Isn't there One Wise Enough?

In Corinth, the members of the church were going to court with one another over trivial matters. By doing so they were bringing the name of Christ into disrepute and were driven by pride and greed. We as believers may not necessarily go to court against one another, but we certainly can go to war with one another. I've seen it enough, where members of a church can have differences that lead to major blow-ups and problems. But if we can stem it at the root a lot can be stopped. A good analysis can be found in James 4:1-4

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The root of infighting and quarrels is covetousness, which is described here as "passions within". Covetousness is not the same as being envious. There is a distinction. Envy is when we covet what belongs to someone else. Coveting in general simply means a strong desire for anything that we think will make us happier. It is at its core idolatry, because we are trying to find happiness and satisfaction in something else rather than God (Cf. Eph.5:5) God is the ultimate source of our happiness, peace and joy.Whenever we try to satisfy our souls with something else rather than God we will always be left with a craving for more. We may satisfy our carnal appetite for a moment, but soon we will need more (cf. Eccl. 5:10.) But Jesus made a promise to us- that all those who come to him will find complete and everlasting satisfaction. In John 4 when Jesus met the woman at the well, he asked her for water and then began to witness to her. She was looking more at temporal satisfaction in life, and Jesus uses the water to illustrate the life giving satisfaction of the gift of eternal life:

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

When we find our satisfaction and contentment in Christ, we will not long and crave after the things of this life. Whether it be money,materiel possessions, health, relationships, a promotion, a title, respect, or the acceptance of others. But when we live to merely satisfy our "passions" it will inevitably lead to anger, bitterness and fighting, because someone is going to get in the way.

The moral of the story is that when we live to merely satisfy our passion, we are considered an adulterous people and friends of the world, making us enemies of God. We are provoke God to jealousy, because we are fining more enjoyment in something else other than him. And furthermore, we provoke him because we disrupt the unity of the church and sacrifice love on the alter of the idol of self. The solution is simple- 1 Peter 2:11- "to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul." and to "Flee from idols" 1 John 5:21. In the end this calls us to die to self. When we die to self, we find our happiness and satisfaction in the life giving waters of communion with God and we dwell in unity with our brethren promoting the unity of the church.

Purge the Evil from your Midst

After unpacking the text of 1 Corinthians 5 we were faced with the unavoidable instructions on how a church is to deal with a member who refuses to repent of their sin. The order is very simple- to expel the immoral brother. Such an approach is highly unpopular today but we cannot determine our churches policies based on what is popular, but on what God says. After all it is his church. We only touched on some of the aspects of biblical church discipline, however there is much more to be said. Here are a few more ideas to chew on and think about in regard to how we approach the subject.

1- Biblical Church discipline is based primarily on the instructions of Jesus in Matt. 18:15-20 and the instructions of Paul in 1 Cor. 5. When comparing the two passages we learn that the church has a responsibility to keep each other accountable to one another. But how do we know what church we are accountable to? In the early church there weren't any options- you were saved and automatically added to the local church and became a member. But in our day, many people come to faith in Christ but refuse to covenant with a local church. With so many churches and denominations in our day, the only we we can be held accountable to the church is through church membership. It is by church membership that we identify ourselves with Christ through covenanting with a local church body Acts 5:13, where it says, "No one dared join the church." What does it mean to join? What about the headcounts in Acts? 3000, 5000, etc.How were these headcounts taken unless there was membership roll?

But more implicitly- how can you be removed from the church if you are not part of it to begin with?

2: Excommunication is the final step in biblical church discipline. Through a series of steps the church works hard to restore the offender. It is only when the church has exhausted itself that excommunication is absolutely necessary. Have you seen extremes in carrying this step out? Have you seen churches that tolerate gross sin in the church without penalty? If so what were the ramifications? Have you seen a church abuse its authority and expel members for the slightest infraction without any chance? What are the ramifications of that? Have you ever been expelled from the church or have you ever known anyone who has been expelled? If so what was the experience like?

3: When Paul talked about handing the person over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, my analysis of the text brought me to the understanding that when someone sins against God they forfeit the blessings and protective grace of God found in the church. While some churches fail to excommunicate a person for gross sin for whatever reason, does this person still experience the grace of God as a member of the local church? What about people who withdraw or leave the church church of their own volition because they are in rebellion? What bout people who have church membership and have secret hidden sin? I believe God hands them over to Satan. I have seen enough people who fall into other categories that God has handed over to Satan and allowed the evil one to do a number on them. What about you? Have you ever seen or experienced this?

God's Rdemption of Mankind Through Motherhood

In this past weeks sermon we saw how God made a promise to Eve that through the seed of the woman, the serpents head would be crushed, thus making a promise and an oath that he would obliterate and destroy the works of Satan through the seed of the woman. That seed is Jesus Christ and that one woman who would give birth to Christ by miraculous means was Mary the wife of Joseph. God continued to verify his promise of mankind when he made a covenant with Abraham. He promised Abraham a "seed"in which "All the nations shall be blessed". The blessing of all nations can mean nothing but the redemption of all humanity through the seed of Abraham. Paul reiterates this in Gal. 3:16 where he says, "Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offspring,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ."

This is why it was so important for the Christ to be "born of a woman". In order to be our perfect representative, and in order to redeem the human race and reconcile us back to God, he had to become like us. Therefore the incarnation is absolutely necessary in our Christology. In Heb. 2:14-18 we read...

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.


The Virgin birth was necessary to bring about the person of the Christ, and that Jesus could be the Son of God and Son of Man all at the same time. However throughout Christian history many have tried to explain the mystery of the union of the two natures of Christ through human reasoning and consistently come short. Subsequently we are left with heresies. It is is important for us as believers to have a sound understanding of the necessity of the joining of the two natures and why it is important to affirm and insist the bible teaches Christ is both human and God.

This is not an easy concept to grasp, and many who have struggled with it have erred to one degree or another. In the Chalcedon Confession the early church fathers, faced with a variety of opinions regarding the nature of Christ, took a biblical position on the nature of Christ and established this confession as a fundamental core value of biblical Christianity.

I hope this blesses you..