An Apostle's Anxieties

by George Prasher, Manchester, England | Category: New Testament Churches Of God | Jul 1999

We stay this month to glean further instruction from the Church of God in Corinth. It will be recalled that Paul and his helpers had pioneered with the gospel in that city, where some Jews and many pagans were turned from darkness to light. After serving the Lord there for more than eighteen months Paul finally felt it desirable to leave Corinth awhile because of disturbances stirred up against him by Jews who had rejected the gospel of Christ (Acts 18:12-18).

Not many months after his departure, news reached him from Corinth which caused Paul deep anxieties. Various problems had arisen in the Church of God there. To help with these difficulties he wrote what we have preserved in our New Testament as Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.

'I beseech you', he appealed to them, 'through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 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 judgement' (1:10).

How fitting it is that all disciples in churches of God, then and now, should recognize this spirit of unity as the Lord's will for them.

The cause of divisions

What then was causing divisions in Corinth? Rival groups within the Church had become taken up with the personalities and gifts of God's servants, rather than being united in single-hearted allegiance to Christ. Some said, 'I am of Paul'; others, 'I am of Apollos'; others' 'I am of Cephas'. So a factious spirit developed within the church. Paul earnestly warned the Corinthian disciples against this spiritual blight:

'Is Christ divided?' he asked, 'was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul?' (1:13). 'What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? Ministers through whom ye believed; and each as the Lord gave to him. I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase' (3:5-7).

How earnestly we too should guard against being carried away by admiration of great spiritual personalities if this leads us to get the claims of Christ out of perspective. While acknowledging the grace of God in the gifts He has given to His outstanding servants, this must not be allowed to take our eyes off the Lord Himself, or reduce our sensitivity to the importance and authority of His Word. Christ-centred loyalty is vital to our Christian life.

Paul had been greatly troubled also to hear that one of the disciples in the Church in Corinth had been guilty of grossly serious immorality (5:1). To make matters worse the man's sin had been tolerated by the Church, no disciplinary action having been taken. Well Paul knew how dangerous this might be. 'A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump', he warned. Moral corruption would spread if left unchecked. Rebuking the disciples' inaction he urged them to put away the wicked man from among themselves (5:13). Their attitude to sexual immorality must be uncompromising. As members of Christ, their bodies indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they must flee fornication and glorify God in their body. Those within the Church of God in Corinth must express in their lives a purity of conduct in marked contrast to the moral depravity for which the general population of their city was notorious.

There were other ways in which Satan had gained advantage over the Corinthian Church. Disputes between some of the disciples had been taken to law, as if no one could be found within the Church to settle such cases. There were conflicting attitudes about such things as eating food which had been sacrificed to idols. The gathering of the Church to keep the Lord's supper had become disorderly. Undue emphasis was being placed on speaking with tongues, leading to confusion and lack of edification. False teachers were questioning the truth about bodily resurrection. Paul wrote to the Church giving wise guidance on all these matters; guidance for their immediate benefit, but preserved in our New Testament as the Holy Spirit's continuing counsel throughout this present age of grace.

The kingdom of God is in power

When correcting these various evils which had crept into the Church, Paul emphasized that action must be taken to put things right. 'The kingdom of God', he said, 'is not in word, but in power' (4:20). The law of Christ must obtain throughout all the churches of God. Human nature being what it is, failure and evil are bound to manifest themselves from time to time. Authority to deal with failure and to insist on the Lord's will being carried out was a hallmark of the kingdom or rule of God as expressed among New Testament churches of God. The kingdom of God was in power. There was effective authority to correct wrong and restore a right spiritual condition. So Paul insisted that the immoral man must be put away from the Church (5:13). From his second letter to the Corinthians we learn that the response of the Church had been positive and thorough:

'What earnest care it wrought in you', he wrote, 'yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what longing, yea, what zeal, yea, what avenging. In everything ye approved yourselves to be pure in the matter' (2 Cor. 7:11).

Despite this response regarding the moral failure among them, Paul's continuing anxiety about factious elements in the Church is still reflected in his second epistle. It seems incredible that a divinely commissioned apostle of Paul's Spiritual Stature should have been opposed and harassed by disciples of much less spiritual gift and achievement (2 Cor. 10:10-12; 12:20, 21). Little wonder that Paul should include such concerns among his many sufferings in the Master's service: 'Besides those things which are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches' (2 Cor. 11:28). God's ideals for His people were so often marred by their unspiritual attitudes. Yet Paul never compromised principle because of these difficulties. Neither should we be satisfied with less than the divinely given principles of church association and service as seen in the New Testament. Despite all the problems the Word of God must be fully implemented.

George Prasher, Manchester, England | Jul 1999
New Testament Churches Of God