Ramblings on What We Share: Those Who Lead Us

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment. I Corinthians 4:8-13

Our leaders are the face of the church to the world. They allow themselves to be pushed down that those they lead may be raised to a higher plane. They take the hits the world swings at us and wear targets on their chest for the arrows of the enemy. It is the shepherds who are injured fighting off the wolves that the sheep may remain safe.

Spiritual leadership is not for the faint-hearted. Many of us long to find a place in leadership, yet when we get there we lose focus and allow the pressures it brings to topple us. Faithful leaders need their faithful followers not to forget their sacrifice. Take time today to send an encouraging email or card to the most influential spiritual leader in your life.

Ramblings on What We Share: Empty Hands

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
I Corinthians 4:6-7

In a posting from a couple weeks ago we talked about being empty shells except for what God instills in us. This passage talks about our hands that are empty save what has been put into them. Paul is not saying here that we should not follow our spiritual leaders. In fact, in Hebrews we are urged to “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

What Paul is cautioning us against is being prideful. He instructs us to not boast in our leaders, or in the things that distinguish us from others, or in what we have that others do not. Our leaders are appointed by God; the gifts and fruits of the Spirit are from God; our possessions and talents are from God. What do you have that you did not receive? Nothing.

Paul said in another letter to “never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14). So, cheer up, Christian! We have been given a refrain to shout from the mountaintops, a song to sing in the byways, a mantra to chant to our heart’s content –

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross…and ‘twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me.

Our hands were empty, but are now full of all the things the blood-stained hands have given to us.

Ramblings on What We Share: Judge Not

This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. I Corinthians 4:1-5

Paul says he does not judge himself. If we cannot even discern our own hearts to know the motives that drive us, how can we determine the darkness or light in another’s person’s heart? Have we not seen time and again individuals that we thought were strong, unmovable Christians exposed for the corruption that had sprouted in their heart and grew into horrific sin? On the other hand, have we not seen someone we thought unspiritual show an act of compassion or kindness to someone in need?

Have you ever noticed that the verse where Jesus says, “Judge not,” is immediately preceded by the verse where He says, “Be merciful” (Luke 6:36-37)? Judgment is not condemned because it sets a standard of right and wrong, it is condemned because it is unkind. As servants of Christ, we are called to love others unconditionally, despite their status with God or how much they engage in their favorite sin. We who have put our trust in the Lord who judges must allow Him to bring to light what is hidden in darkness in His way and in His time.

Ramblings on What We Share: A Dwelling Place

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! 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 of Christ, and Christ is of God. I Corinthians 3:16-23

In the Old Testament, the temple was the place where God met men. The Ark of the Covenant was called the mercy seat (Ex. 25:17 KJV), a seemingly empty throne that could only be sat upon by the invisible, all-powerful Yahweh. God called the temple His dwelling place (Lev. 15:31) and the Apostle Paul makes that connection here with how God relates to the followers of Jesus.

In this passage, He emphasizes that the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst opens up the entire world to us. All things are yours. It is a humbling thought that the apostles, the world, time, and life itself belong to those who are of Christ. Everything before existed to this end – that God may dwell among men.

This is a pearl of wisdom the world does not comprehend. Let us not be deceived by the lies the world tells us about all things being random and chaos. All things have been for us, Brothers and Sisters, and are ours to embrace.

Ramblings on What We Share: A Firm Foundation

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. I Corinthians 3:10-15

We have no idea the shoulders we stand on that has allowed us to reach this height. When calculating an algebraic formula, we don’t even know the name of the Muslim man who invented it. When glancing at our watch, we don’t think about the Sumerians whose mathematical system decided there were 60 minutes in an hour. When driving our car into our concrete driveway, we have no idea that the surface is constructed with a substance that has been around for two millennia.

So when you toil away as you build the Kingdom of God, remember who laid the foundation and build carefully, thoughtfully, and with a grateful spirit.

Ramblings on What We Share: One Purpose

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. I Corinthians 3:1-9

No one is unimportant. Thing about the food you ate at your last meal. Who is greater? The farmer who raised it or the grocer who sells it? The line worker in the packing plant or the truck driver who took it to the store? Each one must do their part to bring the food to you so your body can benefit from its nourishment.

In the family of God it is the same. The preacher is not greater than the pianist. Nor is the missionary greater than the intercessor. The one who invites is not greater than the one who evangelizes. We need each other to do our little bit to help our Heavenly Father do His work.

Ramblings on What We Share: Mystery

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 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. 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.

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. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
I Corinthians 2:6-16

As followers of Jesus, our lives are shrouded with mystery. We work for a boss we cannot see who oversees a realm that is not of this world. We speak with words that make no apparent sense and are convinced of facts for which there is no proof. We do battle with an enemy the world denies and are paid with treasures we may not receive in this life.

We trust that the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and will not lead us astray, but we are filled with uncertainty about what voice is His and what voice is the world and what voice is our own mind. Our hearts long to serve God, but our spirits feel inept at unraveling the mystery of His thoughts.

To prevent discouragement, we must embrace the mystery wholeheartedly. It is the discovery of the multiple facets of the mystery that brings excitement and anticipation to the Christian walk – opening the Scriptures without knowing what God will say, ministering without fully knowing the eternal results, sharing our faith not knowing the response.

Confidence comes when we rest in the covenant we have with God, when we trust that He is at work in our lives even when we cannot recognize it. Faith assures us that, despite our doubts, we have the mind of Christ.