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1 Corinthians 1
This is a letter from Paul and Sosthenes to the church of God in Corinth. He calls this church sanctified believers, saints and those that call upon the name of the Lord. Saints are all believers and not just those made into saints by a certain church affiliation. We become saints when we receive Jesus Christ as savior and become born again by God's Holy Spirit. This includes all believers whether they are men, women, boys, girls, rich, poor, clergy, laity or beggar. The true church is a body of believers in Christ Jesus. It is a body of called out ones. Those called out of the world and into Christ. Those buildings we use to worship in are really not the church but a place of worship for the church. The church or assembly are the believers themselves. Jesus is the only way of salvation. God will use individual assemblies or groups of people who are filled with God's Spirit to bring souls to Jesus. The church is not the means of salvation. One can find salvation through Jesus Christ with or without the assistance of a church or body of believers. I've heard testimonies of those who found Jesus Christ by reading the bible, or being alone and God's Holy Spirit somehow gets through to them with no other person around. In other words, a person does not have to be a member of my particular church denomination to be saved from sin and be granted eternal life. This is not to take away the importance of a body of believers gathering together to worship God, teach, exhort and pray together. That is a necessity to spiritual growth and strength. We are sanctified in Jesus Christ. Sanctify means: Be made holy, consecrated or set apart for sacred services. I believe the term here can be taken to mean "to make holy". The blood of Jesus cleanses us and makes us holy. The word sanctifies and makes holy. The blood makes holy and God's word makes holy. Jesus is the word made flesh. He makes holy those that receive Him. Then by daily reading the word and receiving the word we are sanctified by that word.
We do not hear that much about sanctification any more but it has two meanings and I believe both can apply. One means to make holy and the other means to set apart for holy use.
Two persons but one God. They are in complete unity and purpose. God the Father and God the Son. Both God but one. They do not act separately from one another but are in complete mind and accord.
We are to be one in unity and truth like God and the Son is in unity. This does not mean that we are to be in unity with those that are not walking in the Holy Spirit and in truth. We can't be one with those that are contrary to the truth. God broke up the false unity at the tower of Babel. If unity is not based on the true doctrine of the written word and the true spirit that comes from God, it isn't the unity we need.
Once we come to Christ for salvation, we are to seek the knowledge of God and be enriched by the word of God that we may begin to communicate with others the word of truth. Also our reaction to our brothers and sisters in the Lord is another wonderful thing we can be thankful for. We are not alone.
The gifts of the spirit are given to us to edify the church and increase in the word, truth and in things that further the gospel. They did not stop after the apostles died off. They are to continue. They are not given as a side show or to exalt a particular man or ministry. They are given to bring people to Christ and then to edify the believers. The glory belongs only to Jesus Christ. The gifts are never given to make us more spiritual or more holy than another believer. They are not given only to the clergy. They are for the whole church and God can use anyone who is a true follower of Jesus.
Naturally we can assume Paul meant that we all speak the same things but those same things should be the word and the truth. I'm sure his meaning was not that we strive for unity even if we had to compromise the truth. God surely would not want us to be in unity with lies.
We are not to be followers of men but of Christ. Paul and Apollos were both of the same mind and one accord in Jesus Christ, so division into different camps was strongly opposed seeing that Paul and Apollos were not divided. Although Christians should strive for unity in the spirit, we don't have to join one particular organization with one head like the overseer or pope. We don't have to be the same in that sense. We can have unity of purpose and have peace but we don't have to all be Church of God, Baptist or Catholic. It is okay to have separate local churches that are independent of one another. In fact that is better than all joining one group because it keeps us humble and dependent upon the Lord. If however, Paul preached salvation through Jesus Christ and someone else preached salvation by keeping the law of Moses, then they could not have had unity. We can't be in unity by any false doctrine but we must strive for love and unity in the spirit and in truth.
If you take a highly educated person of the world who does not know Jesus Christ and has a heart that is not seeking Him, they will consider the preaching of being saved from sin as being a little foolish. That is why it is easier for a child to understand because they can exercise faith easier. Paul was not making light of water baptism in this passage, just emphasizing the importance of not looking to him instead of Christ for salvation and leadership. Jesus is the source of our salvation, not Paul in other words. Paul was a vessel of the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel but he wasn't the one that saved the lost and brought one into salvation. He would rather not baptize anyone than have them following him as a person exalted more than any other apostle or teacher.
God's wisdom confounds the wisdom of the wise or those with worldly wisdom. Sometimes I even laugh at the statements so called educational people make in favor of evolution. I do not see them as wise but stupid. They do not consider so many things like the conscience, what makes us different from animals? Why man can invent computers for instance and animals cannot?
They are as the prophet Daniel says, "Ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of truth." They keep learning and never find out what truth is.
God chose the foolishness of preaching to save the lost and that has not changed. So many are trying to win souls in every other way except the simple gospel and preaching. We can't have a huge program to attract people to our churches and then sneak the gospel in little by little hoping some might be saved. Every minute counts, they must be given the gospel the minute they come in the door of any church. The churches that do that are alive spiritually. I'm not talking about big numbers but those that are spiritually alive are those that keep the simplicity of the gospel and the word of God the most important part of their ministry.
Jews were given signs and wonders but they still did not believe. Signs and wonders are great but they do not always come. Sometimes there are days, weeks or months when we do not see miracles for some reason. We need the word in our innermost being all the time. The word will keep us from returning to sin. Signs and wonders come plenty of times around people of faith, but there are times when we go through trials and tests where we do not see the miracles at least we do not see them visibly. I think miracles happen that we don't always see many times. Signs are wonderful to convince unbelievers of the truth of the gospel but the word stays with us continually. Greeks want the wisdom of the world, science, facts and other things. In doing so many sometimes miss the ingredient called faith which is needed to be saved from sin. "You must be born again," Jesus said. Are we too full of worldly wisdom to understand that?
It's God's will that all believe and are saved but only a few exercise the faith God gives when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin.
Letting go of our own so-called knowledge and trusting in the greater knowledge of God is not easy but necessary to enter into the holy things God has in store for us who believe. We have access to so many good things if only we would simply believe. I'm not talking of material things even though God promises to care for us. I'm talking of deep things of God that nothing in this world can even compare to.
Let us get our minds off what material value we can get from God and concentrate on the true riches which the world can never receive.
If we only are concerned with asking God for the things of this life, we are robbing ourselves of the true riches.
The gospel is given to them but they are too high and mighty to receive it so naturally God can't call them into ministering the word and partaking of the spirit of God. God chooses men who we may never think worth choosing. He sees what we can't see. He may choose a child, a poor man, a slave, an uneducated person, a publican or what we may see as the scum of the world. Yet again He sometimes chooses a person of great importance as far as the world sees it, like the president, a king or some rich person with great wealth. We can't limit God but in His sight we are all the same.
The Pharisees probably saw the apostles as poor uneducated fishermen. Perhaps they thought that, surely God would not choose such as they were if Jesus was Messiah.
If God chose the rich, highly esteemed and educated, we might think it is by their own merits that they were chosen. God chooses the weak so that they will have to rely completely on His Holy Spirit for their direction. When they speak words of wisdom, it causes men to marvel because they could not do it without the spirit of God. Being chosen by God can happen to anyone: Rich, poor, young, old, those despised by the elitist, or any ethnic background.
Through Jesus we become wise, righteous, sanctified and are redeemed from sin. All this is not by our own works but because of His unmerited favor that He gives to those who simply believe in Him. To really believe in Christ is to renounce our past ways and past sins and receive Him into our lives to make all things new. We have to recognize that we alone cannot make heaven and we alone cannot be forgiven of sins. We have to see that truth that we have to lay aside all our own works and accept the work Christ did on our behalf when He willingly laid down His live and paid the price for our sins. He suffered and died that we might receive Him and live.
We have no reason to boast and exalt one person above another because we have nothing that we were not given by God when He saw our simply faith in Jesus Christ. To choose Jesus is to choose life.
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