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In this message we shall consider further the failures in the churches.
In Romans 14 Paul refers to the failure of the believers in judging one another in the matters of eating and observing days. This failure was due to certain traditional customs. Some said that the believers should eat only certain things and should observe particular days, whereas others said that they could eat everything and did not have to observe any days. As a result, there were criticism and debate concerning eating and the keeping of days.
In 14:2-5 Paul says, “One believes that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. Who are you that judges another’s household servant? To his own lord he will stand or fall. But he will be made to stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One judges one day above another, another judges every day alike. Let each be fully persuaded in his own mind.” Here Paul is an excellent example of not judging others in the matters of eating and observing days, for he did not express his opinion about which is right or wrong. Certainly he knew the correct doctrines about eating and about the keeping of days. Nevertheless, he did not take sides but charged the believers to be general and not to criticize others. We should let others be free to eat whatever they want and to keep whatever day they want.
In 14:10 Paul goes on to say, “But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Here we see that we must receive the saints in the light of the judgment seat. We should not judge others, for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.
In 14:20 Paul says, “Do not break down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but it is evil for a man to eat so as to be a stumbling block.” In all saved persons there is an amount of God’s work. God has called and saved them. God has done at least this much divine work in them. If we cause any one of the believers to stumble by our doctrinal concepts, we break down, destroy, God’s work of grace in him. We should take care of God’s work, not our doctrinal concepts. All our judgments concerning eating and the keeping of days must be cast aside for the sake of God’s work of grace in others. We must take care of the building up of the believers in life, not our concepts concerning eating and the keeping of days.
In Romans 16:17 Paul says, “Now I beg you, brothers, keep a watchful eye on those who make divisions and causes of falling contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and turn away from them.” Even when Paul wrote the book of Romans, some were making divisions and causes of falling contrary to “the teaching,” that is, contrary to the teaching of the apostles. If we deviate from the teachings of the apostles, we shall be factors of division and also causes of falling.
While we are enjoying the church life, we must be watchful for those who cause divisions. Any dissension contrary to the apostles’ teaching is divisive, and we must keep a watchful, discerning eye over it. According to Romans 16:17, we must turn away from those who make divisions and causes of falling contrary to the teaching of the apostles.
In 1 Timothy 6:3 Paul refers to anyone who “teaches differently and does not consent to healthy words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching which is according to godliness.” To teach differently is to teach things that differ from the apostles’ teaching centered on Christ and the church. The “healthy words” here refer to the health of life. The sound teaching of the apostles ministers healthy teaching as the supply of life to people. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ are words of life (John 6:63); hence, they are healthy words. The healthy words of the Lord are the source of the teaching according to godliness. When the Lord’s words of life are taught, particularly in certain aspects, they become the teaching according to godliness. The living words of the Lord always bring forth godliness — a life that lives Christ and expresses God in Christ. Paul’s teaching was according to godliness. However, because some did not consent to healthy words, they taught differently. They did not teach according to godliness. All our teaching must be according to the healthy words of God’s economy.
A failure among the believers at Corinth was that they were puffed up on behalf of one gifted person against another unto strife and divisions. For example, one was puffed up on behalf of Apollos against Paul and Peter, and others were puffed up on behalf of Peter against Paul and Apollos and of Paul against Peter and Apollos. The result was strife and division. Paul clearly refers to this in 1 Corinthians 1:11 and 12. “It was made clear to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of the household of Chloe, that there are strifes among you. Now I mean this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.” From this failure at Corinth we learn that it is crucial for us not to have preferences. We should not prefer one gifted person to another or one elder to another. All such preferences must be condemned. We need to learn not to have any choice or preference other than Christ. The all-inclusive Christ is our unique choice and preference. Christ is unique and undivided (1 Cor. 1:13). If we take Christ as the unique center, all divisions will be terminated.
In 1 Corinthians 3:3 and 4 Paul says, “You are still fleshly. For whereas there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and walking according to man? For whenever one says, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are you not men?” Jealousy and strife are expressions, characteristics, of the nature of the flesh. Hence, they characterize those who are in the flesh, those who are fleshly. In verse 4 “men” refers to men of the flesh, to fallen, natural men. In saying that they were of Paul or of Apollos, the Corinthians were walking according to the fallen, natural man. They were not living and behaving according to the Spirit in their regenerated human spirit.
First Corinthians 4:6 says, “Now these things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to go beyond what has been written, that no one be puffed up on behalf of the one against the other.” By “these things” Paul refers to all that he has written previously in this Epistle. The Greek word translated “applied” literally means transfigured, transferred in a figure. What Paul has written in this Epistle gives a figure, and now he transfers that figure to himself and Apollos, applying it figuratively to himself and Apollos. Paul and Apollos are simply ministers of Christ, a planter and a waterer (3:5-7). They are not Christ crucified for the believers, and they are not God, who makes the believers grow. They should not be appraised beyond being ministers of Christ. Otherwise, their appraisers, like the fleshly Corinthian believers, may be puffed up on behalf of the one against the other.
First Corinthians 5:1 says, “It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication which is not even among the nations, that someone has his father’s wife.” Here we read of a brother in the church at Corinth who had committed the sin of incest with his stepmother. Paul’s intention, of course, was to help the church to deal with this evil brother. If we did not have this record in the New Testament, it probably would be very difficult for us to believe that a saved person could commit this kind of sin. Instead, we may think that after a person has been saved he could never be this sinful. However, this chapter reveals that even a genuine believer can commit a gross sin. A brother at Corinth committed incest with his stepmother. No sin is worse or more damaging to humanity than incest. Nevertheless, this sin was committed by a brother in the church at Corinth.
We read of another failure in the churches in 1 Corinthians 6:6. “Brother goes to law with brother, and this before unbelievers.” Paul fully disagreed with this and regarded it as a defeat (vv. 4-7).
Going to secular law and filing a lawsuit against a brother is a matter of claiming our rights and of not being willing to suffer loss. When we are soulish and fleshly, we shall always claim our rights. We shall not be willing to be wronged by anyone. Only when we live in the spirit are we willing to give in and not insist on our rights. When we live a life by the mingled spirit, we shall not claim any rights for ourselves. The reason we claim our rights is that instead of living by the mingled spirit, we live in the soul and in the flesh. Because the soulish life was prevailing and because the door was opened through the lusts of the flesh, there were lawsuits among the believers in Corinth. The sequence is that first we have a soulish preference, then the lust of the flesh, and then the claiming of our rights.
The Corinthian believers also had the great failure of questioning Paul’s apostleship and even charging the apostle with being crafty in making gain with guile (1 Cor. 9:1-3; 2 Cor. 12:16). In 1 Corinthians 9:1 Paul vindicates his apostleship. He asks, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?” Paul’s apostleship gives him authority to deal with all the problems in Corinth, serious problems concerning the church life and its fellowship. His handling of them is based not only on his teaching but also on the authority inherent in his apostleship. To deal with the situation, Paul must take this standing and make this matter clear to the Corinthian believers. They had questioned his apostleship and were in a chaotic situation, mostly due to the foolishness of their worldly wisdom, self-confidence, and pride.
In verse 3 Paul says, “My defense to those who examine me is this.” The Corinthians were actually examining Paul; they were investigating him to determine whether or not he was an apostle. What a shame this was to them! This is just like children examining their father to see if he is a genuine father.
In 2 Corinthians 12:16 Paul says, “I did not burden you, but being crafty I took you with guile.” This is what some Corinthians charged against the apostle. They said he was crafty in making gain, indemnifying himself by sending Titus to receive the collection for the poor saints. Although Paul did not burden the Corinthians, some of them were saying that he was crafty and took them with guile. They said that Paul would not come himself but used Titus as a cover to indemnify himself while he hid behind the scene. They were accusing Paul of being the one who actually collected the money through Titus. In their judgment, that was Paul’s craftiness. Therefore, Paul sent more than one person with Titus to collect the money. He did this in order to silence the defaming tongues. However, even though Paul acted carefully and with forethought, some of the Corinthians still defamed him.
We learn from Paul’s experience that even though the saints may be honest, Satan is nonetheless crouching among them. Satan uses money to damage the situation between the ministering ones and the saints. This was the reason some of the Corinthians criticized Paul, accusing him of being crafty in money matters. Those who criticized Paul might have been greedy and lovers of money. This might have been the reason they accused Paul of being crafty.
First Corinthians 10:21 says, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.” To drink the cup of the Lord and partake (eat) of the table of the Lord is to identify ourselves with the Lord. To drink the cup of demons and partake of the table of demons is to make ourselves one with demons. Some of the Corinthian believers were doing this very thing through eating sacrifices to idols.
An idol and a sacrifice to an idol are nothing (1 Cor. 10:19; 8:4), but behind them are the demons, who are abominable and hateful to God. The believers who worship God should abstain from identifying themselves with demons and becoming worshippers of demons through eating sacrifices to idols. Since demons are the reality of idols, so eating of sacrifices to idols makes the eaters their fellowshippers, their joint participants. The eaters of sacrifices to idols become not only fellowshippers with demons but also joint participants of demons, making themselves one with demons.
The Lord is a jealous God (Exo. 20:5). Idolatry is utterly abominable and hateful to Him. If we participate in fellowship with demons, making ourselves one with them, we will provoke the Lord to jealousy (1 Cor. 10:22). Hence, we must flee from idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14).
Among the Corinthians was also the failure of eating the bread and drinking the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner and not discerning the Body. First Corinthians 11:27 says, “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.” This is not to evaluate the significance of the bread and cup of the Lord, which signify His body broken for us and His blood shed for our sins through His death for our redemption. To be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord is for a believer to bring judgment to himself (vv. 29-30).
In verse 29 Paul goes on to say, “For he who is eating and drinking, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the body.” To eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner brings judgment to us. This judgment is not a condemnation but the Lord’s temporary discipline (v. 32).
Not to discern means not to distinguish, separate, discriminate, make a distinction. To fail to discern the Lord’s body is to fail to make a distinction between the bread, which signifies the Lord’s body, and common food. It is to fail to evaluate the significance of the bread we take at the Lord’s supper.
Paul’s thought in using the expression “the body” may include also the mystical Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4) in addition to the physical body of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:24). Therefore, when we participate in the Lord’s table, we must discern whether the bread on the table signifies the one Body of Christ or any division of man, any denomination. In discerning the Body of Christ we should not partake of the bread in any division or with a divisive spirit. Our participation in the Lord’s table must be the unique fellowship of His unique Body without any division either in practice or in spirit.
Another failure is that of abusing the gift of tongue-speaking (1 Cor. 14:19-20, 23). Much of today’s tongue-speaking is not genuine. But even the genuine gift of tongue-speaking should not be abused; that is, it should not be used too much in the church meetings. Paul restricted the use of the gift of tongue-speaking in the meetings, saying, “In the church I would rather speak five words with my mind that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (v. 19). This shows that speaking in intelligible words for the building up of the church, and not tongue-speaking, is needed in the church meetings.
First Corinthians 14:23 says, “If therefore the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak in tongues, and the unlearned or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are insane?” Here the word “all” refers to all the functioning ones, not all the attendants in the meeting. If in a meeting all the functioning ones speak in tongues, people may consider they are mad. Hence, to encourage all to speak in tongues in the church meetings is not right; it is against the Apostle Paul’s word. Paul’s word in verse 23 is a strong discouragement to the excessive practice of speaking in tongues.
In chapter fifteen of 1 Corinthians Paul deals with the Corinthians’ heretical saying that there is no resurrection of the dead. In verse 12 Paul asks, “If Christ is preached that He has been raised from among the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” Some of the Corinthians were like the Sadducees (Matt. 22:23; Acts 23:8) in saying that there is no resurrection. Denying the resurrection is most damaging and destructive to God’s New Testament economy. This is worse than the heresy of Hymenaeus and Philetus concerning resurrection in 2 Timothy 2:17 and 18. Resurrection is the life pulse and lifeline of the divine economy. If there were no resurrection, God would be the God of the dead, not the God of the living (Matt. 22:32). He would be a dead Savior, not the One who lives forever (Rev. 1:18) and is able to save to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). If there were no resurrection, there would be no living proof of justification by His death (Rom. 4:25), no imparting of life (John 12:24), no regeneration (John 3:5), no renewing (Titus 3:5), no transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), and no conformity to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). If there were no resurrection, there would be no members of Christ (Rom. 12:5), no Body of Christ as His fullness (Eph. 1:20-23), and no church as Christ’s bride (John 3:29) and the new man (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11). If there were no resurrection, God’s New Testament economy would altogether collapse and God’s eternal purpose would be nullified.
In 1 Corinthians 15:12 Paul refers to the preaching that Christ has been raised from among the dead. This indicates clearly that the apostles preached the resurrection of Christ. According to the book of Acts, the preaching of the gospel was mainly the preaching of Christ’s resurrection. We today must follow the apostles to emphasize resurrection as well as crucifixion.
Finally, in the churches there was the failure of walking disorderly. Second Thessalonians 3:11 says, “We hear of some walking among you disorderly, working at nothing, but busybodies.” It may seem that walking disorderly is a small point. Nevertheless, it is practical. A disorderly walk is not only according to the flesh (Rom. 8:4), but is also against the building up of the church life (1 Thes. 5:11; Rom. 14:19; 1 Cor. 10:23).
According to Paul’s word in verse 11, those who were walking disorderly were busy but “working at nothing”; they were busy only with what was not their own business. Busybodies are nobody, and with them there is no Body of Christ.
I believe that the disorderliness in Thessalonica came from the misconception regarding the Lord’s coming back. Some believers thought that the Lord Jesus would be coming back soon, and therefore that it was not necessary for them to work. Their concept may have been that as long as they had something to eat and could survive, that was adequate. Those who hold such a concept go beyond the level of proper spirituality and walk disorderly.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:6 Paul charges the believers to keep away from any brother who walks disorderly. This indicates that Paul considers it a serious matter to walk disorderly, for this is a damage to the church life.
Even while the apostles were still on earth, there were many failures in the churches. These failures involved such things as ambition for vainglory, tradition, lust, not believing in Christ’s resurrection, and not having the proper practice of the Lord’s table. God’s intention in recording these failures in the holy Word is to give us a warning concerning the possibility of such failures recurring in the church life. We need to learn from all these failures and do our best to avoid them. If the churches in the apostles’ time could suffer all these failures, it is even more likely that today, if we are careless, we also shall suffer the same kind of failures. Therefore, we need to look to the Lord that we may be kept from these failures.
