1 Corinthians (Program #22) – Feeding, Drinking, Eating, Planting, Watering, Growing

The believers in the church of Corinth that Paul was writing to in 1 Corinthians had a number of problems. But not just problems that could be remedy by giving them advice or spiritual counsel. The apostle spoke to them in a very strong way in chapter three telling them that they are infants, fleshy and even fleshly. These are symptoms of a very poor spiritual condition.

But after such a sober word he proceeds to show them the way out of such spiritual poverty not by teaching them but by giving them many marvelous expressions all pointing them to their real lack which was to eat and drink of Christ and to become planters, feeders and waterers in the Body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:2 & 6, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. ….. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. ”

We can’t have too much eating, drinking, enjoying of our dear Lord Jesus.

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1 Corinthians (Program #21) – The Building Work with Natural Materials

In the realm of Christian service and ministry many things are done in the name of Christian work.  But 1 Corinthians 3 is a key chapter that points out absolutely clearly that the unique work all of us as the believers should be engaged in is a building work.  Verse 11 and 12 in this chapter say it:

“For another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble, “

Two categories of materials. And the first category, the materials are mineral, very precious and enduring gold, silver and precious stones.  In the second category however the materials are all perishable and natural  wood, grass and stubble.  The significant of these two categories becomes very relevant for us and the Christian work in the very next verses.

“The work of each will become manifest; for the day will declare it, because it is revealed by fire, and the fire itself will prove each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he will receive a reward;  If anyone’s work is consumed, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. “

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1 Corinthians (Program #20) – The Building Work with Transformed Materials (1)

The goal of the Christian life is not merely to live a proper and upright life, died and then go to heaven. The goal as presented in 1 Corinthians has to do with being built up into a spiritual building that ultimately becomes God’s dwelling place on earth with His people. In short this building is the church becoming the real temple of God on earth.

What a high calling, our real work in the Christian life is a building work.  And to this end Paul instructed the Corinthians believers and us in chapter three of 1 Corinthians :

“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each man take heed how he builds upon it. For another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble, the work of each will become manifest; for the day will declare it, because it is revealed by fire. ”

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1 Corinthians (Program #19) – Growth in Life Needed (2)

In first Corinthians the apostle Paul confronts the difficult situation in the church there in a very wise way. He first identifies that their problems would due primarily to a shortage of the growth in the divine life. Although they had received the initial gifts of the divine life and the Holy Spirit they were still infants or babes in Christ.

He then unveils to them the marvelous progression of God’s economy. First they need to realize that they are all plants growing on God’s farms. Then the goal is to be built up together into a building and finally that this building is destined to become God’s dwelling place, His temple.

How about you and me? Have we received such a vision, such a revelation or are we like the Corinthians satisfied to remain in our spiritual infancy and hang on to personal preferences in our own traditions?

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1 Corinthians (Program #18) – Growth in Life Needed (1)

In the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians the apostle Paul stresses one thing, Christ. This is his wisdom in pointing the believers’ in these problems laden church to the one unique solution to all the problems in the Christian life and in the church life.

But in chapter three he turned his focus to the church. Writing about the church in a marvelous way without even ever using the term, church. In this book his speaking related to the church is not according to the doctrine and teaching regarding the church life but according to the life and the growth in life.

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1 Corinthians (Program #17) – The Church, God’s Farm, God’s Building (2)

The believers in Corinth in the early church were rich in many things. They have received the initial gifts of the divine life and the Holy Spirit. They were enriched in all knowledge and they even have many miraculous gifts in their midst.  Yet Paul referred to them as infants or babes in Christ. How could that be with all that God had given them?   Primarily is because they neglect the mater of life and growing spiritually in the divine life. So, the apostle Paul points out to them in clear types and pictures the importance and necessity of the divine life.

Listen again as his words are so full of references to life and growth:

3:5-9 “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Ministers through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to beach one of them. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.  So then neither is he who plants anything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth.  Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.”

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1 Corinthians (Program #16) – The Church, God’s Farm, God’s Building (1)

The first two chapters of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians are very rich in their presentation of Christ. Paul clearly was doing all he could to bring the troubled Corinthians to Christ in their experience.

But in Chapter three Paul turns his focus to the church. Though not in shallow or superficial language rather he speaks in marvelous profound expressions referring to the church in types.  First as a farm growing, producing a rich crop. Then as a building and ultimately as a temple, a divine dwelling place, build out of priceless materials such as gold, silver and precious stones. Of course these materials are not literally either but types of the transformation work that the Holy Spirit is engaged in with all of us, God’s redeemed.

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1 Corinthians (Program #15) – The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of God Knowing the Things of God (3)

Only the spirit of man knows the things of a man. And only the Spirit of God knows the things of God.

This is our third program in a row on this critical matter of the spirit of man.

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1 Corinthians (Program #14) – The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of God Knowing the Things of God (2)

The church of Corinth was a church full of problems, perhaps more so than any other church in the New Testament. Yet the apostle Paul reveal more of God’s purpose to that troubled church than to any other.

We are going to see some of the precious matters in 1 Corinthians that are contrasted by the apostle Paul against such negative as division, incest and immaturity.

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1 Corinthians (Program #13) – The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of God Knowing the Things of God (1)

How can we know God and how can we know man?   The Bible tells us is only by the Spirit. But what is that mean? 1 Corinthians 2:11 says

“For who among men knows the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him? In the same way, the things of God also no one has known except the Spirit of God.”

A very particular life study program related to the two Spirits.

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