Joy & Sorrow In the Mix of Ministry

Transcript

GR 1793
12/7/2014
Joy and Sorrow in the Mix of Ministry
2 Corinthians 1:23-2:4
Gil Rugh

We've been studying 2 Corinthians together and we're going to continue that study, so come in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 1. Paul is writing a letter to a church that he has a deep love for but has had more than its share of difficulties. You remember the church is comprised of those who are believers in Jesus Christ. So he addressed them in the first verse of this letter, it's to the “church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia.” And Achaia is the province where Corinth was located. We noted that word saints is the word holy ones and God has done a marvelous, remarkable work in the lives of those who turn from their sin and place their faith in Christ. He has cleansed them from their sins, he has caused them to be born again, to be made new, forgiven, clean in His sight. Remarkable. So they are called saints which is the word for holy; they are holy ones because of what God has done in Christ in their lives.

Now it is to be a process of growing. The local church comprises God's family in that location. This is God's family meeting in the city of Corinth. There is a mixture going on of suffering, difficulty, misunderstandings, and yet God's comfort, God's joy and God's blessing. Paul has found it necessary to defend himself and explain certain things to the Corinthian church. The church has been infiltrated by false teachers and been influenced to think that maybe Paul is not a reliable, trustworthy person. Paul had told them he was going to come and visit them and then things changed and he was not able to fulfill that desire in that way for several reasons. We'll talk a little bit more about that as we move along. And some have latched on that to say, Paul is not a reliable person, he doesn't keep his word. Now the purpose of attacking Paul and his character is to undermine confidence in the message that Paul preached. And Paul is very concerned about that, he takes this to heart. And he reminded the Corinthians that we together have experienced the power of God's work in our lives.

And we looked at verses 21-22 in a previous study where God says, “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ is God.” We are in this together as fellow believers in Jesus Christ. We have been established by the power of God in Christ. When you place your faith in Christ you are established by God. He'll talk about the standing we have. And then He has anointed us with His Spirit, sealed us with the Spirit and given us the Spirit as a down payment that He will fulfill His promises.

So Paul and the Corinthians should not be at war with one another. They ought to understand we have been brought together to work together as God's people. Paul established that church when he went there on his third journey in Acts 18 and preached the Gospel. And they came to believe it. And Paul is reminding them that that same settled truth that came through Paul that brought about their salvation demonstrates the character of Paul, and demonstrates that we, he and the Corinthians, have been joined together by God in ministry.

So now he wants to further explain why he didn't come when he said he would. He had shared in verses 8-11 that he had experienced a devastating affliction that brought him so close to dying that he had given up hope of survival. Doesn't go into any more detail. That naturally would affect your travel plans, and the one possible reason why he wasn't able to keep his schedule.

Then in 2 Corinthians 1:23 he gives another reason. “But I call God as witness to my soul that to spare you I did not come to Corinth.” You understand I was thinking of you when I altered my travel plans to spare you some unpleasantness and that would mean I was spared unpleasantness because Paul has a father's heart for them and he is concerned that he not cause them grief and they not cause him grief.

And you'll note how he starts verse 23, he says, “I call God as witness to my soul.” That's an oath. It's like he is on trial and I call God to testify on my behalf that He is the One who will be my judge. He shows how seriously Paul took the attacks, the innuendos that were being made in the church at Corinth against him because he sees the truth of God at stake. If people are moved away from confidence in Paul and his message, they will have been moved away from the Word of God and the church will be destroyed over time. So I call God as witness to my soul. He had spoken about the witness of his conscience in verse 12, “For our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience.” I can say with good conscience in holiness and godly sincerity that we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you. Now I call God as my witness.

We in our modern day would say, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? This is an oath, this is the form it would take in those days—I call God as a witness, I take the oath with God as my witness. Paul does this on a number of occasions. There sometimes are discussions on the place of oaths in the Bible. But Paul doesn't hesitate to take an oath on a number of occasions.

Come back to Romans 1:9, “For God whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the Gospel of His Son is my witness.” That's an oath. I call Him to bear witness on my behalf. “I make mention of you unceasingly in my prayers.” That's just not a passing comment, a nicety. I pray for you regularly, I take oath before God with Him as my witness that I do. Come over to Philippians 1:8, “For God is my witness how I long for you with all the affection of Christ.” God sees my heart, my mind, He testifies on my behalf. He will judge me if I am found to be untrue. God is my witness. 1 Thessalonians 2:5, “For we never came with flattering speech as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness.” I call God as witness on my behalf. We would say taking an oath that God is my witness that I didn't come to say what you wanted to hear, I did not come to try to get material gain from you. God is my witness. Down in verse 10, “You are witnesses and so is God how devoutly, uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers.”

Isn't it amazing? Paul came and brought the Gospel to them, spent 18 months there preaching the Word to them, has written two previous letters to them, visited them on prior occasions and somehow their confidence in him has been shaken and undermined. And he has to do this extensive explanation, not because he wants to be vindicated but because the truth that he is preaching is at stake. And if they lose confidence in him, they will not have confidence in his message that God is communicating through him.

Now we have these oaths. Jesus said we shouldn't take oaths. Come back to Matthew 5. Some of you may be thinking, I thought we weren't supposed to take an oath. Matthew 5 is in the Sermon on the Mount, verse 33, “Jesus said, you have heard the ancients were told you shall not make false oaths but fulfill your vows to the Lord. I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven for it is the throne of God, or by earth for it is the footstool of His feet, by Jerusalem for it's the city of the great king. You shall not make an oath by your head, you can't make one hair white or black. Let your statement be yes, yes or no, no. Anything beyond this is evil.” James repeats the substance of that in one verse—in James 5:12. But Jesus said, don't take oaths, and Paul is repeatedly taking an oath, is he in conflict with Christ? I read one commentator who said, well, Paul probably didn't know what Christ said. Now that's pretty pathetic.

I think we understand the context of what Jesus said and you get an idea when He said, verse 34, “Don't make an oath at all, either by heaven,” verse 35, “or by earth, or by Jerusalem, or by your head,” verse 36. “Let your statement be yes, yes,” because the Jews had developed this intricate system. You could take an oath, but if you didn't do it in the name of God it didn't count. Or if you took an oath by your head, it didn't count because you didn't take it by Jerusalem. Those kinds of deceptive things. So they had all these detailed adjustments so that you could take an oath and look like you were swearing to tell the truth, but it's like we talk about with the kids. When I was little you could cross your fingers and then when you said, I'll give you a dollar for that popsicle. They give the popsicle and you eat it, and they say, give me my dollar, you say, I had my fingers crossed. It didn't count. You have the adult version of that.

So Jesus said your word ought to be reliable. But that doesn't mean there is never a place for an oath. Come over to Hebrews 6. I realize this is a little side trail to what Paul is saying but we want to understand how he can be taking an oath and not in violation of the Word of God. Hebrews 6, we studied the book of Hebrews not too long ago so I know this is right on the top of your head and fresh. Verse 13, “For when God made the promise to Abraham since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself.” God Himself took an oath to Abraham, He is functioning in the human realm. Verse 16, “For men swear by one greater than themselves and with an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute.” So here is the positive, acceptable sign the oath is to settle something. Well, we recognize that example, we see the seriousness of it. If you were under oath and you lied, that is taken as a more serious offense. The penalty is greater. So it's an end of everything. “In the same way God desiring even more to show the heirs of promise the unchangeableness of His purpose interposed with an oath.” Why did God take an oath? Because His Word wasn't reliable? No, because He wanted to demonstrate among men the absolute finality of what He promised. So He doesn't denigrate oaths here. So understand what Jesus said in the context. These frivolous dealings, almost childish games which are more serious because they are by adults of all kinds of oaths, and you can read in commentaries and literature some of the variations that had been developed, particularly among the Jews to avoid accountability.

But come back to 2 Corinthians. Paul's seriousness here is clear. “I call God to witness,” 2 Corinthians 1;23, “to my soul that to spare you I did not come to Corinth.” They are criticizing him for not being reliable for not coming and he really did it because he loved them so much. He didn't want to have to bring unpleasantness to them. It's somewhat like with your children. You may give them time to correct what they are doing because you prefer not to have to discipline them. And you may tell them, I hope you will make the change. If you don't, then there will be consequences. That's what Paul is doing. If I came on the schedule I gave you, I would have had to discipline you.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 4, in the context he is talking about his love for them and his relationship with Timothy. Verse 15, “You have countless tutors in Christ, you would not have many fathers. In Christ Jesus I have become your father through the Gospel.” And he says, “As your spiritual father I am addressing you.” Then he says in verse 18, “Now some have become arrogant as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills.” There is always that, whether expressed or not, remember James says, we ought always to say we are going to do this tomorrow, but you keep in mind, if the Lord wills. “And I shall find out not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness?” He is dealing with them as their spiritual father, they are his spiritual children. And I don't want to have to come with a rod and serious discipline, I'd rather come with love and gentleness because you have corrected the problem and the discipline is not necessary.

Come over to 2 Corinthians 12:20, “For I am afraid,” even when he comes on this later visit, “I am afraid that perhaps when I come, I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish.” We'll both be unhappy and disappointed in each other. Why? “That perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality, sensuality which they have practiced.” You're not going to like me in that sense, if we could put it that way. If I have to come and be firm and harsh and discipline you because of persistent sin, that would be a humbling of me as a father. He wants to be loved, he wants to be welcomed. But if your sin persists, there will have to be discipline.

Down in 2 Corinthians 13:2, “I have previously said when present the second time though now absent, I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and all the rest as well, if I come again I will not spare anyone.” Verse 10, “For this reason I am writing these things while absent so that when present I need not to use severity in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not tearing down.” How many times do you have to express, I love you. My delay is so you have a chance to repent, correct the problem. Sort of like Peter said it explains why it seems the Lord has delayed His return. The Lord is not slow about His promises as some count slowness, but He is longsuffering, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to the knowledge of the truth. Think about it, if the Lord had come yesterday, the door closed for you to hear and believe the Gospel. How sad. The Lord is patiently giving people opportunity.

So Paul says, I have patiently delayed my coming. This is another reason. His health may have been a factor. But it's just desire and love for the Corinthians. It would be so much more pleasant for me and for you if I could come and the things that need to be corrected had already been corrected and we could just enjoy one another.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 1. Verse 24, Paul has to make an adjustment here. You know, there are always people looking for something to complain about, to be critical of. So Paul said, I didn't come because I wanted to spare you. He can see some are going to pick it up and say, Paul thinks he is the lord of all. He thinks he is the one who can dominate you, and you have to do everything his way, the way he wants. So he puts it in perspective. “Not that we lord it over your faith.”

In 1 Corinthians 7:23 Paul said, “You were bought with a price, do not become the slaves of men.” Paul makes clear, I'm not the lord over your life in Christ; there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ. I am simply a slave of His, so I understand my position. We don't lord it over your faith, your life in Christ. That's not our position. In fact just the opposite, “we are workers together with you for your joy.” You understand we are in this together. Remember verses 21-22? And the Spirit that has been given to us. I mean, we serve the same Lord. There is only one head of the body, one Lord of the church. We are workers together with you for your joy. I'm not working against you, Paul says, I'm working for you. I want you to have all the joy in your salvation that God intends for you. This flows out of what he said about the Spirit in verses 21-22. Galatians 5 tells us the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. God wants His people to have joy, even in grief, even in affliction. We're functioning properly, He brings His comfort and He produces His joy. Paul says I want to work together for joy. Do you know what? Sin destroys your joy. When you are not functioning as the Lord of the church wants you to function, it saps your joy. You know how that is as a Christian, the believer. There is a certain pleasure in sin, that's why we do it, but there is misery after it. What was I thinking? Why would I do that? Why would I say that? Paul wants the sin corrected. The Spirit can't be producing, remember we read in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, don't grieve the Holy Spirit. We want to submit to His control so He can produce God's joy in your life. We're workers together with you for your joy.

Turn back to Romans 15. Paul writes to the church at Rome and he says in verse 13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Here we are. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” I want you to experience all the riches of the fullness of the work of the Spirit in your life. God doesn't intend for us to be miserable, unhappy, grumpy, sour, discontented children. But He has to discipline us when we get out of line. Paul said I'm not a worker against you. You understand in my saying these things have to be corrected or there will be severe consequences, I do that because I love you. You can't experience the fullness of God's blessing and His joy and peace in your heart when you are fighting against the Spirit and His control in your life.

Come back to 2 Corinthians. Peter reminded the elders that he identified with in 1 Peter 5:3 that they were not to lord it over God's people. I am one of the pastors of this church, I am not a lord in this church. Some pastors forget that. The elders are not lords. There is a difference between being given responsibility for the oversight and care of God's people and sometimes that involves the disciplining as Paul is talking about. You understand I am not lord, I just represent the One who is the Lord. It is not right or wrong because I said it, it's right and pleasing to God because He said it and it's displeasing to Him because He said it is displeasing. We remind one another of that. But verse 24, “Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy.” We want you to experience the fullness of God's blessing, that's His intention—joyous Christians.

This paragraph, the paragraph that we are in begins in 2 Corinthians 1:23(and the chapter break is unfortunate, it should have happened after verse 22), then down through 2 Corinthians 2:4. It really touches into verse 5 as well. Sorrow or grief and joy or gladness, mixed together. Here is what a man wrote in 1894, a man named James Denny, in his commentary on this section, this paragraph. Here is a whole paragraph of St. Paul made up almost entirely of grief and joy. What depth of feeling lies behind it. If this is alien to us in our work for Christ we need not wonder that our work does not tell. In other words you can't escape it, there is grief in the family of God. We have to deal with those things, but we deal with them because God intends us to have joy. Sometimes you wouldn't know that. Unhappy, miserable Christians—that's an oxymoron. The Spirit of God produces God's joy in our lives. Well, I know I'm going to heaven, I just have to plod on but I'm sure not happy about it. No. God wants us to enjoy Him, to have the joy that the Spirit produces in our heart. Sometimes that is going to be going through difficult times, trials. That's why he started out saying, we experience God's comfort in our afflictions because His work continues. But sin short circuits things. Then we're unhappy.

So Paul says we are workers together for your joy because you in your faith are standing firm. First we might think it doesn't sound like the Corinthians are standing very firm, they are all over the map and they need discipline. And at the end of this letter Paul will say, examine yourselves to see if you are really in the faith. But he is confident for the most part he is writing to the church comprised of saints, as we read in verse 1, the holy ones. Just like your children, they are children but sometimes you say, I'll disown them. But they are your children, they need discipline, they need correction along the way.

They are standing firm in their faith. How do you know you are standing firm? Didn't we read verse 21? “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ is God.” If He has established you, you are standing firm, your position in Christ is secure. That is not what is at issue. Whether you lose your salvation or retain it, those who are in Christ have been established in Christ, they stand firm in Christ. Those who turn and depart from Christ never belonged to Him. “They went out from us because they were not really of us because if they had been of us, they would have remained with us,” 1 John as John wrote in that first epistle.

Come back to Romans 5, look how the chapter begins. “Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.” I have been established by God's grace in Christ through faith and I stand there. That doesn't mean I don't stumble, but I am firmly fixed by the grace of God in my life in Christ. It's this grace in which we stand. And so we exalt in the hope of the glory of God. There is joy there. We are exalting in our hope in Christ. “And we exalt in tribulation,” verse 3. So the fact that suffering and trial come does not sap away my joy. It may sap my physical strength, as Paul shared when he came to the point of death, but it doesn't sap my spiritual life. Though our outer man is decaying, our inner man, our new man in Christ is being made new and strengthened day by day, as we'll get to when we get to 2 Corinthians 4.

Other passages, come to 1 Corinthians 15:1. “Now I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand.” Paul is firm with the Corinthians because he believes true Christians will take it, it is necessary. Some of it is going to be hard and harsh and it's intended to drive away the unbeliever. We like to fill our churches with unbelievers because it is good for numbers. Paul is going to drive them off. They are welcome if they want to hear the truth, but you are not welcome to influence the church. His approach, we stand in Christ. As we've talked about, the discipline will come, but that doesn't mean you are not part of the family. Paul said I'll do whatever is necessary, the corrections are going to be made. The Lord of the church requires it. You cannot persist in the sin. That's his approach.

Now the desire I have as Christ's representative is you take care of it, then I won't have to. And you know what that's like as a parent. You say to your kids, I want to give you a chance to do what you should, make the change. I hope you will. Because you really don't want to have to do the hard thing. And really they don't want you to have to do it. Sometimes we come to that. That's what Paul is dealing with here. We stand. That's sure. Paul is not questioning whether the Corinthian church will make it, the believers will make it and the unbelievers will get sifted out. There must be divisions among you so that those who are approved may become evident, he told the Corinthians. Galatians 5:1 and Philippians 1:27 also talk about standing.

But come back to 2 Corinthians. Now he is back in 2 Corinthian 2:1, “But I determined this for your sake that I would not come to you in sorrow again.” It seems like he’s belaboring it, but the Spirit of God is moving Paul to share with them how hard it is in my heart. I love you so much I don't want to do that which causes you pain, which is unpleasant to you. Discipline is unpleasant to the one being disciplined, it's unpleasant to the one disciplining. But if we really love the one in sin, we will do the hard thing. That's what Paul says. If I determine this for my own sake, I would not come to you in sorrow again.

You know the word sorrow in the first five verses of 2 Corinthians 2 is used seven times, and the word joy or gladness is used a number of times. It's that sorrow or grief and pain, and yet there is the joy. You can't get away from it. If all we want is joy and happiness, we won't be willing to deal with the difficulty. If all we do is make the Christian life a set of pressure rules, we won't have the joy. Paul said I don't want to come to you in sorrow again.

Paul had visited the church on his third missionary journey and he established the church. It wasn't the church then, he visited Corinth and established the church. That's recorded in Acts 18. That was his first visit to that city. He has made another visit there since that time because he says here in verse 1, “I determined I would not come to you again in sorrow.” Well that first visit was establishing the church, he didn't visit them in sorrow.

Over in 2 Corinthians 12, as we noted in an earlier study, verse 14 he says, “here for this third time I am ready to come to you.” In 2 Corinthians 13:1, “this is the third time I am coming to you.” Where was the second? We don't know, there is no record of it. That doesn't surprise us, when we get to 2 Corinthians 11 we'll find all kinds of things that went on in Paul's life. They are not recorded like in the book of Acts where we have something of his life unfolded. That's just something of the highlights that are significant to show the moving along of the church's history, not to unfold a detailed biography of the Apostle Paul's life. So he made another visit to the church at Corinth. And when you read commentaries on it there is disagreement. Was this visit made before the first letter was written? Or was it made after the first letter was written? All we know for sure is he made the visit and it wasn't a pleasant one. It did not go well. Paul did not enjoy it. It was hard on him and hard for him. The Corinthians did not enjoy it and did not accept it well.

We mentioned when we put the map up, Paul was probably in Ephesus when he made that visit. He wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus. He spent three years in Ephesus. You could go straight across the water, we showed there, and you would basically come to Corinth. It would take about a week on a ship in those days. So during his three years in Ephesus evidently because of the seriousness of the problems that he heard about, he went over to Corinth and it did not resolve things. That's why we have this letter coming up, trying to deal with things. Paul was not happy about it and they were not happy about it. So he is determined, I'm not going to have another visit like that one. That's another reason for the delay, I want to have time, as we mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1:23.

Verse 2, “For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful?” Paul has made clear, you are the joy of my heart. You bring joy to me. What a blessing the Corinthians have been. We lose sight, we get caught up with the problems. They have to be dealt with. But the church at Corinth was a cause of joy for Paul. He could reflect back on the greatness of God's grace that broke in to that pagan city, took hold of hearts and made them new. And Paul began his first letter by saying, God has blessed you with every spiritual gift you need to function. His grace is evident in your ministry. There are a lot of things that need to be corrected, but Paul had much to be thankful for, even in this troublesome church.

And if you make me glad, why would I want to come and make you sad? You see he is trying to connect to think we're in this together, we have the same purpose. You bring me joy and I want to bring you joy, and I want our joy to be increased together. So I would get no pleasure out of coming and making you sorrowful because you've brought a lot of joy to my life. That kind of idea.

Verse 3, “This is the very thing I wrote you, so that when I came I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice, having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all.” There would be a mutual rejoicing over the grace of God and His goodness. Your sin has been dealt with. We can rejoice in God's grace and forgiveness.

Verse 4, “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote you with many tears so that you would not be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.” Paul said when I wrote the letter (we'll mention the letter in a moment) my heart was broken. It just hurt me so much to write it. I cried when I was writing that letter, I didn't get any joy out of having to speak so harshly to you. And I'm telling you because I want you to know how much I love you. I don't get delight out of making you unhappy, causing you sorrow. That's why you don't get delight out of punishing your children. You do it because you love them and it's for their good. Like Proverbs says, “the one who loves his child disciplines him diligently because it is for his good.” And we would like to avoid it because it is unpleasant for us as well as for the child. That's what Paul is saying.

There's a question, what letter is he talking about here? Almost all the old commentators, they took it as 1 Corinthians. But it has become more fashionable and “in” for modern commentators to have figured out there was another letter that was lost, a painful letter, and we don't know all its context but it wasn't a good letter. If that's the case, if there was another letter that was lost, the issues become similar. But I see no reason why this wouldn't be 1 Corinthians. That's an unpleasant letter for Paul to have to write.

When we started our study I ran you through 1 Corinthians and I said this was going to be a background. Come back to 1 Corinthians 1, we're just going to run through 1 Corinthians and see what this letter is like. Think about it if it were written to us as a church. Would we say this was good to hear? After his introductory material down through the first eight verses, he says good things about them. And he's confident of the work of Christ in them. But there is something wrong, so he said they have divisions. Verse 10, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all agree there be no divisions among you. For I have been informed from Chloe's house there are quarrels, divisions and quarrels.” We have only come in, and the way we have it broken down, to the tenth verse and he's already into rebuking them. Get it together. I hear there are divisions among you, that there are quarrels among you. That's not good.

Down in verse 26 he reminds them that their pride is not good. “Consider your calling, there weren't many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. God has chosen the foolish things, the weak things, the base things.” Verse 29, “So that no man may boast before God.” This issue of pride is going to come up again and again.

Over in 1 Corinthians 3, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men but as to men of flesh, infants in Christ. I have to write to you almost like men who don't have the Spirit yet.” They've not truly been saved. “Or like you are an infant in Christ.” You have never grown, you are still bottle fed. Verse 3, “You are still fleshly, there is jealousy and strife among you. You are walking like mere men who don't have the Spirit.”

What would you think if this letter was written to us as a church? Well, I'm going to find another church. This is the church at Corinth. The blessing in those days, we had the pressure, they had to just take it. It's not a nice letter to receive, not nice to have to hear. You are all divided around Paul or Apollos, you act like you don't have the Spirit.

Down in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know you are a temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God,” he's talking about the church. The false teachers have infiltrated in and by their attacks on Paul and the truth that God has conveyed through him, they are trying to destroy the church. That's a warning. Paul is convinced that the church primarily is comprised of believers but he is aware among that the false teachers have infiltrated. And their infiltration is to try to destroy the church at Corinth, and God will take care of them. What is the warning to the church? You are in such condition, these people are in a place to have influence that weaken the church.

1 Corinthians 4:4, they are critical of Paul and others. So he has to say in verse 3, “To me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you. I'm not conscious of anything against myself.” Remember in his second letter he had to talk about his clear conscience. “Don't go on passing judgment for the time, let the Lord do that.” They set themselves up as Paul's judge, tells something of their spiritual condition. The end of verse 6, “So that one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against another.” This church is divided and it's a matter of arrogance. Who regards you as superior? What did you get you haven't received? If you received it why do you boast as though you didn't receive it? “You are already filled, you've already become rich. You've become kings without us.” You are so important, you are so great, you think the kingdom has started and you reign. Verse 8, “You are already filled, you've already become rich, you are kings. We apostles,” verse 10, “we're fools for Christ's sake but you are prudent; we are weak but you are strong. You are distinguished, we're nothing. We're without honor.” He goes on to further elaborate his condition. Arrogant, self-righteous people, elevate themselves above Paul and the other apostles. What a condition of the church. We reach verses 18-21 earlier, Paul says do I have to come to you with a rod like a disciplining father.

1 Corinthians 5:1, There is immorality in the church. “It is reported there is immorality among you and immorality such as doesn't exist among the Gentiles.” There was incest going on and the church wasn't grieving. Verse 6, “Your boasting is not good.” You are proud, you are arrogant, you are self-righteous and you let this kind of immorality go on by someone who is part of the church?

Down in 1 Corinthians 6 it is just repeated, and you may have it marked from when we studied this then, “do you not know?” Like we say to your kids, don't you know any better? It's not a question that needs an answer. That's what he says when he says in verse 2, “Do you not know? “ Again he repeats it, verse 3, do you not know; verse 9, do you not know, verse 15, do you not know; verse 16, do you not know; verse 19, do you not know. “You are suing one another, don't you know any better? There is immorality.” The last part of 1 Corinthians 6, don't you know any better? I mean, of course as a believer you know, but you are not practicing what you know.

1 Corinthians 7:5, “Stop depriving one another.” They are not even functioning properly within the sexual area of their marriage. He has to tell them, stop it. He's getting down to basics. He is not their lord as he made clear in the verse we looked at in 2 Corinthians, but there is a biblical pattern and you ought to know it. He created men as male and female, then He brought them together in a marriage relationship. This is a church that has all kinds of problems.

1 Corinthians 8:1, there is arrogance and he tells them, “knowledge makes arrogant, love edifies.” And in 1 Corinthians 8-10 he'll talk about their misuse of their Christian liberty and warn them at the end of 1 Corinthians 10 they are in danger of joining in to worship demons with the way they have wed corrupt practices into the church.

1 Corinthians 11, they are not recognizing the proper roles of men and women. Let me tell you God created the man as this, the woman as this. What don't you understand? A man is a man, a woman is a woman; He created them to function differently. We have the same kind of confusion going on in the church today. But the Corinthian church, you don't even understand, this is back to creation stuff. He takes them to the opening chapters of Genesis. Then he goes from there to the Lord's Supper. Well at least that's a time when we really have a true worship and we get together. Do you know what he has to say? Verse 17, “I'm giving you instructions, I do not praise you. When you come together it's not for the better or the worse.” The worst thing is when you as a church meet as a church. What a terrible things to say. In the first place when you come together I hear there are divisions among you. That's the verse I quoted, “there must be factions among you, so those who are approved may become evident.” When you meet together for the Lord's Supper, it's a cause of division. This is a church that is in miserable condition.

1 Corinthians 12-14 he talks about spiritual gifts and in that context tells them about their lack of love. And if you don't have love, you are just a noisy gong and a clanging symbol, 1 Corinthians 13:1.

1 Corinthians 15, there are some in the church who don't even believe in the resurrection of the body. Verse 12, “If Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you,” in the church at Corinth, “say there is no resurrection of the dead?” I mean they are messed up morally and doctrinally. This is the church. On it goes.

1 Corinthians 16:10, he doesn't have much confidence. He hopes to send Timothy, what does he have to tell them? Verse 10, “If Timothy comes, see that he is with you without cause to be afraid. He is doing the Lord's work. Let no one despise him.” What a church, you are sending a man of Timothy's character and reputation and you have to tell the church, don't despise him, don't try to intimidate him and make him afraid.

So if Paul wrote another letter and it is more severe than the first letter, it's amazing there is anything left of this church. But Paul hasn't given up hope. So a reminder, the grace of God works and our ministry together is a ministry of a mixture of grief, sorrow, joy and gladness. We have to deal with the problems, but we do that only with the intention so that we can grow in joy and unity together. We're God's family, what a blessing. I'm not in charge of the church, the elders are not in charge ultimately. It's the church of God which He purchase with His own blood. Now we want to function as a family that pleases Him, that honors Him. There will be times when we have to do hard things that cause us sorrow and grief, we don't delight in that. But we want to do whatever necessary so that we can be a people that experience the fullness of the joy and blessings of God's salvation in our church family and in the individual lives of the members of our church family. What a joy in a miserable world. God made us new in Christ so we could experience the fullness of His joy. What a great salvation.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your Word, its richness, its completeness. Lord, we will never lose the awe of knowing that we belong to You, we are Your children, we call You Father. And even in the harshest discipline we won't forget You are doing it for our good because You love us. Lord, we would avoid the discipline by taking heed to Your Word, submitting to the Spirit, hating sin, running from it, desirous of living our lives to honor and please You. May that be true of us in the local church. We pray in Christ's name, amen.