In yesterday’s study we concluded by talking about this idea of a separate category of Christian, what is sometimes called the “carnal Christian,” and which is based in part on our passage.
On the other side are those who say, “No you can’t distinguish between Christians in that fashion because if you’re born again, you must be going on with the Lord. You must acknowledge the lordship of Jesus Christ. Christ is no Savior if Christ is not the Lord. And at that point I speak positively and say, “That is absolutely right. If you’re a Christian, you’re regenerate. It’s impossible to think of a regenerate person not going on with the Lord in some fashion, one who is beginning to grow and to hunger and thirst after righteousness. If those things aren’t present in your life, you’re not saved. You’re not saved just because you give mental assent to something. You’re saved because you have the life of Christ within; and the life of Christ hungers and thirsts after righteousness. There must be growth and discipleship.”
And yet, I suppose, there is a certain sense in which there can be smugness here, too. In this case you can have somebody who makes a profession of faith, but who is living in what is apparently a non-Christian way. We can be very superior at that point and say, “Well, they’re just not saved,” when, in fact, they may be. What they need is Christian fellowship, help, and nurture in order to grow and enjoy the kind of spiritual advantages that we ourselves have.
When you put this in the context of what Paul is saying, it is not all that difficult. What Paul is saying is that these Christians in Corinth were acting like unbelievers. Do you ever know of Christians who act like unbelievers? Of course you do. You can tell that they are worldly; they are acting in a carnal way. That does not mean that there is a second, separate category of Christians. It simply means that Christians are acting the way they should not be acting. What they have to do is get out of that. They do have to change. And if they are really born again, they will change.
Paul tells us how they are acting like unbelievers. He says there are different things that they are doing. They have shallow teaching because they think the world’s wisdom is great. They do not know any of the deep things of God. He also says they have divisions in the church, which grow out of their own pride. They are very proud of what they know.
I would say that these things characterize much of the modern church—not just the modern liberal church, but the modern evangelical church. We see all these things: shallow doctrinal teaching, divisions based on rivalries among men and parties, and pride in the world’s wisdom. Perhaps that is why the church is so weak. That is why the church has been failing to make a stronger impact upon the world. Isn’t it proper to say that the evangelical church today is a worldly church in many ways? And yet, it is a true church of Jesus Christ. The kind of things that Paul says in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians can certainly be said about it. They are “those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy” (v. 2). It does not do any good to say, “Well, it’s not a true church.” Instead, what you have to say is, “Come on, those of you who are really believers, start acting like believers and stop acting like the world.” Of course, that is precisely what Paul is writing the letter to get them to do.
From here, he goes on in the second section to talk about the Christian ministry. The reason he talks about the ministry—and he is going to do it more in the next chapter—is that part of their worldliness has been seen in their dividing up of loyalties within their church in terms of whether they are of the teaching and methods of Paul, Apollos, or Peter.
I suppose if we looked at what these men taught, we could say that there were certain differences among them. Paul himself acknowledges certain differences in saying that he came to lay a foundation, while Apollos came to build on the foundation. But, you see, the point Paul is making here when he talks about the Christian ministry is that the ministry is one. The first thing he says about ministers is that they are servants.
