I tell young preachers who are entering their first pastorate to begin it by teaching through 1 Corinthians. Why do I say this? Because we are in the age of the Corinthian Christian. You cannot read through this book and not notice the similarities.
They boasted of their spiritual gifts, but never recognized the Giver; they gloried in preachers, but not in God; fornication was the accepted norm; they sued one another; they drank to excess, and came to church that way; divorce was rampant; their religious trinkets (idols) were more important to them than a Divine relationship; there was the masculinization of women and the feminization of men. We could go on, but this should suffice to prove my point.
What was the cure for such a people and church? Well, Paul did not give them a long list of man-made rules. He gave them a simple cure-all for everything. It has to do with ownership:
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (6:19-20).
There is no spiritual problem that the filling of the Holy Spirit cannot solve.
No comments:
Post a Comment