Sermon Text for 2/28/10 - Spirituality's Mark – 1 Corinthians 12
The Corinthian church struggled for its existence in it’s early years. Not against outside forces so much as against its own destruction from within. That potential for destruction came from a tendency within the congregation to prefer power and position over sacrifice and unity.
The Wisdom of the Cross- meaning Jesus-style “others-first” sacrificial living- sounded good when Paul talked about it, but when it came down to it, it was about as desirable as chocolate bacon.
This letter we’ve been studying reveals the Corinthian church body to be Me-First, puffed-up (Mr. Toad), quarrelsome, prestige- seeking collectors of worldly power and human wisdom.
Now, they don’t stay this way thanks to Paul’s ministry and the Spirit’s faithful work in their lives the Corinthians actually become more like Christ, more selfless than selfish. In fact, part of the reason Paul writes 2Corinthians is to commend them that they are being transformed into the mirror image of the Lord, himself (2Cor 3:18). But that’s down the road a piece.
In the present their ME-centered superiority is evident even in their times of worship. We saw this with the Corinthian women and the head-scarf and in the discriminatory format they used for eating the Lord’s Supper. Having dealt with those worship issues, we can tell by his choice of words that Paul is now turning his attention to an actual question from the Corinthians.
What the Corinthians actually asked Paul is uncertain. One direct translation reads: 12:1 But Concerning Spirituals brethren I do not want you to be ignorant…) Notice that the word “gifts” isn’t in the sentence.
Thanks to letters and visitors from Corinth, Paul knows what’s going on and he’s prepared to give the Church the instruction they need- rather than what they want. He will use their question to say some things they need to hear about “spiritual gifts.” But the concern they sent to Paul probably wasn’t about Spiritual gifts but about being “spiritual.”
Remember, the majority of Christians in Corinth were gentiles. Most had been worshipers of the gods. They’d sacrificed and worshipped in the pagan temples. Prophecies and strange utterances weren’t NEW to them. They’d seen pagan prophets in trances foretell things and they’d heard ecstatic strange utterances from priests and priestesses before.
And in their culture those people were spiritually gifted, special and revered. They were great among mortals, holy and spiritual, because some god- Apollo for example- had chosen to give them this gift of supernatural speech. In Greek stories we read of the Oracle of Delphi, or Cassandra of Troy or Sybil in Virgil’s Aeneid. (Or from the NT the slave girl in Philippi who tells fortunes in Acts 16.)
Imagine the eye-opener when, in their worship, the Corinthian Christians began to hear prophecy coming from their peers in the congregation and strange tongues, speaking the praises of God coming from the mouth of their neighbor next to them or the slave in the row behind them. Can you imagine their wild delight: Ordinary people set apart with special gifts in the worship service!!
This would be exciting: make you feel good, …special, …gifted, …important.
And, in Paul’s absence, that feeling of importance grew and grew.
The Corinthians got excited about these gifts and they loved to practice them. (So much so that Paul tells them to take turns and warns against speaking in tongues if a translator isn’t present 14:27-30.)
And they were excited about the many “spiritual,” supernatural things going on in the worship of the church. In 14:12 Paul describes them as EAGER or FULL OF ZEAL about spiritual gifts.
They wanted gifts like Elmer Fudd wants Bugs Bunny, like Tom wants Jerry, like Ralphie wants "an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time."
In particular they were excited about this amazing spiritual power that Paul calls “tongues” or glossolalia. Basically the gift of tongues consisted of the supernatural ability (given by God) to speak in a language you’d never learned and (usually) still didn’t understand. Sometimes it was used as a personal aid to worship and others it was spoken aloud for the congregation. Sometimes it was interpreted so all could understand but sometimes it wasn’t.
Sometimes it was a human language that foreign listeners could understand (as in Acts 2) but sometimes it was a completely unknown language maybe even –as Paul mentions in 13- the language of the angels.” (That is so cool! This the best worship ever. I love my church)
The Corinthians were infatuated by what they called “the spiritual.”
And they wanted to know more about those “spiritual things” They wanted to be more “spiritual.”
Considering that Paul spends these 3 chapters trying to get them to dial down their excitement about tongues, they must have asked about “the Spiritual” in a way that implied that the best sign of the presence of the Spirit was for a person to have this gift of tongues (Bruce).
In fact, again based on Paul’s argument through these three chapters, I’d say our excitable Corinthians were certain that the mark of highest spirituality wasn’t prophecy or teaching or healing or wisdom, or Love or declaring: “Jesus is Lord.” For them it was the flashy, theatrical, crowd -astounding gift of tongues. And therein lies the problem.
Now the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.
Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small
You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.
But because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, we’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.
With their snoots in the air they would sniff and they’d snort
We’ll have nothing to do with the plain-belly sort!
And whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
They’d hike right on past them without even talking.
Somehow, in Paul’s absence the flashy, obvious gift of tongues has become the star on the bellies of some Corinthian Sneetches. And with the gift/star came a sense of personal spiritual superiority.
Paul says (v1): he doesn’t want them to be “ignorant” about “the spiritual” – implying, of course, that they currently are. In a fairly gentle manner Paul will point them toward two simple signs of the Spirit and try to help them understand the reason for the gifts existence.
Now not all spiritual things are of Christ. And even those that are can be used the wrong way.
This is why Paul opens the discussion by reminding them of where they came from.
2 You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute (speechless) idols, however you were led.
There’s spiritual and then there’s spiritual.
They’d seen the “personal indulgence” kind of “spiritual” when they worshipped in the pagan temples.
The Corinthians, in their excitement over these gifts, were in danger of turning their life in Christ into a festival of personal experience- making worship all about me all the time- when it was supposed to be a celebration of Jesus-style sacrifice & service.
Paul wants them to remember their past and their idol worship. The things they saw and heard and did were all exciting and “spiritual” but it was all about me and my blessing, my pleasure, my requests granted. It was big and enthusiastic and raucous and very “spiritual” and Godless.
Neither mystery nor enthusiasm, neither willies or warm-fuzzies are the measure of authentic spirituality. The pagans could be very mysterious and very enthusiastic.
Okay tongues and prophecies can be found in the pagan temples and excitement and wild worship aren’t the mark of an authentic spirituality. “So what is?” The Corinthians might ask.
Paul says:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”;
and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s point is: the thing that marks any Spirituality as valid or not is what it says about Jesus. And as far as Paul is concerned it’s as simple as “Jesus be cursed” or “Jesus is Lord.”
The word cursed is the Greek “anathema” which literally means “destined for destruction.”
Anybody or anything “destined for destruction” has a pretty short shelf life, no future. Sooner or later they will be erased from existence- a drop in the pan, forgotten in time - Asta la vista, baby!. To say Jesus is cursed is to say Jesus is nothing. Lots of people say that in lots of ways today.
While it’s unlikely anyone was actually saying “Jesus be cursed” in the church, this is the sort of thing those persecuting Christians, would try to force Christians to say. In Acts 26 Paul in his own testimony, tells King Agrippa: Acts 26:11a Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme.
Synagogue prayers regularly cursed heretics and apostates. Jesus fit that category. Not the least because the law said anyone hung from a tree was cursed (Gal3;13). It’s likely that Jewish Christians were told to curse Jesus or be tossed from the Synagogue. (Acts tells us Paul was tossed out in Corinth.)
Some years down the road the Romans took up the challenge of getting Christians to curse Christ. Polycarp was a Christian bishop of the town of Smyrna in the 2nd century. He was arrested for his faith in Christ. And the proconsul said to him: “Say, away with the atheists, swear by the godhead of Caesar and blaspheme Christ.” Polycarp, a great lover of Jesus, whom you will meet some day replied: “Eighty and six years have I served Christ, and he has never done me wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
For the Romans, anyone who didn’t worship their gods- in particular Caesar- was an atheist (anti-god, contrary to god). They wanted Polycarp to say Caesar is Lord and Jesus is not.
But by the power of the Holy Spirit he would not call Jesus anything less than Lord and King.
There’s the test of authentic spirituality!!
Jesus is Lord is the most basic statement of Christian faith. Lord is the Greek: kyrios. It was the official political title of the Roman Emperor. To say “Jesus is Lord” in Paul’s world also meant “and Caesar isn’t.” In Corinth you couldn’t walk around saying: Jesus is Lord and expect to have yourself a happy-clappy spiritual experience.
It’s interesting that on the Hebrew side of things: When the OT scriptures were translated into Greek (Septuagint) Kyrios was the word chosen by Jewish translators for the sacred name of God.
To call Jesus Lord was (and is) a political and social statement. It is a statement of supreme loyalty and supreme worship. And it’s one of Paul’s two surefire marks of authentic spirituality.
(You can find the other indicator discussed in ch.13)
The Corinthians were infatuated with “the spiritual.” And those who had the gifts- especially the very visible gift of tongues thought themselves as “spiritually gifted, great among the mortals, SUPERIOR.
The Corinthians, were in danger of turning their life in Christ into a festival of personal experience- when it was supposed to be a life of Jesus-style sacrifice & service.
The Corinthians, in their ignorance (Paul’s word) thought the mark of a spiritual person was supernatural gifts. Paul says the thing that marks spirituality as valid is whether it calls Jesus Lord or not.
In these 3 chapters we’ll see Paul working to get this church to throttle back their excitement over tongues (Like when he tells them: 1Cor. 14:19… in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.)
And we’ll see him apply gentle pressure to help them grasp that all gifts are equal, all gifts are necessary, all gifts are given to whom God wants by God to achieve God’s plan.
In 14:20 he tells them to “grow up and stop acting like children!!)
It’s not about us. It’s about God’s plan and purpose.
And God’s PURPOSE for these supernatural gifts IS NOT cool experiences to boost adrenalin or endorfins or some sort of godly personal … spirit-candy.
The point of an empowered, authentic spiritual life in which Jesus is Lord is- twofold:
SACRIFICIAL SERVICE TO THE CHURCH and the world (12:7 &14:26)
and growth in loyalty to Jesus who is Lord (12:3).
Some questions for us all as we end today:
How does one go about acting superior to those who didn’t seem as “spiritual” as we are?
What “gifts” do we tend to prefer over others and why do you think that is?
What are the factors in the way we judge who is “spiritual” and who is not?
The Corinthians looked for flashy, visible gifts, what do we look for?
If the confession “Jesus is Lord” isn’t enough for us, why is that?
Today how does one go about making worship our own “festival of personal experience?”
Today how does one go about making worship a celebration of Jesus-style sacrifice?
When you come to worship on Sunday morning is your goal sacrificial service to the body of Christ?
When you come to worship on Sunday morning is your goal to grow in loyalty to Jesus who is Lord?
You think about that. And we’ll talk about it downstairs.
