LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Word of the Cross
In Corinth, Paul shows the key to dealing with all problems in the local church.
Cristian Cerda
When Paul prepared to take his second trip missionary, he had it in his heart to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirit, in a supernatural intervention, forbade him to speak there (Acts 16:6-10). The revelation, the Word of the Lord, would eventually reach them via other servants, because later the brothers that were in Bithynia, in Pontus and Cappadocia received letters (from Peter). But the Lord forbade Paul to speak the Word there, and then showed him where he had to go.
I can imagine the apostle with a heart that was burning to testify, to announce the gospel, seeing that there was a world that had not heard anything of the gospel. And then the Holy Spirit pointed the way out to him. Paul had to be told: "You will not speak here". To some the Spirit has to say: "You have to speak here". God showed him this vision, and Paul understood that it was God who was calling him to head to Macedonia, taking the gospel to Europe. And it thus reached Corinth.
The gospel arrives at Corinth
And in Corinth, the Lord told him: "Do not fear, but speak and do not remain silent. Now I need that you speak, because I have a lot of people here". Paul began to share the gospel, and established the church in Corinth. About seven or ten years went by, and the church in Corinth faced very complex situations: immorality, litigations in public, to the point that the unbelievers participated in the cases between the brothers. Some ended up understanding that fornication, relations with prostitutes, was not forbidden and that they could participate in it. There were serious abuses in the meetings. A very complex situation.
Paul had established the foundation well. In fact, that is what he said to the Corinthians: "as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation". But in the apostle's heart, placing the foundation was not the only interest, but knowing how the church was progressing, knowing about the growth of the church. When he wrote to the Thessalonians, the apostle says that he was so broken-hearted that "I also, when I could no longer forbear, sent that I might know your faith".
When Paul established the foundation, he was also concerned that what was built on that foundation should be according to that which the Lord had determined. The letter to the Corinthians shows us that there were many situations that were not according to that foundation. Corinth was a region of a great deal of liberality, sinfulness and paganism. It was also a region of marketing and trade. And it was there that the gospel was established, the foundation was placed; but over the years there were delicate situations that the apostle had to consider.
The letter to the Corinthians at times is very strong, but at others it is very tender. I want to focus on what he wanted to share in this letter, seven years on since Paul had first preached Christ. They had converted from all that liberality and paganism. However, over the years, the situation had become quite complex.
Now just think; if we were to go to Corinth and had to talk through the different things that were happening, which of them should the apostle deal most with in his writing? (Because there were very serious things happening.) At one point in the letter Paul says to the church in Corinth: "It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles ". It was a serious situation. "You are puffed up ", he told them, "and did not rather mourn, … to deliver such a one unto Satan". It was a decision that the church should have taken.
Paul's beginning
Yet notice where Paul begins, and in this, the Lord gives us understanding of the apostolic heart. When he began to write, after identifying himself, Paul says: "...to the church of God". What a beautiful expression! With all that had happened there, Paul even as an apostle and having established the foundation that is Christ among those brethren, could not have called the believers in Corinth in this way unless God allowed him to. He calls them "the church of God".
When Paul addresses the holiest thing on the earth; that which cost the Son of God's own life, those who are redeemed and washed clean, he cannot lift his voice to say anything but what God has to say of those brothers and sisters. So he had to begin his letter surrendered before the Lord, saying to them: "I write to you to say that you are the church of God. Despite the seriousness of your immorality; you are what God says you are: you are the church of God". How important it is that our heart be clean, so as to not use words that God wouldn't use. How important that our heart has been dealt with by the Lord, to take care of what God takes care of, to love what God loves. Paul cannot say what God doesn't say about the church.
So, when addressing the church, we have to come with reverence, with humility, knowing God, and knowing that the church is God's ownership. If we address it otherwise, we better correct our heart. But if we address it correctly, as God wants us to address it, as Paul shows, we can edify one another, we can console one another and even correct one another, we can help one another and teach one another.
We address it by confessing that there is a church of God. It's like when we have to speak to children, and we say: "Looks, you are my son, you are my daughter". We affirm, we establish the relationship as to then be able to speak to them. Paul says: "you are the church of God". And look at how beautiful verse 4 is: "I thank my God always concerning you". Paul was being honest, he didn't ever use smooth or flowery words; he didn't try to dress his words up before saying things as they really were. It is as if he were showing that when addressing the church and confessing that they are the church of God, we have to give thanks to God for our brothers and sisters.
What Paul had to deal with was quite complex. But before that, Paul says: "I have given thanks to God". So he is not speaking angrily, as he writes, he isn't angry; because he gave thanks. And when one exercises oneself in giving thanks, the rage and anger begin to disappear. Thanks be for the church which I am in! Thanks be for my wife, thanks be for my children, thanks be for all that You have given us! Thanks be for the brothers and sisters with whom I share! "Give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God".
We can give thanks for the good things, but can we give thanks for the bad things that we receive? If everything in the church were pleasing, how wonderful it would be! I would get on well with everyone. But this is not the case, and God wanted it to be thus.
Because I am not the measure of the church; the measure of the church is Christ. So it is a good thing that God places us among those who are not so pleasing to us, and it is a good thing that we can give thanks for that, because most assuredly what God wants is to do something in me before doing something in others.
Paul had this heart; he always gave thanks to God. He shows a heart that was taught by God, corrected by God, dealt with by the cross, a heart that wouldn't say anything that was not from God. After giving thanks for the brothers, only then does he begin to write. And this is very important. Paul has a corrected attitude before speaking to the church.
The first problem and how it is solved
So after being corrected by the Lord, Paul begins to deal with some matters. And what is the first of those? The first problem (it is possible that the brothers didn't see it as being so serious) is that they said: "I am of Cephas", or "I am of Paul", or "I am of Apollos". That didn't seem so delicate a matter because it was said by the brothers. Perhaps nobody fought for this very reason; they could have the meeting, break the bread, take of the cup, and meet in a single place together. It didn't seem so serious, but when Paul heard about it, he gave it priority. He began with what he found to be the most important.
"For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you". How does Paul solve this matter? He doesn't begin to argue, but rather he says: "Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing ". Is our heart surrendered to the Lord to speak the same thing? "...and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment".
What do we need to speak about? Paul tells us: "For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God". Why does he speak to them about the word of the cross? They received this word seven years before; but now the Spirit of God began to remove the veil that prevented them from seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ by the word of Paul. When Paul tells them to speak the same thing, he mentions the word of the cross.
What is the word of the cross? Did Paul or Cephas or Apollos save you? The word of the cross is that of the Man who was crucified, upon whom God placed the judgment of the whole world whilst He was dying; that judgment which you and I should have borne. And when I begin to speak the word of the cross with all my brothers and sisters, I say: "Brother, the price that He paid for your sins is the same as that which He paid for mine; the same blood was poured out to make you and I clean, it was the same death that gave you and I eternal life".
We speak the word of the cross; that the Son of God humbled himself, being obedient to death, even death on a cross, and in the eternal wisdom of that counsel that was planned between the Godhead, that which was veiled from our eyes, that wisdom which was only found in the eternal fellowship, was carried out two thousand years ago, and a Man dying on a cross was our salvation.
Paul says: "Speak about that among you, see Jesus on the cross, see the price that He paid for you". And if I begin to speak in this way, when will I speak of that which separates you and I? If I begin to speak of the humiliation of the Lord, of the work on the cross; if we begin to share the word of the cross; if we are joined in speech with the understanding and the truth that Christ has placed on our lips, and we begin to proclaim it to one another, and we start receiving and being edified in the word of the cross, won't we all end up speaking the same thing? Won't our mind be renewed in the understanding that pleases God?
The word of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing; for Gentiles, the word of the cross is folly. But for those who are called, it is the wisdom of God. For God to have come in the way in which He did, for the Greek mind, is madness. But for the elect, it is the highest wisdom, hidden from the princes, hidden from the wise. That wisdom of God is within our reach, to take it and to share it, to understand it by revelation of the Spirit, and to speak what God wants us to speak. The word of the cross, being the wisdom of God, is the word that we have to begin to speak, because Paul says that we should speak the same thing.
One mind. Which mind? Paul says that we have the mind of Christ. If we have Christ's mind, we can be perfectly united in it. If it is Christ in you, and it is Christ in me, what will separate us? What will we say to that? Let us begin to speak the word of the cross to one another, let us begin to say what we understand of the cross to one another; that the cross is not only an objective fact: it contains a glorious truth that is on our lips, in our mind, in our heart, and about which we have to begin to speak.
Paul doesn't enter into any more discussion here. He simply shows that the way is this: "that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment", and introduces everything by means of the word of the cross.