1st Californians: A Modern Epistle (ch 1-4)
Consider the book of 1 Corinthians in the New Testament.
It's an ancient letter from the Apostle Paul to the church of Corinth, with astounding relevance to the modern day, charismatic American church. (A preacher once called it 1st Californians, which I thought was clever.) The Corinthian Church was steeped in a humanistic, sex-saturated, anything-goes, knowledge-worshiping Greek culture, as are we. Of all the ancient cultures, in fact, our western world is more akin to that of the ancient Greeks than any other.
They loved the spiritual gifts, and so do we. They were full of themselves, secretly harboring the notion that they were "leading the charge" in the Christian world, much like we believe today in the States. They were completely divided, whole groups of believers divided from others because of pet doctrines and obsessions with preacher personalities and movement distinctives... Need I even draw the comparison here?
The point is, the church and culture of Corinth were incredibly similar to ours today, and as such, we should take it seriously. Now, in America we don't have religious temples to gods and goddesses on every corner like they did in that historic city. Or do we? Are not our extensive shopping malls just another avenue to self-worship, providing a thousand different ways to pamper and pleasure ourselves as we perform our religious devotion to the idols of comfort and appearance? Our casinos, near-literal altars before the god of money? Our iphones, the primary object of our affection as we sacrifice our time, real-life relationships, our purity, and paycheck at its feet? Oh, we are surrounded by much more idolatry and immorality than they were in ancient Corinth, if we are awake and open-eyed enough to see it!
With that stark reality rattling around in our consciousness, let's try to learn a thing or two from this book.
He starts out his letter by thanking God that these ones were walking in the spiritual gifts (1:4-7). So far, so good. Paul himself would have identified himself with the "charismatics," I'm quite sure. As we read through the letter we'll find out that there is certainly not a problem with spiritual gifts - they are to be earnestly desired (1 Cor 14:1,39) - but there may or may not be a problem with arrogant and immature believers using the gifts in self-aggrandizing ways. But that's a few chapters down the road.
Paul goes on to launch right into his first point of contention with his fledgling disciples at Corinth: the divisions in their midst. People had begun to develop inappropriate attachments to their favorite leaders, while excluding all who favored a different apostle or preacher. Literal sects were beginning to form around these charismatic figures. Paul thunders into this and denounces it as "carnal." This sets the stage for him to go off on a passionate tangent about God's ways, God's power, and God's wisdom, and how it is so wonderfully different than man's (ch 1-3). He brings his argument to a point by explaining to them that each one of these leaders was given to them for their benefit, and it is foolish and self-defeating to choose one over another: "So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future - all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (3:21-23). "Hey guys," he says, "we don't have to pick one - let's learn from all of 'em!"
In chapter 4 he continues to warn against the harmfulness of sectarianism (forming sects, or exclusive groups), making a few comments about his own role as a leader and how he must answer to God, not any person, at the end of the day.
And then this next part really gets me. He turns his sights right back on the Corinthian Church again and declares in sarcasm, "Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!" (4:8) What is he saying here? Pay attention, because the answer is instructive to our American mindset.
With biting irony, Paul is pointing out the sad fact that the Corinthians pictured themselves as spiritual giants. They felt as if they were doing great with Jesus. Financially, they were doing fine, and this only increased their feeling of independence. They were learning at a fast rate, the spiritual gifts were operating in their midst, and they loved to hear a good preach on a Sunday morning.
The problem is, spiritually, they were doing about as well as the Laodiceans of the late first century: "For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17).
When Paul refers to the church of Corinth as "kings" in their own estimation, this is the picture that comes to mind: an overweight, shirtless, homeless man, greedily slurping up remnants of food from a dirty bowl in front of him, oblivious to the fact that everyone around him is both disgusted by him and full of pity for his sorry state. You look this sorry excuse for a man in the eye and ask him if you can help. He draws back in offense at such a question, and then pulls out - a cardboard Burger King crown. He places it slowly and haughtily on his head, and reminds you that you forgot to say "your highness."
Now, I may have an overactive imagination, but I believe this to be an accurate depiction of what Paul was trying to point out. The real kicker, though, is that this pathetic caricature of dignity is a picture of many parts of the American Church as well.
Like the Corinthians, we are standing tall in our independence, religious freedom, mega churches, over produced Christian music, book sales, 10% tithing, and so on and so forth. All the while, revival continues to break out in various places in the southern and eastern hemispheres of the world, and not one single city in the western world has been transformed, turned upside down, by the Gospel. Yet we imagine that we are somehow out in front of the parade for Jesus. We somehow still have the gall to believe that our methods of Christianity are worthy of exporting across the world. It 's a delusion. We're kings in our own mind, but the church in other parts of the world see us as the overweight homeless man.
If we are so similar to the Corinthian Church (and we are), then whatever Paul says next might be extremely important for us to hear: "For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things" (4:9-13).
After sarcastically pointing out their inflated view of themselves, he goes on to give them a picture of true apostolic Christianity from his own life and the lives of his fellow comrades: suffering, going without, underprivileged, mocked and persecuted, and YET working hard, loving their enemies, and keeping their hearts alive before God. A spectacle; fools; homeless - these are words he uses to describe his life. And yet Christ Jesus shone through Paul and his fellow apostles more than anyone else in their generation.
The message is clear, and it is the same message he has been teaching the entire letter thus far - success in God's eyes is much different than success in the eyes of the world. Man esteems strength, gifting, intelligence, and power, while God esteems a humble heart, grounded in Christ and Christ crucified.
In the same spirit that Paul had as he spoke to the lofty-minded Corinthians, let us hear a word from Chinese Christian Brother Yun (from The Heavenly Man) as he speaks to the Western Church:
"In the West many Christians have an abundance of material possessions, yet they live in a backslidden state. They have silver and gold, but they don't rise up and walk in Jesus' name. In China we have no possessions to hold us down, so there's nothing preventing us from moving out for the Lord...
"When I'm in the West I see all the mighty church buildings and all the expensive equipment, plush carpets and state-of-the-art sound systems. I can assure the Western Church with absolute certainty that you don't need any more church buildings. Church buildings will never bring the revival you seek...
"The first thing needed for revival to return to your churches is the Word of the Lord. God's Word is missing. Sure, there are many preachers and thousands of tapes and videos of Bible teaching, but so little contains the sharp truth of God's Word. It's the truth that will set you free."
Ouch. But it's a good ouch, friends. And it is said with such love: "I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers... (1 Corinthians 4:14-15)
We desperately need awakening in our nation, and it won't start by deluding ourselves with a false idea of our own spiritual maturity (picture the Burger King crown...) Let's take to heart what is said to the Corinthians of old, line ourselves up with God and His Word, and pick up our crosses and follow the Lamb.
It's an ancient letter from the Apostle Paul to the church of Corinth, with astounding relevance to the modern day, charismatic American church. (A preacher once called it 1st Californians, which I thought was clever.) The Corinthian Church was steeped in a humanistic, sex-saturated, anything-goes, knowledge-worshiping Greek culture, as are we. Of all the ancient cultures, in fact, our western world is more akin to that of the ancient Greeks than any other.
They loved the spiritual gifts, and so do we. They were full of themselves, secretly harboring the notion that they were "leading the charge" in the Christian world, much like we believe today in the States. They were completely divided, whole groups of believers divided from others because of pet doctrines and obsessions with preacher personalities and movement distinctives... Need I even draw the comparison here?
The point is, the church and culture of Corinth were incredibly similar to ours today, and as such, we should take it seriously. Now, in America we don't have religious temples to gods and goddesses on every corner like they did in that historic city. Or do we? Are not our extensive shopping malls just another avenue to self-worship, providing a thousand different ways to pamper and pleasure ourselves as we perform our religious devotion to the idols of comfort and appearance? Our casinos, near-literal altars before the god of money? Our iphones, the primary object of our affection as we sacrifice our time, real-life relationships, our purity, and paycheck at its feet? Oh, we are surrounded by much more idolatry and immorality than they were in ancient Corinth, if we are awake and open-eyed enough to see it!
With that stark reality rattling around in our consciousness, let's try to learn a thing or two from this book.
He starts out his letter by thanking God that these ones were walking in the spiritual gifts (1:4-7). So far, so good. Paul himself would have identified himself with the "charismatics," I'm quite sure. As we read through the letter we'll find out that there is certainly not a problem with spiritual gifts - they are to be earnestly desired (1 Cor 14:1,39) - but there may or may not be a problem with arrogant and immature believers using the gifts in self-aggrandizing ways. But that's a few chapters down the road.
Paul goes on to launch right into his first point of contention with his fledgling disciples at Corinth: the divisions in their midst. People had begun to develop inappropriate attachments to their favorite leaders, while excluding all who favored a different apostle or preacher. Literal sects were beginning to form around these charismatic figures. Paul thunders into this and denounces it as "carnal." This sets the stage for him to go off on a passionate tangent about God's ways, God's power, and God's wisdom, and how it is so wonderfully different than man's (ch 1-3). He brings his argument to a point by explaining to them that each one of these leaders was given to them for their benefit, and it is foolish and self-defeating to choose one over another: "So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future - all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (3:21-23). "Hey guys," he says, "we don't have to pick one - let's learn from all of 'em!"
In chapter 4 he continues to warn against the harmfulness of sectarianism (forming sects, or exclusive groups), making a few comments about his own role as a leader and how he must answer to God, not any person, at the end of the day.
And then this next part really gets me. He turns his sights right back on the Corinthian Church again and declares in sarcasm, "Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!" (4:8) What is he saying here? Pay attention, because the answer is instructive to our American mindset.
With biting irony, Paul is pointing out the sad fact that the Corinthians pictured themselves as spiritual giants. They felt as if they were doing great with Jesus. Financially, they were doing fine, and this only increased their feeling of independence. They were learning at a fast rate, the spiritual gifts were operating in their midst, and they loved to hear a good preach on a Sunday morning.
The problem is, spiritually, they were doing about as well as the Laodiceans of the late first century: "For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17).
When Paul refers to the church of Corinth as "kings" in their own estimation, this is the picture that comes to mind: an overweight, shirtless, homeless man, greedily slurping up remnants of food from a dirty bowl in front of him, oblivious to the fact that everyone around him is both disgusted by him and full of pity for his sorry state. You look this sorry excuse for a man in the eye and ask him if you can help. He draws back in offense at such a question, and then pulls out - a cardboard Burger King crown. He places it slowly and haughtily on his head, and reminds you that you forgot to say "your highness."
Now, I may have an overactive imagination, but I believe this to be an accurate depiction of what Paul was trying to point out. The real kicker, though, is that this pathetic caricature of dignity is a picture of many parts of the American Church as well.
Like the Corinthians, we are standing tall in our independence, religious freedom, mega churches, over produced Christian music, book sales, 10% tithing, and so on and so forth. All the while, revival continues to break out in various places in the southern and eastern hemispheres of the world, and not one single city in the western world has been transformed, turned upside down, by the Gospel. Yet we imagine that we are somehow out in front of the parade for Jesus. We somehow still have the gall to believe that our methods of Christianity are worthy of exporting across the world. It 's a delusion. We're kings in our own mind, but the church in other parts of the world see us as the overweight homeless man.
If we are so similar to the Corinthian Church (and we are), then whatever Paul says next might be extremely important for us to hear: "For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things" (4:9-13).
After sarcastically pointing out their inflated view of themselves, he goes on to give them a picture of true apostolic Christianity from his own life and the lives of his fellow comrades: suffering, going without, underprivileged, mocked and persecuted, and YET working hard, loving their enemies, and keeping their hearts alive before God. A spectacle; fools; homeless - these are words he uses to describe his life. And yet Christ Jesus shone through Paul and his fellow apostles more than anyone else in their generation.
The message is clear, and it is the same message he has been teaching the entire letter thus far - success in God's eyes is much different than success in the eyes of the world. Man esteems strength, gifting, intelligence, and power, while God esteems a humble heart, grounded in Christ and Christ crucified.
In the same spirit that Paul had as he spoke to the lofty-minded Corinthians, let us hear a word from Chinese Christian Brother Yun (from The Heavenly Man) as he speaks to the Western Church:
"In the West many Christians have an abundance of material possessions, yet they live in a backslidden state. They have silver and gold, but they don't rise up and walk in Jesus' name. In China we have no possessions to hold us down, so there's nothing preventing us from moving out for the Lord...
"When I'm in the West I see all the mighty church buildings and all the expensive equipment, plush carpets and state-of-the-art sound systems. I can assure the Western Church with absolute certainty that you don't need any more church buildings. Church buildings will never bring the revival you seek...
"The first thing needed for revival to return to your churches is the Word of the Lord. God's Word is missing. Sure, there are many preachers and thousands of tapes and videos of Bible teaching, but so little contains the sharp truth of God's Word. It's the truth that will set you free."
Ouch. But it's a good ouch, friends. And it is said with such love: "I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers... (1 Corinthians 4:14-15)
We desperately need awakening in our nation, and it won't start by deluding ourselves with a false idea of our own spiritual maturity (picture the Burger King crown...) Let's take to heart what is said to the Corinthians of old, line ourselves up with God and His Word, and pick up our crosses and follow the Lamb.
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