Angelic Conflict part 209: Human history (the Church) – 1Co 12-13; Mar 12:41-44; Rom 12:1-2; 2Co 8:5; Heb 13:15-16.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 209: Human history (the Church) - 1Co 12-13; MAR 12:41-44; ROM 12:1-2; 2CO 8:5; HEB 13:15-16.

 

 

Chiasm of life:

At age 4 success is not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is having friends.
At age 16 success is having a drivers license.
At age 20 success is having sex.
At age 35 success is having money.
At age 50 success is having money.
At age 60 success is having sex.
At age 70 success is having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is having friends.
At age 80 success is not peeing in your pants.

 

No Christian servant can say that his ministry has never once depended on another servant of God.

 

1CO 12:21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

 

1CO 12:22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;

 

1CO 12:23 and those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness,

 

1CO 12:24 whereas our seemly members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,

 

So what is an unseemly member? Likely, Paul is referring to the parts of the body that we all feel the need to cover up or clothe.

 

Paul’s point, as we clothe certain parts, parts unseen but covered with nice clothes, that suit the body in an honorable way, so God bestows honor on those whose ministries are not visible or generally honored by those only love the visible.

 

The believer who is ministering behind the scenes and is not in search of recognition is clothed with abundant honor by God.

 

This is one of the subtle lures of satan to get people into the ministry with the promise of earthly treasure, whether wealth, power, approbation, or prestige. This method has always worked and selfish people get in positions of authority, as in the case of the Sanhedrin in the time of Christ, but what is also true is that eventually this false motivation and false power is brought to the light and it evaporates under the light from God, as was also the case of the Sanhedrin.

 

MAT 6:1 Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

 

The pharisees gave alms, prayed, fasted, etc. in public so as to be noticed by men. This is why Christ said of them:

 

JOH 5:44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?

 

Religion is the main attack against the church, which is a masking of overt acts of Christianity as the will of God, but without the wisdom and power from the word of God and the HS.

 

There is praying, giving, fasting (change to service or ministry) and all manner of doing things in the overt acts of Christianity but with the inner desire of earthly treasure. 

 

The high priest and the elders of the Sanhedrin all received a cut of the temple treasury, the money changing, and the sale of livestock in the temple. They owned vast tracks of land that raised these livestock, so they reaped the profits of the sale to the temple and then also received a cut of the profits of the sale to the common Jew from the temple. This racket was going on for a long time. Jesus was exposing it and standing up to them like no one had ever done before. He was threatening to end the gravy train and He was publically humiliating them over and over. It is no wonder that they plotted to kill Him.

 

MAR 12:41 And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the multitude were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums.

 

MAR 12:42And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent.

 

MAR 12:43And calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury;

 

MAR 12:44for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on. "

 

Back to:

1CO 12:25 that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

 

1CO 12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

 

God's desire is that there be no division ("schism") in the church. Diversity leads to disunity when the members compete with one another, but diversity leads to unity when the members care for one another in a spiritually mature way and not in emotion or attraction only. How do the members care for each other? By growing up in agape love, each one functioning according to God's will, and helping the other members to function by bearing burdens when possible, though this is not always possible.

 

If one member suffers, it affects every member. If one member is healthy, it helps the others to be strong.

 

 It is God who bestows the gifts and assigns the offices. God gives to each congregation just the gifts it needs when they are needed.

 

1CO 12:27 Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.

 

He has a perfect plan, not only for the church as a whole, but also for each local congregation.

 

This is the only place where spiritual gifts are listed in an order that shows importance. We would not conclude that the use of the word “first” would refer to merit or privilege, for this would undermine the doctrine of EP/EO, but rather the word indicates importance to the function of the church. There would be no church or NT without the apostles, there would be no church without the NT prophets of the early church, etc.

 

1CO 12:28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.

 

The apostles and prophets were the foundation of the church:

 

EPH 2:20 having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,

 

We are all to witness, to pray, to worship, to give, and so on. But there are diversities and the diversities are dependent upon the spiritual gift.

 

Next we have a series of questions that are to be answered as No.

 

1CO 12:29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?

 

1CO 12:30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?

 

All spiritual gifts are not listed in the Bible. These are merely representative for categorical concepts.

 

None of the lists given are complete, plus there are a variety of ministries and effects. This should really remove any stress a person has about identifying their gift. The caveat are the communication gifts of PT and evangelist, but even these will take years of leading to determine. “What about John? What is that to you? You follow Me.”

 

All spiritual gifts operate as a part and function of the team. Our spiritual gift determines what position we play on the team.

 

1CO 12:31a But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

 

There are several interpretations to this sentence, and two of them have merit.

 

Since G/HS soveriegnly gives spiritual gifts as He wills, no one should be desiring a different gift, even if it is a more important gift, but importance does not mean better.

 

First, Paul may be saying that the church should zealously desire or covet the greater gifts on the list. In other words, a church should desire the gift of pastor teacher above the gift of tongues. In the context of the Corinthian’s way, they certainly did desire tongues more than teachers. In that context it is a good interpretation.

 

Secondly, Paul may be stating in connection with the second part of the verse, the more excellent way of virtue under the power of the HS, that the greater gifts are the gifts of the spiritual life, i.e. maturity, without which the spiritual gifts do not function. This would have to mean that Paul is switching his use of the word “gift” at this point, which is certainly not outside of his literary style. Both are fine interpretations, but my focus on this is the second part, which is really the introduction to chapter 13 that the unity of the church is based on maturity which is in turn based on the priority of metabolizing the word of God under the power of God the Holy Spirit.

 

1CO 12:31b And I show you a still more excellent way.

 

The still more excellent way is the way of virtue, the greatest of which is love.

 

This the glue of any local assembly, a glue which satan does not possess a solvent for. Virtue is also the energy and the life of any local assembly. Many assemblies promote an overt manifestation of human love, but we are talking about agape love. A love that sees the value in another and self-sacrifices for the benefit for that other, without self-interest, unconditionally.

 

This is also emphasized in Rom 12:

 

Christianity is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity is a life - His life lived in those who have trusted in Him as Savior and Lord.

 

The last five chapters of Romans are concerned with the living of this life by the individual Christian in the sphere of life in which God has placed him. If we are not to be led astray, we must have our foundation well established.

 

REV 1:5-6 To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

The life that the Christian is to live here on earth is dependent upon Christ living in us, and Christ's life within us comes through the great redemption which God has provided for us in Christ's death upon the cross.

 

ROM 12:1 I urge you therefore [based on the 315 verses of the first eleven chapters], brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

 

An entirely new foundation is given in the CA. We no longer look to the prophecy of Christ, but the historical reality of Him. The first 11 chapters of Romans show our bankrupcy as well as our deliverence in Christ, chapter 8 being the great culmination of God's unfathomable mercy. Now God turns to us and as new creatures in Christ urges us to present ourselves to Him as living and holy sacrifices. This is the new ethics of the Scripture, not the ethics of the Law, but the ethics of Christianity - the way of the children of God.

 

It is useless to present our bodies without first presenting ourselves, our inner selves.

 

2 Cor 8:5 but they [Philippians] first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

 

2CO 8:1 Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia,

 

2CO 8:2 that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.

 

2CO 8:3 For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord,

 

2CO 8:4 begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints,

 

2CO 8:5 and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

 

It is true that Christians who attempt to perform acts of self-sacrifice cannot please God unless there has been, first of all, the surrender of the inner core of self to the Lord.

 

Just as Paul says to the Corinthians:

 

1CO 13:3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

 

So we see, with the inner changes that come from spiritual growth, humility, and a giving over of the life to the Lord in great love for Him that our physical bodies can be used in the production of divine good.

 

The ascetic, monastic life finds no justification in the word of God. In Christ's example, though at times He went off to be alone, He was thronged with people and He brought the message of salvation through Him to the people.

 

Following His example we will be living out in the world of people where He placed us. We are to grow up as Christian people, and take our place in life, whether in school, office, store, shop, military service, factory, hospital, home, apartment house, farm or wherever our lot may lie. We are to meet life and to live life. Moreover we are to enjoy life. Whenever you find someone claiming to be living the Christian life and he is morose, surly, glum, whining, ascetic, puritanical, you may be sure that he has not seen life as the Lord Jesus has set forth the life of the Christian in His word.

 

God does not dwell in buildings in the CA. God dwells in the bodies of believers. They are His sanctuary on earth.

 

We worship God in our minds, souls, and spirits, but it is through the body that we have contact with the world. Through growth the spiritual life will take control of the physical life and then our ministry in this world will be realized through the miraculous power of the word of God and our teacher and leader, God the Holy Spirit.

 

This includes the limbs, the five senses, and the tongue, meaning, what you say.