Modern American society has taught us that to be a Christian one must go to 'church' on Sundays. Even those in the 'reformed' or 'Calvinist' camp often promote 'church' as if it is the end all and be all of what it means to belong to Christ. There is no escaping that American mindset. Being a Christian in any capacity in America is equated with going to 'church'.
What happens if one takes the very option of going to 'church' away? A careful study of Scripture very nearly does that very thing. The option of going to 'church' is still there but the ability to see the 'church' buildings, the institutions, as the 'church' disappears against a close look at the early believers in Scripture. At best we are left with examples of leaders and overseers that look nothing like today's preachers and elders. Today, the majority of preachers are motivated by money. They get paid for their service.
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 1 Timothy 5:17 ESV
That set of verses goes on to say the worker is worthy of their wage but what is the wage of the elder (preacher, teacher)? It looks to me that the wage given is double honor. They are to be held in high esteem. Honestly, I cannot see why any believer would not hold someone giving them the gospel in high esteem, but especially in those days when the elders...or overseers...were essentially the only source of New Testament Scriptures there were.
How much regard do you place on your Bible?
This appears to be the equivalent of what the Apostles were and by extension what an overseer, or elder, was in Scripture. How much regard then should this person that held the guardianship of the very gospel in their care, who gave the Scriptures to the believers, have?
I am trying, really trying, to put my mind into the place of being able to imagine life without a Bible. How much would I value someone that could share the Scriptures with me if there was no Bible to be had? How would I treat them?
Into those thoughts comes the very need to understand who these early believers were, what they were thinking, how they felt. I have touched on much of this already, even covered a great deal of it, but I find myself sitting here, thinking, pondering, remembering, pulling to mind all the scriptures I have been through, and trying hard to form a picture in my mind, to pull it together in my own mind. I imagine these early believers (being anyone that professed any belief in Christ, whether they were the elect or whether they would profess until they fell away), how they looked to the Apostles, and in their absence to the men left as overseers of the Scriptures...and therefore of their souls, at least in some degree.
I imagine myself with no understanding of what a child of Christ is or was, in a time and place when there were no examples of what that meant. I think of the Apostles and how they were the examples of what a believer in Christ was and I recall those early days of my own regeneration. The hunger for Christ, the thirst for Scripture. I remember further back then that, when I searched for others that had any appearance of believing as I did. I wanted others to look to, others to share my ever deepening faith with. I wanted someone that could explain to me why I was seeing things differently than every other 'christian' I had ever known.
And I imagine what it might have been like to have those thoughts and feelings when there was no one to look to, no example of a believer in Christ, until one had an encounter with an Apostle.
I imagine the 'aha' moment that might come at hearing them speak, seeing them in person. And I imagine what might be going through my mind after such an encounter. I might question when I would understand more fully. I might wonder when I would be given the gifts the Apostles had, after all they were the only example of what a believer in Christ is, why would I not assume that I would eventually become like them?
And I imagine myself asking them all these questions and more. In my hunger and thirst for more of Christ, and with nowhere else to turn, how many ceaseless questions might I ask them? And I can well imagine and understand any one of them answering just as Paul did in 1 Corinthians:
Now concerning[a] spiritual gifts,[b] brothers,[c] I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
One Body with Many Members
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[d] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts,[e] yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way. (1 Corinthians 12)
This was all new. Believers in Christ in those days had no examples, they were learning as they went, not as we do today but in a way one might learn of some new thing never before seen in the whole world. And so Paul is teaching them that all of the elect are given gifts and that those gifts work together for the entire body of Christ. One might be able to remember the Scriptures while another is able to serve the members in times of need. The point was that they all worked together to become stronger, a unit in Christ. They were a team and all suffered together or all rejoiced together.
The last set of those verses:
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
There is the set up for people, from the Apostles (the givers of God's word through divine revelation) all the way down the line. He asks if everyone has those gifts but "...I will show you a still more excellent way".
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
And just in case we are left unsure as to Paul's meaning in this passage we have Matthew 22:34-38:
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The first two commandments are both about love, love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. We are even given the very definition of what love is in Paul's teachings. Love is patient, love is kind...love bears all things.
I found it interesting that at the beginning of those verses on love the Geneva Bible translation has a trait that the Esv lacks. It says 'love is bountiful'.
At the end of 1 Corinthians 12 Paul said "I will show a more excellent way". In 1 Corinthians 13:2 he says, "And though I had the gift of prophecy, and knew all secrets and all knowledge, yea, if I had all [d]faith, so that I could remove mountains, and had not love, I were nothing."
Here is the more excellent way. 'Though I had the gift of prophecy and knew all secrets and knowledge, if I had all faith...and had not love, I were nothing."
Love is the more excellent way. That bountiful, unboasting, patient, love that bears everything.
Paul has essentially told the believers then, and today, to stop striving to be Apostles and prophets, those things will end, but to hold to the more excellent way of love.
A couple of years ago I was corresponding with someone whose life was less than ideal. This person was in a rough spot. As they studied Scripture they wrote to me of the greatness of love and how it is the epitome of what believers in Christ are to be.
That is what Paul was teaching these new believers. It's what he was writing in his letter to his overseers. Forget the gifts of Apostleship, forget prophesy, forget speaking in tongues and interpretation, forget even healings and miracles, those will all end but the more excellent way is love.
We live in the days when all those gifts have come to an end. The elect are not given the gift to heal people, we cannot perform miracles. We get no divine revelation, we have not seen Christ with our own eyes. Tongues and interpretations have ceased...all the wonderous gifts given to those great men tasked with preserving the Scriptures have come to an end right along with the divine revelations that made those gifts necessary to begin with.
Now we are tasked with the more excellent way...
Love.
No comments:
Post a Comment