I have always loved the expression, or you might say, a laymans definition for Christian Fellowship: “Fellowship is two fellows in a ship going the same directions”. I like that because it reminds us that godly fellowship is nothing more than yielding each other’s rights to one another for the sake of love and peace. There are few things worse than being confused over something. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart or things that can cause us spiritual confusion over some type of issue that we may be facing. Sometimes, if allowed our confusion can separate us from one another because of our lack of judgment or view point in a matter. The church in Corinth was dealing with just such conditions when Paul wrote his two letters to them. Paul had found them in a state of disagreement, which led to their developing cliques within the church which caused splinter groups that were all going in their own direction as they found themselves following after different leaders. Their hearts had become angry towards one another which were causing disputes and disruptions between them. The enemy loves to find families as well as churches that have become immobilized, by these conditions. Woven throughout the two letters to the Corinthian Christians, was God’s concern that they not let those divisions break down their love for one another. They were told that there are many more things that bind the children of God together than the things that separated them because of their disagreements and dislikes. Those two letters found in I and II Corinthians, to the Church at Corinth are still relevant for us today. They are a beaming light that gives us warning and directions as to how we should respond to the things that we do not have clarity and exact direction in.
Both I and II Corinthians cover a vast amount of instruction and encouragement to the child of God, from reminding them; of their higher call to holiness, to the divisions amongst themselves, spiritual wisdom in matters, dealing with family who insist on living ungodly, marriage, lawsuits, sexual immorality, regarding eating, being a stumbling block to the lost, the rights of an Apostle, warnings, worship, the Lord’s Supper, Spiritual gifts, love and the resurrection; and those are just some of the topics discussed in the I Corinthians. II Corinthians covers matters about, attitudes, conduct, comfort, forgiveness, exhorting believers not to be unequally yoked, generosity, Paul’s rights, false teachers, Pauls own personal thorn in his flesh, his concerns for them, and his final warring’s. I’m sure that I have left out a number of other subjects that Paul wrote about in those two letters as well. But as you can see by just the ones that I have mentioned; there was enough divisions going on that he felt had to be dealt with, and did. God had called Paul to lead them in truth and love, and he was bent on telling them the truth no matter what the cost to him might be.
These two letters are alive with examples of how to live and how not to live. Paul made great effort in trying to teach them the difference between what they were taught by their religion before they came to Christ and what was expected of them once they received the Truth and was set free from the legalistic hypocritical lessons taught by the Pharisee of their day. While the religious leaders were adamant about keeping the law, they failed greatly in teaching love and forgiveness. They taught that if you did not walk the chalk line by keeping the rules and traditions that they themselves had created for the people, then their faith was worthless, and at one point Jesus rebuked them for it. While the Sadducees did not give a hoot about living up to the Pharisee’s conservative traditions, because they were above the law, they being the aristocrats within their religion, the wealthy liberals in their theology and were rationalist in their philosophy. Today, they would be known as Philosophers. The more knowledge they could attain the more puffed up they became. They were in conflict with the Pharisee and were considered to be their spiritual enemy. Once in Matthew 16, when a group of both the Pharisees’ and the Sadducees came to Jesus to test Him, He said to them, “You Hypocrites”, he ask them how was it that they could discern the weather by looking at the conditions in the sky, seeking signs, yet they could not discern the signs of the times, He even call them an adulterous generation, because they sought after signs more than their hearts sought real truth. You see this is what I believe causes us to have and harbor anger towards one another. Because our focus is in the wrong place sweet friend! The Christians in Corinth had a misplaced faith as did the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. Any time we take our focus off of the truth, there is always a costly consequence. In Corinth, the consequence was that brothers and sisters in Christ were squabbling with each other over their viewpoints and sin, that they were breaking fellowship with one another. Instead of allowing their angry to cause separation, they should have understood that there was a deeper question to be ask, and that was not, “whom do we follow”, but whom do we love and what is more important here….having my way, or agreeing to disagree for the sake of peace and how we are reflecting that peace and love for one another to the world. If it is truth that we seek, then we need go any further than the scripture to find that we are commanded to be at peace with all men whenever it is possible, loving, forgiving and enduring with one another. Never let your personal viewpoints, break your fellowship with one another.
Loving you,
Bre
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