, our reading of scripture, our worship, our evangelism, our discipleship, all of our practices must be done within the power of the Holy Spirit or they are mere babbling about nothing.
Paul continues this argument in chapter 2 by saying that his own preaching fits precisely this same bill. Paul did not come to the Corinthians preaching with high and mighty flashes of rhetoric or with worldly wisdom. It wasn't because Paul was an especially skilled speaker that the Corinthians believed. Instead, he spoke in weakness and in fear and in trembling. It wasn't that Paul offered persuasive arguments that the Corinthians couldn't logically refute. Instead, Paul says that he resolved to know nothing among the Corinthians except Christ and him crucified and that it was because of demonstrations of the Spirit and power that the Corinthians believed.
This word that is translated as demonstration (ἀποδείξει) is a term that Paul borrows from the art of rhetoric. It means something like a convincing proof that follows logically from the premises that have been argued. Paul's use of this word here then is full of irony. Rhetoric, the study of speech and persuasion, was a highly regarded body of knowledge in the Greco Roman culture of Paul's day. It seems pretty obvious from what Paul has said in this letter that it was highly regarded among the Corinthians as well. But Paul says rhetoric, persuasive words of human wisdom, are precisely how the gospel did NOT come to the Corinthians. But the gospel did come with its own convincing evidence; not flashy speeches or well respected philosophies but with powerful acts of God's Holy Spirit which transformed the Corinthians and confirmed the truth of Paul's preaching among them.
In v.6 and the following, Paul goes on to fine tune and summarize the point that he has been making all along; the gospel is indeed wisdom but not according to the worlds standards. Paul says that if the wisdom of humanity was compatible with the wisdom of God, then the rulers of the world would not have crucified the Lord of glory. If they had known God's wisdom, then they would have recognized Jesus as that wisdom and not put him to death. Paul then says that this is just as it is written "what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, what no human mind has conceived, the things that God prepared for those who love him". It is widely debated as to what exactly Paul is quoting here since there is no Old Testament reference which matches these words exactly. It could be a conglomeration of Old Testament texts or a reference to some writing now lost to us. However it is worth noting that it closely parallels the idea of Isaiah 64:4 which is an appropriate context for the point Paul is making. Isaiah 64 is a call for God to "rend the heavens and come down" and thereby set the world right according to God's righteousness. This is, of course, precisely what Paul believes God has done in Jesus. God has come down to earth, setting the world right by the righteousness of God; only God is doing it in a way that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, in a way that no human being could have possibly thought up, by God becoming human, a crucified human.
Paul says that God himself has revealed all of this to us by his Spirit. And this is a decisive point in Paul's argument; that we can not learn these things on our own. The mystery of God's wisdom is not something that we can just figure out, it is not something we can logically deduce. If we could, it would be just like every other form of wisdom and the Corinthians would be right to approach it that way. Instead, Paul says, God's Spirit must reveal it to us. After all, who can possibly know the mind of God? Paul says by analogy we can't even know the thoughts of another human being unless they reveal them to us. How much more with the infinite and immeasurable God? We can't possibly come to recognize the crucified messiah as the manifestation of God's wisdom unless God's Spirit reveals it to us as such.
Fortunately, God's mystery does not remain a mystery. God does reveal it to us by his Spirit. Paul ends this section of his argument by saying "but we have the mind of Christ". Paul's point in this passage is not that the Corinthians are ignorant of the mystery of God but only that they did not come to know it by their own ability. The Corinthians do indeed have the mind of Christ but this is only the case because of what God's Spirit has done among them.
The Church would do well to remember this. The Word is not something given to us to do with as we please. Nor is our faith something of which we can logically convince those around us. We could not and would not ourselves have come to know God through the mystery of the crucified messiah were it not for the revealing work of God's Spirit among us. As a result, all of our proclamation, all of our words and actions as the Church mean precisely nothing if God does not make them his own words and actions by the power of His Holy Spirit. Our preaching, our reading of scripture, our worship, our evangelism, our discipleship, all of our practices must be done within the power of the Holy Spirit or they are mere babbling about nothing.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Foolish Wisdom
I mentioned last week that it seems likely from reading Paul's correspondence with the Corinthian Church that they (or at least a group within the Church at Corinth) thought pretty highly of themselves and their own spirituality. It seems that at least part of the reason for this was because the Corinthians were approaching the gospel as a form of sophia, that is, wisdom. The gospel is, of course, God's wisdom but not in the way the Corinthians were considering it. Instead, they were approaching it as a form of worldly wisdom, a system of truth, a philosophy. As a result, they saw it as a teaching they could master for their own advancement. For them, Jesus was just another self-help guru. In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Paul confronts that thinking head on. He goes so far as to call the gospel which he preaches foolishness and a scandal.
Paul says that Jews ask for signs which is precisely what we see in the gospels. The religious leaders are constantly asking Jesus to validate his authority as messiah by performing some kind of sign or miracle. They believed that the messiah would be a mighty leader who would be able to expel the dirty Romans from Israel. But instead it was the Romans who killed Jesus. Therefore, the idea of proclaiming that this Jesus who was crucified was the messiah is nothing short of a scandal.
Paul says that Greeks seek wisdom. One of the trademarks of Greek culture was its philosophers and its constant search for wisdom. And a basic tenet of Greek philosophy was that God could not suffer, that God could not even change. This is because God, by definition, was perfect, and if he changed then, by definition, he would have to become something other than perfect. Therefore, the idea of God becoming a human being, and even more so, the idea of God dying was an absurdly foolish idea to any Greek philosopher or seeker of wisdom.
In contrast these ideas about God, Paul says "But we preached Christ crucified!" As modern day Christians, we also often forget how scandalous this proclamation is. We have come to see the cross as a religious symbol. It adorns our jewelry and our sanctuaries as a symbol of hope because we have come to associate it with the resurrection and the power of God to give us new life and save us from the power of sin (assuming, of course, that we haven't further reduced it to a mere trinket among other symbols of sentimentality). As a result, we forget that this was a state sanctioned instrument of torture, cruelty, and death. This is the electric chair. This is the gas chamber. Crucifixion was the death reserved for criminals but not just any criminals. It was for those convicted of rebelling against the rule of the Roman Empire. We have a word for those people today: terrorists. Jesus was convicted and sentenced to death on a cross as a terrorist, an enemy of the state, a threat to Roman superiority.
But Paul says that this word of the cross which is foolishness to those who are perishing is the power of God to those of us who believe. God's foolishness is wiser than men's wisdom and God's weakness is stronger than men's strength. Paul says that the Corinthians themselves are evidence of this. Paul reminds them that when God called them to be his Church not many of the Corinthians were wise, powerful, or well born. In fact, Paul says, this is how God works all the time. God is constantly choosing the weak, the lowly, the things that are not in order to shame the wise, the powerful, and the things that are. God doesn't choose the powerful and wise to display his power and wisdom. God chooses the weak and lowly so that then it will be evident that it is God who has done the powerful work and not us. Only a truly powerful and wise God could display his power and wisdom in the weakness and foolishness of a crucified messiah.
Therefore, Paul admonishes the Corinthians to stop their boasting. There is no room for boasting in a truly Christ-centered spirituality because it is God who has done the work. We have not saved ourselves. We have not mastered a new form of sophia. Instead, Paul urges the Corinthians to understand that Jesus Christ, that crucified messiah that is so shameful, scandalous, and foolish in the eyes of the world, has become wisdom to them. Jesus is God's wisdom revealed to us.
It is easy to see the end of verse 30 as simply a list of four things that Christ has become to us; wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. However, in Paul's Greek, it seems more likely that he intends the last three to fill out the content of the first: "Christ, who has become to us the wisdom of God, which is righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." God's wisdom as revealed to us in Jesus is God's covenant faithfulness (righteousness) which sets those who believe free from sin (redemption) so that we might live holy lives to God (sanctification). Of course, this comes as no surprise because this is precisely what God has been about throughout the story of scripture; redeeming the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt, making a covenant with them at Sinai so that they could be set apart and learn to be in right relationship with God and each other, living lives of holiness to God. It is that God who was revealed at the Exodus and at Mt Sinai who is also revealed in Jesus and who has set us apart by his Holy Spirit. It is that God of deliverance and covenant who in His wisdom has extended deliverance and covenant to us by way of the foolish idea of a crucified messiah.
Paul says that Jews ask for signs which is precisely what we see in the gospels. The religious leaders are constantly asking Jesus to validate his authority as messiah by performing some kind of sign or miracle. They believed that the messiah would be a mighty leader who would be able to expel the dirty Romans from Israel. But instead it was the Romans who killed Jesus. Therefore, the idea of proclaiming that this Jesus who was crucified was the messiah is nothing short of a scandal.
Paul says that Greeks seek wisdom. One of the trademarks of Greek culture was its philosophers and its constant search for wisdom. And a basic tenet of Greek philosophy was that God could not suffer, that God could not even change. This is because God, by definition, was perfect, and if he changed then, by definition, he would have to become something other than perfect. Therefore, the idea of God becoming a human being, and even more so, the idea of God dying was an absurdly foolish idea to any Greek philosopher or seeker of wisdom.
In contrast these ideas about God, Paul says "But we preached Christ crucified!" As modern day Christians, we also often forget how scandalous this proclamation is. We have come to see the cross as a religious symbol. It adorns our jewelry and our sanctuaries as a symbol of hope because we have come to associate it with the resurrection and the power of God to give us new life and save us from the power of sin (assuming, of course, that we haven't further reduced it to a mere trinket among other symbols of sentimentality). As a result, we forget that this was a state sanctioned instrument of torture, cruelty, and death. This is the electric chair. This is the gas chamber. Crucifixion was the death reserved for criminals but not just any criminals. It was for those convicted of rebelling against the rule of the Roman Empire. We have a word for those people today: terrorists. Jesus was convicted and sentenced to death on a cross as a terrorist, an enemy of the state, a threat to Roman superiority.
Paul reminds the Corinthians (and us) "Remember, this is the gospel in which you believed. And you think that is something that you can pursue as worldly wisdom, as a philosophy on how to get ahead in life, as a self-help manual? How absurd!" Paul says "We preach Christ crucified! A crucified messiah! Have you forgotten that? Have you forgotten how absurd the gospel you believed appears according to worldly standards of wisdom? No worldly system of wisdom believes in a crucified messiah!"
But Paul says that this word of the cross which is foolishness to those who are perishing is the power of God to those of us who believe. God's foolishness is wiser than men's wisdom and God's weakness is stronger than men's strength. Paul says that the Corinthians themselves are evidence of this. Paul reminds them that when God called them to be his Church not many of the Corinthians were wise, powerful, or well born. In fact, Paul says, this is how God works all the time. God is constantly choosing the weak, the lowly, the things that are not in order to shame the wise, the powerful, and the things that are. God doesn't choose the powerful and wise to display his power and wisdom. God chooses the weak and lowly so that then it will be evident that it is God who has done the powerful work and not us. Only a truly powerful and wise God could display his power and wisdom in the weakness and foolishness of a crucified messiah.
Therefore, Paul admonishes the Corinthians to stop their boasting. There is no room for boasting in a truly Christ-centered spirituality because it is God who has done the work. We have not saved ourselves. We have not mastered a new form of sophia. Instead, Paul urges the Corinthians to understand that Jesus Christ, that crucified messiah that is so shameful, scandalous, and foolish in the eyes of the world, has become wisdom to them. Jesus is God's wisdom revealed to us.
It is easy to see the end of verse 30 as simply a list of four things that Christ has become to us; wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. However, in Paul's Greek, it seems more likely that he intends the last three to fill out the content of the first: "Christ, who has become to us the wisdom of God, which is righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." God's wisdom as revealed to us in Jesus is God's covenant faithfulness (righteousness) which sets those who believe free from sin (redemption) so that we might live holy lives to God (sanctification). Of course, this comes as no surprise because this is precisely what God has been about throughout the story of scripture; redeeming the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt, making a covenant with them at Sinai so that they could be set apart and learn to be in right relationship with God and each other, living lives of holiness to God. It is that God who was revealed at the Exodus and at Mt Sinai who is also revealed in Jesus and who has set us apart by his Holy Spirit. It is that God of deliverance and covenant who in His wisdom has extended deliverance and covenant to us by way of the foolish idea of a crucified messiah.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Is Christ Divided?
Paul's first appeal in 1 Corinthians is concerning the discord that he has heard about in the church at Corinth. Paul says that some in Corinth are saying that they are "of Paul" while others are saying that they are "of Apollos" or "of Peter". We can guess from the rest of the content of the letter that these divisions are connected to the spiritual arrogance of the Corinthians. (Consider the divisions Paul addresses concerning the Lord's Supper and spiritual gifts later in the letter). It seems likely that they are each claiming the leader they see as being the most spiritual. The really spiritual, of course, say that they are "of Christ".
Paul will address these themes as they touch other problems throughout the letter but he begins here by asking the Corinthians three questions that are meant to remind them that they have been bound together in Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified on your behalf? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? Each question reinforces the others. Christ is not something that can be divided up among a few believers. Instead, it was Christ who crucified on behalf of all the Corinthians. Therefore, all the Corinthians have been baptized into Christ. That is to say that Christ is not something to which any of them can lay claim over and against the others. Instead, their lives, their identities are defined by their baptism into Christ and this is an identity that all the Corinthians share.
Of course, the Church today still divides itself and thus divides Christ in this way as well. We say we are "of Luther" or "of Calvin" or "of Wesley" while others claim to be the only ones who are truly "of Christ". Then there are all the other labels that threaten to divide us as well: black, white, Hispanic, rich, poor, educated, old, young, and every other label the world gives us or we give ourselves. Paul reminds us that in Christ there is more that unites us than divides us. That doesn't meant that we all have to become the same but it does mean that as the Church we must demonstrate a unity of love with one another even in the midst of our diversity.
It is telling that Paul begins this passage on unity by addressing the Corinthians as brothers. This simple address in its own subtle way is also a reminder to the Corinthians of their common bond together. They are brothers because they have the same Father. It is this Father who has bound the Corinthians together by the crucifixion of his Son and the empowering of his Holy Spirit.
Paul will address these themes as they touch other problems throughout the letter but he begins here by asking the Corinthians three questions that are meant to remind them that they have been bound together in Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified on your behalf? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? Each question reinforces the others. Christ is not something that can be divided up among a few believers. Instead, it was Christ who crucified on behalf of all the Corinthians. Therefore, all the Corinthians have been baptized into Christ. That is to say that Christ is not something to which any of them can lay claim over and against the others. Instead, their lives, their identities are defined by their baptism into Christ and this is an identity that all the Corinthians share.
Of course, the Church today still divides itself and thus divides Christ in this way as well. We say we are "of Luther" or "of Calvin" or "of Wesley" while others claim to be the only ones who are truly "of Christ". Then there are all the other labels that threaten to divide us as well: black, white, Hispanic, rich, poor, educated, old, young, and every other label the world gives us or we give ourselves. Paul reminds us that in Christ there is more that unites us than divides us. That doesn't meant that we all have to become the same but it does mean that as the Church we must demonstrate a unity of love with one another even in the midst of our diversity.
It is telling that Paul begins this passage on unity by addressing the Corinthians as brothers. This simple address in its own subtle way is also a reminder to the Corinthians of their common bond together. They are brothers because they have the same Father. It is this Father who has bound the Corinthians together by the crucifixion of his Son and the empowering of his Holy Spirit.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
What Makes a Church
Based on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, the church at Corinth sounds like an ideal church. Just listen to the way Paul describes this church. Paul says they were:
- sanctified in Christ Jesus (v.2)
- enriched in every way in Christ Jesus in all speech and knowledge (v.4)
- not lacking in any spiritual gift (v.7)
- awaiting the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ (v.7)
- guiltless in the day of the Lord (v.8)
- called into the fellowship of the Son (v.9)
This church is holy, wise, spiritually gifted, patient, guiltless, and enjoying good Christian fellowship together. What more could anyone ask for in a church?
But then we read the rest of the letter...
Immediately, after Paul describes the Corinthians as being called into the fellowship of the Son he says "I appeal to you brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment" (v.10). Paul has heard reports that there is quarreling and divisions among the Christians in Corinth. Later in chapter six, we find that this disunity is so serious that some in the congregation have actually been taking each other to court. What happened to the fellowship of the Son?
Near the end of chapter one and into chapter two, we hear that this church which Paul describes as being enriched in all speech and knowledge is made up of people who actually weren't very wise according to worldly standards, nor very powerful or well respected in society (1:26). Paul even goes on to describe them using terms like weak and lowly.
Then, in chapter 3, we find that the ones Paul described as not lacking any spiritual gift, he now can not address as spiritual. In fact, he says they are mere babes in Christ who are not ready for solid food. Paul has to keep giving them milk, going over the basics of the faith with them again and again (3:1-2)
In chapter 4, Paul says that those who were waiting so patiently for the revealing of our Lord Jesus are actually boasting as if they have already arrived. They are acting as if they already have everything for which they hope and have already become rich, acting like kings as if Jesus had already returned and God's new creation had already come. (4:7-8)
In chapter five, we hear that this church which Paul describes as sanctified and guiltless, is actually sexually immoral. And Paul says it is a sexual immorality that the common culture doesn't even condone; a man is sleeping with his step-mother! And what is worse, the Corinthians think this is something to boast about. They think that they are so spiritual that the normal confines of sexuality do not apply to them (5:1-2).
So what's the deal? Why does Paul say all of this stuff about the Corinthian church if none of it seems to be true? Was Paul simply buttering them up to get their attention? Was he being sarcastic when he said all of that nice stuff about the Corinthians?
It is evident from Paul's letters that flattery and sarcasm were certainly both part of his rhetorical arsenal but I think there is something else going on in these opening verses of 1 Corinthians. Interspersed between these statements are one's about God's grace, God's faithfulness, and God actions. The first thing for which Paul gives thanks is the "grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus." It is because of this grace that Paul says the Corinthians were enriched in knowledge and not lacking in any spiritual gift. Paul says God will sustain the Corinthians in the day of judgment because God is faithful.
In other words, the Corinthians aren't sanctified because they are exceptionally moral people but because God has set them apart for his holy purpose. They certainly aren't guiltless because they haven't done anything wrong but because God will sustain them until the day of judgment. They aren't full of wisdom and spiritual gifts because they are superstar Christians but because God has made them His people. Paul's opening words in 1 Corinthians aren't about listing a whole bunch of accolades about the Corinthians. Paul is reminding the Corinthians who they are; the Church, God's people set apart, made holy, and gifted for God's purposes in this world. Paul is thankful for the Corinthians not because they are doing a great job compared to other churches because they weren't. Paul is thankful for the Corinthians simply because they are the Church, they are a people among whom God has acted. And before Paul says anything else, he wants to remind the Corinthians that their identity is found in God and what God has done among them.
I often think that the greatest challenge the Church faces isn't outreach or discipleship or serving others even though those things can be pretty challenging and sometimes it feels like we do a miserably deficient job at them. I think the greatest challenge we face is simply remembering who we are, remembering what it means to be the Church. We constantly want to compare ourselves to other churches and we feel like we aren't really a church unless we have a certain attendance or we are in on the latest trend. We turn Church into a competition to see who can be the most spiritual, much like the Corinthians did. But then Paul comes and reminds us that we're not a church because of what we've done but because of what God has done in us.
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