Shall we read please in the book of Ephesians 4:1 to 6.
Now could we turn also to 1 Corinthians 12:12-13.
Might we just look to the Lord briefly ...
Last week we were considering the subject of the one Head of the Church. And as I mentioned, this week and Lord willing next week, we want to take up the subject of the one body. Now it's very important for us to just pause here for a moment and remind ourselves once again of a truth that I think many people do lose sight of. Most of the Christian groups in the world, if not all, would tell you that they agree that there is only one Head of the Church, and that there's only one body. So, what we're going to really consider then is not something that everybody disagrees with anyway.
But we hope to consider the subject of the one Head and the one body specifically as to how this truth is visibly expressed on the local level. In other words, we want to make sure that nothing that we do or say or no actions taken in the local assembly will deny the truth of the one Head of the Church - Jesus Christ and the one body universal. So, those things then, to summarize, that we do - all of our meetings and our practices, and everything that we do - should hold up and adorn and present and manifest and make beautiful the great truth of the body of Christ - the Head and the body. And this is going to be very important foundation study now for the specific material that we deal with later on.
People have questions such as 'Why don't we have membership roll in this church?' Well, that's a good question. But to answer that question we need to go through the material carefully and study what we have before us now and then we'll see answers will come much easier later on.
Now first, I'd like to just have us consider the doctrinal statement of the one body. We did this last week in Colossians with the one Head. And now we have read together this morning two passages. Notice please the first one in Ephesians 4. And this is the beginning of a very interesting section, the second half of this letter, where Paul is going to speak in verse 7 and following about some things that are different for Christians. We're not all the same. We have our different functions. We have different gifts of the Holy Spirit. We have different tools to serve and different work to do. And from verse 7 on down he's going to take up that subject.
But before he does it, he spells out in v. l-6 seven things that characterize every child of God. So we have here seven great truths. If you are here this morning and you're a child of God, i.e. to say you're a born-again Christian, then these seven things are part of your heritage in the family of God. Just notice please the first one mentioned - there is one body. We need to keep that before us that there are not many, there is just one body. So we want to express that then very carefully in the local level of our meetings.
And then in I Cor. 12:12-13, again the statement of the one body nevertheless ... the body having many members. Today in our world, in our Christian world so to speak, there's a lot of controversies as to what the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the baptism with the Holy Spirit is. Now it's not my purpose to speak on that subject this morning, we have far too much to cover. But I would like to just remind all of us that many people go into the book of Acts and try to build some kind of a doctrine on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I've never yet talked to a person who did that who could give an explanation of what 1 Cor 12:13 meant.
This week I've had the joy of working with the Senior High School children at the Academy. And we've been studying some of these things we're studying here on Sundays. And I must say it's a delight. Those young people are bright-eyed and responsible, and they participate and they're just a joy to my heart. And we've been going over some of these things and they're not satisfied with trite phrases or expressions. They want to dig into the word, and find out what God really means by what He says. And we're covering this this week. They ask some questions about it that were very good that caused me to go back and rethink it here.
Book of the Acts of the Apostles is a historical record - not for doctrine.
Epistles (Romans through Jude) is for doctrine.
And I just want to remind all of us, especially any of you who are new Christians, please make a note in your mind - we DO NOT BUILD OUR CHURCH DOCTRINES IN THE BOOK OF ACTS. We do not really build any doctrines on the book of Acts. Doctrines come through the Epistles - Romans through Jude, twenty-one letters. Those are the bases or the foundation of our doctrines. Acts is a historical record. It's inspired, it's profitable, it's very important but the value of Acts - we don't build our doctrines on the book of Acts and then try to fumble through the Epistles wondering why the apostles said the things that they do. We build our doctrines on the Epistles, the letters. And then we go back into Acts to see if indeed that is what the early church practise. And if we find that we're teaching one thing but the early church practised something much different, that means we're probably wrong and we have to go back and rethink our doctrines. So the book of Acts then is a historical record.
It's very helpful for us to bear this in mind. Any religious group that builds its doctrine of the church on the book of Acts is going to end up either in emotionalism or in error and there's going to be problems.
So, I Cor 12:13 then is the doctrinal statement from the Spirit of God as to what the baptism of the Holy Spirit really does. And it says here "for by one Spirit were we all baptized into the one body."
Now "to baptize something is simply to immerse, to dip or to place under. And we could just read that that way - "for by one Spirit were we all immersed into ONE body." As you read through the New Testament you'd probably be struck by the number of times the little expression "in Christ" appears. It's a very common expression in the writings of Paul. Every time we see that expression "in Christ" we should ask ourselves, "Am I in Christ?" Well, if I'm a Christian, I am. How did I get there ... 'in Christ'? Well, this verse tells us how we got into that position. The truth that Christ is IN ME is a precious truth. That's the INDWELLING. Christ lives in me. Christ lives in you. That's indwelling. But it's also true that I am in Christ. And how did I ever get "in Christ"? I got there by the special work of the Holy Spirit to take me as n outsider and upon my faith in Jesus Christ to baptize or place or immerse me for the first time into Christ. Now I am IN His body. And this is how the body of Christ is formed. So we need to be very careful then in our use of this expression: "the baptism with or of the Holy Spirit," Not to feel that it's some kind of an experience that some Christians have had and others are missing;. We need to be very careful to understand that you cannot be saved in this age and be outside of the body of Christ. there's no such thing. It's impossible. You cannot be a Christian and be outside of the church waiting to get in. Upon conversion, we are placed h3 the Spirit of God into the body. So there is on body and Scripture clearly ells us how it was formed.
This is rather dry material here I think, and so I want to shorten it as much as I can. But I do feel it's important for us to spend a few minutes and just turn to the opening verses of a few Epistles and see how Paul addresses the local church. Let's just select four if we could. Most of us feel that we're not all that interested in such details but I think we stand to really gain something as we see how the Spirit of God chooses to address the local church.
I've the joy of working with young assemblies that are being planted and being raised up. And one of the first things that confronts us when we meet together is what are we going to call ourselves. And sometimes this can go round and round for weeks. And it may seem easy, but take some time and try to figure it out. It's all well and good to say that we're Christians and we do believe that. But then we have a meeting place. And what do we call that? And how do we keep calling ourselves by the name of the meeting place? And on and on it goes. Well, one way to solve these problems, and to make sure that we're walking in a clear way is to consult what the Scripture says.
Notice Paul's address to the Corinthians in 1 Cor 1:2. He says, "Unto the church of God which is AT CORINTH" (Corinth was the name of the city) "to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus" (in other words, to all the Christians there) "called to be saints" (or 'called saints') "with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours." So, he addresses the Christians AT CORINTH. And then he adds that this letter is also for all other believers too.
Let's turn to Galatians 1:2. Paul, writing with all the brethren that are with him, says "And all the brethren who are with me, unto the CHURCHES OF GALATIA." Why does he use the plural there? Well, Galatia is NOT a city. Galatia is a province or a state. So Paul might write then and say "to the church at Hamden, to the churches of Connecticut." Church (singular) to the city, and churches (plural) to a province, because there would be many churches in the province or Galatia.
Turn next to 1 Thessalonians 1:1. "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the CHURCH OF THE THESSALONIANS) which is in God, the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ ..." Notice the address there is to 'the church of the Thessalonians". Here he is not referring to Thessalonica the city, he's referring to the people. So he says "the church of the Thessalonians."
Finally to the little book of Philemon, just before Hebrews, Philemon 2: "And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the CHURCH IN THY HOUSE." So here we see the church is obviously not a building of bricks and stone or wood, but the church is the people. And it's in or meeting in the house of, well I guess, Philemon - the church in Philemon's house, to the local assembly meeting in the house of Philemon.
Now, looking at these and other references, I think we can draw some conclusions that are obvious. But in a series like this, we should not take them for granted, we should just state what they are.
First of all, obviously the local church is not a building . It's people. It's composed of a group of people.
Secondly, we read about the church IN a city composed of the people in that city. Now I said to the young people yesterday, "Now suppose you're sent out as a missionary into a city where there were a hundred Christians but no meetings of any kind, no religious gatherings of any kind. There were just one hundred isolated Christians living in that town. And you had a list, and you knew who they were. And you were sent out as a missionary there. Now what would you tell them?" And one fellow said, "Well, I think, the first thing would be to get them to see the need to gather together." And that's a good answer, wasn't it? The Lord looks at people in a town and He says, "Now you are the church." And what could we say about people living in a town like that? Someone else said, "Well, they're not very obedient." And that's true. They're not obeying the things of Scripture. They're Christians, and they're the church of that city but they're certainly not very obedient. So we had a nice little talk about that.
One other conclusion we could draw from this is that we don't read in Scripture anything about a State Church. We're not here to throw rocks at any group but we simply don't find anything about a State Church in Scripture. Paul doesn't say "to the church of Galatia." Nor would he write and say "to the church of Connecticut." He would write and say "to the CHURCHES of Connecticut, to the CHURCH at each town or city." So then we uphold very strongly the teaching of the autonomy of each local church; or the independence of each local church.
Now we want to speak just for a moment about a definition for the local church. What constitutes a local church? And I have to confess that years ago, I got into some trouble trying to define what a local church was. People would come up to me after I've preached on it, and they'd say "Well, now I fellowship in a place where we have no elders but we do have deacons. We have a membership roll but we don't have this. We have this. We don't have that. Are we a church?" I'd say, "Well, now, in your case I'd think you are." And someone else standing there would say, "Well, I go somewhere else, and we have this, and we don't have this. We have this and we're going to have this. Well, are we a church?" And finally it dawned on me, "Well, am I the judge that stands here ruling on whether these groups are churches or not? There's got to be a better way than that."
And as I searched the Scriptures, I never found a list that said, "in order to be a local church, you have to have the following bare minimum things." In fact, it said, "where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them." And you can't have very many elders and deacons and other positions if you only have two people. So then I read Mr. William McDonald's little book "Christ loved the church", and he said, "the criteria of a true local church is not a legalistic thing - you have to have this list or you're not a church." He said," it's a thing of grace." God says to the believers in an area, "You are the church. Now meet in such a way that you will uphold and show forth the great truths of the universal church." That puts it on a whole different footing, doesn't it?
You could say that the Christians in that town, a hundred of them didn't even know each other. God says, "You are the church in this town. Now how is your meeting to display the great truth of the body of Christ?" And therefore every local church has a responsibility to get into the word of God and so order its behavior, its meetings, its order, its services, so that they get as close as they can to the word of God's description of what the whole body is.
And therefore we are not judges one of another to say, "You're a church, we're a church, and you're not." We simply leave the standard as the word of God . And we appeal to each local company, "Study the word, see how close you can get. If there's anything that you do or believe or practise that deny some aspect of the over-all church, then perhaps you'd better consider changing it." And that way, I think, it put everything on a happy note because we can get everyone pressing in one direction, namely to be faithful to the word of God. And that's really what it's all about.
Now finally I would like to talk with you about the importance of this whole matter of giving visible expression in the local church to the great truth of the one body. I have to say that this message we're working on is really one message. It's too long for today, so we're going to take it up and finish it next week. But usually I give it as one. So if it seems a bit disjointed - we end right in the middle - you know why. The second half is next week. And you'll just have to try to remember what we said today and connect it next week. That's hard but it's the best we can do.
But I would like to share with you now three reasons why we work and labor to make sure that we give accurate, and visible expression to the truth of the one body. Let me just mention what they are and then we'll take them one by one.
First of all because it is a prayer request of the Lord Jesus Christ. He prayed concerning this matter of unity.
Secondly because it is a requirement of the written Scripture.
And thirdly, because it happened to be connected with the fruit of the Spirit.
Now I think we have three very weighty reasons to consider the matter of the local church upholding the unity of the one body.
John 17 is a key passage in this area. And I wish that we could spend a few moments here. I ask you to turn there please. We're going to be reading in the seventeenth of John here concerning the request of the Lord Jesus for oneness.
May I just say, before we take this up, that this prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ for unity among all believers is NOT dealing with the essential inner unity. Now that's a prayer request that neither you nor I could have anything to do with. That is an act of God. BY HIS SPIRIT He baptized ALL believers into one body and He formed that unity. And you and I can't do anything to improve on it nor can we ever destroy it. The gates of hell cannot prevail against it.
The Lord Jesus here is praying that we as the people of God would see the need to visibly express what is a truth of God anyway. And if we just keep that before us, we'll see that this is a prayer for oneness among the people of God.
I'd like to suggest that in this prayer there are two things with regard to oneness.
First of all He prays concerning what has been provided. There's a three-fold provision that will further that visible unity of the people of God.
And secondly there's a two-fold result.
So we have five things - we have three provisions that God has made and two results we'll obtain. And they are very very precious, and interesting. We can only just scratch the surface this morning but I commend them to your further study. There's a wealth of material in these few verses.
Now let's look first at the three-fold provision. First of all in v. 11 we read: "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."
The first provision that we have is the Father's protection. You know, I have to confess that in reading this chapter all my life I've never saw this until this very week. And it thrilled me as I realized that there is a sense in which a believer, and I believe an assembly, can claim the protecting care of the heavenly Father over us in a special way as we understand that a great goal of God in this world is our oneness - our unity. God, I believe, is not guaranteeing divine protection and care in this special way to those who would seek to shatter and dismember that body, and split apart that unity because He uses the expression here, the word "that they may be one", "in order that they may be one. Keep them." Certainly this would apply to our personal security as believers and our assurance as believers. But I also think it would apply to the people of God as whole. "Father, keep them. Protect them from the evil One. Watch over them. Keep your sheltering hands upon them." Why? "So that they can move unhindered in that direction that is so delightful to Us - oneness." So first of all we have the provision of the Father's protection.
Secondly in v. 20-21, He says, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one." The second provision then obviously is the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we have a prayer meeting on Sunday night and we come together and we pray. We lay hold on God for the things that are very important to us. And sometimes our prayers are answered, and sometimes we have to learn that we're not asking rightly and our prayers aren't answered ... at least they're not answered in the way we are asking. But here is one who when He prays, we can be assured His prayers will be answered. The Son of God is praying to the Father, and He prays that we may be one.
And then thirdly, another provision in v. 22, He says, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one." So, it has to do here with glory. Now there is a certain glory that the Lord Jesus has that was His from eternity past, His own glory - His own divine glory as God. But then there is a glory He obtained in connection with His work on the cross and the raising up of His church. And that's the glory He shares with us - the glory of the inheritance in the saints in light. Now we have that glory. And that's a great provision of God that draws us together in one. In other words, to put it simply, when you look at another Christian, maybe somebody you don't get along with or some other little quirk that may be your personality and theirs, if you dwell upon the odd part of them, or if they dwell on your oddness, that will be cause for division. But if we dwell upon the fact that there's a person to whom God has given the glory of His Son - the same glory that He has given me - well, that will give us good cause to draw together with them. And this is what the Lord wants.
Now we have not only the provision but we have the results and there should be two great results coming out of the unity of the believers in a visible way in the world.
The first one we find is mentioned twice and it has to do with the testimony of the church. Please notice in v. 21, toward the end, He says, "... that the world may BELIEVE that Thou hast sent Me", and then in v.23 He says, "That the world may KNOW that Thou hast sent Me."
As we go out and testify for the Lord Jesus, we want them to come to believe and to know that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. I pondered on why He would give it in this order.
First that the world may believe and then that the world may know. Have you ever witnessed to someone who is an unbeliever and they said, "Show me and I'll believe. Prove it to me and I'll believe. Demonstrate to me and then I'll put my faith." God says, "No. You've got it backwards. You believe and then I'll show you." Faith must come first and then God will help you to understand it.
But the step of faith is necessary first. And that's the order that we have here. First that the world may believe, and then that the world may know. And my, as people in the world who are lost come to believe in the Lord Jesus being sent as Savior of the world, as they come to believe that message and then they come to know that what they have believed is true indeed, why, there we see changed lives - new people of God ready to go on for God and spread the message. Now this is what we need to see in our world today. That's what we need to see in Hamden. And the Lord Jesus here in His prayer John 17, I believe, gives us one of the great keys of evangelism, and one that many believers do not see. He is praying for oneness among the people of God in order that we might have an evangelistic impact.
Did you ever stop to consider that one of the greatest - and I don't think it's unfair to say the greatest key to evangelism among the people of God is our unity - our oneness? Do we now see why Satan works overtime to split and fragment the people of God into various sects and groups and denominations that can't get along with one another? Certainly because Satan realizes that as soon as the Christians all begin to love and accept one another and stand together in the name of Christ, his days are numbered. The word of God will go forth in mighty power and wherever you find revival breaking out in the world, you'll search and you'll find that this has been one of the prerequisites God has waited for and honored. The coming together of people all over the land recognizing the great truth of the one body and looking beyond all the divisions that divide them.
Now, you might say, "Can't we do that anyway? Can't we just rise above all these denominational barriers and divisions and love our brothers no matter who and where?" And I answer, "Yes, we not only can, but it's our responsibility to do that." But having said that then let's be careful that we don't contribute to the problem. That's why we take a very strong stand here at West Woods Bible Chapel that there is one body and we know and believe the truth. We love every Christian, no matter what title they pick on themselves. We are Christians here. We love them because they're in Christ, not because of any division or group that they join. So therefore the oneness of the believers then is a key to the church's testimony.
But not only our testimony. Please notice in v.23 He says, "I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made PERFECT in one." Now we could also use the word there "mature". So not only is our testimony at stake but also the maturity of the believers. We are being brought toward personal and corporate group maturity in Christ. That's what being perfected is. And certainly as we understand the oneness of God's people, and we begin to practise love towards one another, and acceptance towards one another, our maturity takes a giant step forward. And this again is the will of God.
I want to say, and maybe some would say this is an overstatement, I don't know, but I want to say that I don't really believe that a local church can be truly effective as far as evangelism goes, and I don't believe they ever truly move toward real spiritual maturity, as long as they have a factious, divided spirit. I just don't see from Scripture how that could ever be possible.
So then, far from our giving visible expression as accurately as we can to the one body here in the local level in our little town, far from that being a minor matter, it's a crucial matter. It deserves our very best effort and attention. And we need from time to time, and this is one of the works of elders, to look over what we practise and what we believe and ask ourselves the question - are we doing anything that strengthens Satan's position and work - to divide the people of God? If we are, we need to stop it. We need to confess it; we need to lay it aside.
Now the second reason for this strong emphasis is the requirement of Scripture.
Did you notice this morning as we read in Eph 4:3, Paul made an appeal there to the Ephesians saying, "Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." He was NOT appealing to the Ephesians to create the unity of the Spirit. They could not do that. There's nothing they could do - for or against the unity of the Spirit. That's an act of God. And we read about it in 1 Cor 12:13. He was appealing them to keep that God-given unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The unity of the Spirit is a finished, accomplished fact. And we can keep that unity either in peace or in turmoil. And Paul says, "I beseech you, keep it in peace." So this and many other Scripture ... you might some time want to read through the book of Philippians and see the many many occurrences of one-mindedness and like-mindedness and arriving at the mind of Christ.
Well, it's one body and there's one head with one mind we ought then to arrive at the mind of Christ for all of our decisions and actions.
The third point is the fruit of the Spirit. This is linked with the fruit of the Spirit - the matter of unity. If we were to go to the book of Galatians we would read there the fruit of the Spirit. Nine of them are listed there in Gal 5:22-23, and some of those fruit really help us to see things that God brings forth in our lives as believers to draw us together - love, and longsuffering, and gentleness, and peace. Really all of them - self-control. All of those things FURTHER our unity, our bringing together, our keeping the unity of the Spirit in a peaceful bond. That's the work of the Holy Spirit of God.
But just before that we read the works of the flesh. That's also mentioned in Galatians 5. And I was interested to notice there that the Greek translation uses two very strong words - the words 'divisions' and 'sects' are called by the Spirit of God in that passage 'works of the flesh'.
Want to ask if you would turn to 1 Cor with me and we would just spend a few moments toward the close of our hour here in the first three chapters. This is going to be review for some of us but it's good to review. As you know, in 1 Cor, Paul in the first four chapters takes up the subject of the unity of the body. He has heard a report, we read in 1:11, he's heard a very disturbing report that there are divisions forming among the Christians at Corinth. And this is the subject that more than anything else - the sin in the assembly, the moral sin, the errors concerning the meat offered to idols, the denial of the resurrection - more than any other sins, this is the one that's heaviest on his heart, and this is the one he takes up first. Four chapters devoted to it - the oneness of the people of God.
Let's just notice in 1:9, he says, "God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Now that gives us the doctrinal basis that we have all been called into the fellowship of God's Son.
But then in v. 10 he goes on and he says, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ..." And whenever you find Paul appealing to the readers by the name of the Lord Jesus, you'll always find that he's about to talk about something that is very heavy on his heart, and truly a very major and important theme. He says, "I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the SAME mind and in the SAME judgment." And then he goes on and he says to them in v.12 and following, "What are you doing? Following different men? Some says well, I'm a follower of Paul; and someone else says, Well, no, I prefer Peter and he's my leader; and someone says, You can both have them, I'll take Apollos, he's very eloquent. You're dividing behind all these men and that isn't pleasing to God at all."
Do we really understand the source of the spirit that thinks that way? I wonder if we do realize what the real root problem is here.
Could we turn to chapter 3. In 3:1- Paul gives us three marks of a carnal Christian. Now let's remember what a carnal Christian is. A carnal Christian is someone who is reborn in the Spirit but who is living in the world - in the flesh. In other words, they look like a person who is unsaved from the outside, and they look like a Christian on the inside. It's a strange combination and if it wasn't for the fact that Scripture reveals it, we'll have serious doubts as to whether such a person could be truly saved. But there is such a thing as a carnal Christian. Someone who on the inside has been reborn, and yet who on the outside is not willing to stand up and be separated from what is evil and offensive to God.
Now Paul writes to the Corinthians and, sad to say, he has to accuse many of them of this very thing. He says in v. 1, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ."
So the first mark of a carnal Christian is someone who remains a babe for a long time. And again I have mentioned about our little family and my dear little daughter and some other things that she does at home. And yet when you come to visit, I don't try to hide her in embarrassment. I'm very happy for you to see her. She's very dear to us. But you know, I hope that you won't come back in ten or fifteen years and find her doing the same things. If she still has her bottle and hauls her blanket around the house and says, "goo-goo" when she's fifteen, it'll be sad. It won't be cute anymore. It'll be sad. And sad to say there are Christians when you speak to them, they say, "Well, you know, now, I'm not ready to be baptized. I've only been saved five years. I'm not ready yet." I remember meeting with one group of Christians some years ago and I drove quite a way to their city early early in the morning to meet with them. They read a little blurp about this long from Daily Bread, and they said, "Well now, that's it." And I said, "That's what?" And they said, "Well that's the end of our morning with God." I said, "That's it!? You're going to go out and serve God and work all day long on that?" They said, "Oh, well, you know, we're much too young to ever get in the Bible." I said, "Wait a minute. Sit down. We can at least do a paragraph in God's word. Daily Bread is good but it's a supplement. It's not the word of God. Now let's get into the word of God." The first mark of a carnal Christian - they remain carnal for a long time - they remain babes for a long time.
Secondly in v.2, he says, "I have fed you with milk, and not with solid food; for to this time ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able."
Second mark of a carnal Christian is that they are not able to take meat. Now a baby can't eat a hamburger, I've found out - the hard way. But eventually a time comes when they're able to eat meat and we notice the development of teeth and so forth. And so on, and they grow. And pretty soon, they enjoy eating solid food like mom and dad. But here are those who, after a long period of time, still need a bottle of milk. They can't take anything more than that. Very sad.
And then thirdly, the third mark of a carnal Christian in v.3: "For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and division are ye not carnal, and walk as men?"
Now notice please the three things that Paul mentions in v.3. These three things all join together, they bring forth or set before us a process.
First of all you have ENVYING - and we know what that is. That's jealousy.
Then we have STRIFE and that's argument.
Finally we have DIVISION - we know that is.
Now think about that. Envy or jealousy is something that you cannot see. Yes, you can see the effects of it but you can't see a jealous heart. Jealousy is deep down in the heart. And then strife and argument ... well, that you hear. That's the fighting and bickering and arguing that goes on. And eventually if it continues long enough, you have (in v.3) division. And one says, "Well, if that's the way you feel, I'll go. I'll leave."
And the divorce courts of our country today are filled with people who are being divided, and we ask "What happened?" Well, according to I Cor 3:3, we should know what happened. Even if we were never in the home we could know that there must have been a lot of strife, a lot of argument that preceded that division. And where did all that strife and argument come from Scripture says it comes from jealousy. And so, long time ago when it didn't seem like a very big sin, that little seed of jealousy that was planted of envy and competition, instead of being confessed, was nurtured and allowed to grow into an argument or fight and eventually it brought forth a division. And another couple is split apart.
Now this can happen in a church, in a local assembly. And we need to be very careful. And what's the antidote against all of these terrible things we're reading - envy and strife and division? Well, I think, it's love. It may sound like a trite thing to say but I think that's the answer. 1 Cor 13. We need to read it and see that as soon as I begin to be jealous of somebody else, I think that I'm better than they are. But as long as I really love them and want to see their good and REJOICE in their good and in their blessing, and there's no jealousy, well, what have we got to argue about? Arguments can't last long when there's no jealousy or envy.
So these are the marks then of a carnal Christian, and the works of the flesh. Over in Gal 5 (vv. 19-20). One of them ("dichostasia") there is 'division'. So then we need to be very careful and watchful ALWAYS that in the local church, in the local level, we recognize the fruit of the Spirit and we also know the works of the flesh. And everyone of us is personally committed to the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we will have absolutely no part in this process - the dividing of the people of God.
Now we're going to have something to say in our study next week about the various names we use; and some of the practices we practice in the local church. But we'll leave that till then.
Let's pray.