Quarreling and strife in the New Testament churches
In Meditation 76 we looked at God’s vision for Christ’s church. We saw that God intends the church to be “the salt of the earth”, “the light of the world”, a pure, blameless, holy and Christlike community on pilgrimage towards the wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).
In Meditation 77 we saw that only God’s Spirit is able to transform and empower Christ’s church to such a Christlike community.
In Meditation 63 we asked ourselves the question: How does God’s Spirit change my church, as the local Body of Christ, into a mature, loving community that fulfils God’s first and greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”?(Matthew 22:37)
I think that the chief means God’s Spirit uses to transform my church into a pure, blameless, holy and Christlike community are twofold:
a.) His mighty power and marvelous love:
-- The apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus (modern Turkey): “I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. ... The church is his body; it is filled by Christ, who fills everything everywhere with his presence.” (Ephesians 1:19-20 and 23)
-- Furthermore, Paul writes: “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)
b.) The truth of God’s Word [the Bible]:
-- Jesus prayed for His followers on the eve of His sacrificial death: “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)
-- The apostle Paul reminded the church in Ephesus: “... Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-26)
-- Again, Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica (Greece): “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13)
-- The apostle James urged to the followers of Jesus: “Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” (James 1:21)
-- The apostle Peter encouraged the churches in the Roman provinces of modern-day Turkey, saying: “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.” (1 Peter 1:22)
Therefore, any belief, attitude or activity of my church and its members that contradicts God’s Word, hinders the Holy Spirit to do His powerful work in our community. Since Meditation 78 we have seen how churches might frustrate the sanctifying work of God’s Spirit.
Today we want to look into another way in which churches might obstruct the work of God’s Spirit in their midst. It is the often deep-seated problem of quarrelling and strife.
The apostle Paul urges the church in Corinth: “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.” (1 Corinthians 1:10-11)
Furthermore, the apostle laments: “Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn't talk to you as I would to mature Christians. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk and not with solid food, because you couldn't handle anything stronger. And you still aren't ready, for you are still controlled by your own sinful desires. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn't that prove you are controlled by your own desires? You are acting like people who don't belong to the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)
In these texts to the church in Corinth, Paul shows that if a church is inwardly racked by quarrelling and strife, it demonstrates that the process of Christlike transformation has hardly begun!
In addition Paul abhors the fact that church members take each other to court. He writes: “When you have something against another Christian, why do you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter, instead of taking it to other Christians to decide who is right? Don't you know that someday we Christians are going to judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can't you decide these little things among yourselves? Don't you realize that we Christians will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disagreements here on earth.
If you have legal disputes about such matters, why do you go to outside judges who are not respected by the church? I am saying this to shame you. Isn't there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these arguments? But instead, one Christian sues another-- right in front of unbelievers! To have such lawsuits at all is a real defeat for you. Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated? But instead, you yourselves are the ones who do wrong and cheat even your own Christian brothers and sisters.” (1 Corinthians 6:1-8)
In preparation of a third visit to the church in Corinth, Paul writes these severe words to them: “I am afraid that when I come to visit you I won't like what I find, and then you won't like my response. I am afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, backstabbing, gossip, conceit, and disorderly behavior.” (2 Corinthians 12:20)
Over the years the apostle Paul had much trouble with this unholy, unruly and rebellious church in the port town of Corinth. Therefore, it is amazing that this servant of Christ with a true pastoral heart starts his first letter to this church with the words: “I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way -- in all your speaking and in all your knowledge -- because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you.
Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” (1 Corinthians 1:4-9)
What a wonderful message! The apostle shows the Corinthian church that, because of God’s Spirit, His powerful love and amazing grace are so abundantly present in any church, that whatever the spiritual poverty of a church is, there is always hope for transformation! It ‘only’ needs humble acknowledgement of its destitute state and a desire for God’s forgiveness and renewal.
In Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia (region in modern Turkey), he reminded them of their freedom in Christ. These churches bickered with each other about the function of the Mosaic Law in the Christian life: “You have been called to live in freedom-- not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole (Mosaic) Law can be summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." But if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.” (Galatians 5:13-15)
Paul continued to warn these Galatian churches “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: ... hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group ... envy ... and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
The apostle James challenges the churches to follow the example of Jesus: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbour bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.
For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:13-18)
James continues to point to the root of the problem in these churches: “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn't it the whole army of evil desires at war within you? You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can't possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don't have what you want is that you don't ask God for it. And even when you do ask, you don't get it because your whole motive is wrong-- you want only what will give you pleasure.” (James 4:1-3)
Also the apostle John makes it perfectly clear in his first letter, that if Christlike love does not rule a church, such a church has desperately lost its way in spite of its Bible-based preaching and dynamic programmes.
What John writes here to individuals, does also apply to church communities. In 1 John 2:9-11 he warns: “If anyone says, "I am living in the light," but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is still living in darkness. Anyone who loves other Christians is living in the light and does not cause anyone to stumble. Anyone who hates a Christian brother or sister is living and walking in darkness. Such a person is lost, having been blinded by the darkness.”
Further on in 1 John 3:11-15 he reminds his readers: “This is the message we have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was right. So don't be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to eternal life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another Christian is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them.”
We know that God’s Spirit desires to start or continue the Christlike transformation process in any local church. That’s why God wants the church leaders and members to be vigilant and firm with all those who call themselves Christians but obstruct this transformation process by their quarrelsome attitude. (see also Meditation 88)
Therefore, the apostle Paul writes to the church in Rome: “And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people's faith by teaching things that are contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them.” (Romans 16:17)
In the next meditation we want to see what God’s remedy is for a church that is in danger to lose its way in quarrels and strive.
Matthew 22:37, John 17:17, Ephesians 5:25-26, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, James 1:21, 1 Peter 1:22, 1 Corinthians 1:10-11, 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, James 3:13-18 are quotes from the New International Version. All other quotes are from the New Living Translation.
No comments:
Post a Comment