Newsletter February 24, 2010

From the Senior Pastor...

To prepare for preaching at the African Bible University the week of March 8 I’ve been editing and reworking the fourteen sermons from 1 Corinthians 13. It’s been a wonderful exercise for me.

Therefore, to be confident that I understand the context and circumstances out of which Paul writes about “this most excellent way” I’ve been re-reading 1 and 2 Corinthians.

It’s both encouraging and sobering to read what Paul says about the church at Corinth in the opening chapter of 1 Corinthians.

Paul tells the Corinthians they have been “sanctified in Christ Jesus” — that is, they have been set apart by God to be numbered among His particular people.

He tells them in verses four and five that being the recipients of God’s grace they “have been enriched in every way — in all [their] speaking and in all [their] knowledge.”

In verse seven he assures them that they “do not lack any spiritual gift.”

He promises in verse eight that the Lord will keep them “strong to the end, so that [they] will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Finally, in verse nine he reminds them that the God who has called them to live in fellowship with Jesus is faithful to His promises.

These are wonderfully encouraging statements, because what was true for the church at Corinth is true of CPC. We are together One Body. And therefore, like the Corinthians before us, we are God’s people, recipients of His grace, enriched in every way, not lacking any spiritual gift, knowing that God will keep us strong to the end, so we will be blameless at His appearing and may now live our lives in fellowship with Christ. And all these things are yea and amen because the One who promises is faithful.

But this is what is sobering. The people of the church at Corinth were wrestling with many sinful issues. They were divisive. They were arrogant. They were marred by jealousy and quarrels. They were stained with the sin of sexual immorality. And some of their disagreements were so vociferous they willingly turned to the public courts to settle their differences.

No wonder Paul ends chapter twelve telling them “And now I will show you the most excellent way,” and begins chapter fourteen exhorting them to “follow the way of love.”

Of course between those two, as most of you know, is chapter thirteen where Paul speaks at length about this grace of love that God bestows upon all his people.

In chapters twelve and fourteen he talks about spiritual gifts. And while not every member has every gift, the church as a Body has all the gifts it needs. But every member of Christ’s Body has been given the grace to love God and one another as He has loved us.

It is this passionate love for God and others that equips and empowers the body to avoid the sinful problems besetting the church at Corinth.

Back in chapter one, verse two, having described them as “sanctified,” Paul calls upon the Corinthians “to be holy.” That is, to live lives set apart to serving God as we serve one another in His Name. The key is 1 Corinthians 13. If we will love as we have been loved, then our lives will be lived to the glory of God and for the temporal and eternal benefit of others.

Pastor Caines