Interactions With The Gracious and Loving God Sermon Series,
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
“The Corinthian believers fell short in many ways, and the first thing for which Paul call them to task was quarreling. Quarreling is a reality in the church because selfishness and other sins are realities in human beings. Because of quarreling, the Father is dishonoured, the Son is disgraced, His people are demoralized and discredited, and the world is turned off and confirm in unbelief.” John MacArthur, 1 Corinthians: Godly Solutions for Church Problems, 13.
You may be looking for a perfect church, and you’ll be surprised to see none. Imperfect people coming together in their gatherings are bound to have misunderstandings. It is just in our sinful nature. But make no mistake, quarreling and disagreements are not just found in the church. You will find it most in the workplace, in your neighborhood, in politics, in school, or simply, in your own home. But the good thing is, in the church, we have godly solutions.
1. United under the authority of the Word.
“And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-4, NIV.
· The many different faulty doctrines based on human wisdom in the early church caused disagreements and fights in the church.
· Paul’s preaching was considered foolishness under the world’s standard.
· The crucifixion of Jesus was God’s demonstration of His power to save helpless sinners.
· Jesus crucified may seem helpless at the cross, but it was actually the redemptive plan of God that held him on the cross.
· And thus, God has power and complete control over human history.
2. United by our love for one another.
“2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
· To know Jesus personally, is to know the love of God.
· The cross was a demonstration of Christ’s love for His Father, and God’s unconditional love for sinners He alone called to salvation.
· Quarreling and divisions were born out of self-interest. “16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” James 3:16.
· Jesus placed the interest of His Father above His own, and made the cross a symbol of sacrificial love for sinners who could not come to God on their own.
3. United by our purpose.
“12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 2:12-14.
· Our mission is to know Christ (as the Spirit taught us through the Scripture) and to make Him known (explaining spiritual realities from our Scripture).
· We don’t primarily teach human philosophies, but the written Word of God.
4. United by growth.
15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lordso as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:15-16, NIV.
· As the Spirit of God counsels, using the written Word, we therefore, discern the rightness of our actions based on the written Word of God. v.15
· To grow together, we must seek to understand the Word and obey its instructions.
· The more obedient Christians we have, the more united we become.
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