August 19, 2002
BaptistWay Bible Study for Texas lesson for Sept. 15
Leaning on God's widsom the beginning of maturity
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1 Corinthians 2:14-3:16
___2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
___3:1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?
___5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
___10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
___16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
___By Bob Nickell
___Life is moving from one stage of development to another. We are allowed or permitted to move ahead as we master the skills necessary to function in one phase while preparing for the next.
___Watching my grandson, Grant, the first year of his life reminded me of this truth. As he mastered the skills of eating and drinking--from a bottle to solid food and a cup; from rolling over and crawling to standing and walking; from looking at light and colors to touching details like leaves and flowers--he passed from one phase to another rather quickly.
___Even in school we learn basic skills for our age, and when we master reading, writing and arithmetic, we are allowed to advance to the next grade. As we get older and are more responsible, society permits us to operate a motor vehicle. At age 16, or so, we get a driver's license.
___In the following stages we may go off to college, marry, have children, become grandparents and retire. These are some of the stages we pass through, and we call this process maturing.
___There is a similar process in our Christian faith. We pass through stages, master certain skills and hopefully mature in our faith. "Faith" is not a passive word, but an active verb. Because our faith is to be growing, changing and maturing, we understand that we all are at different stages of development.
___This is the analogy the Apostle Paul used to describe spiritual matters of the faith. He began by defining the spiritual and the unspiritual person.
___Spiritual and unspiritual person
___In psychology classes in college and in my clinical pastoral education training, I learned two terms that have helped me greatly over the years. One term is "inner-directed"; the other, "outer-directed."
___The concept has to do with making decisions. Some people are more inner-directed, meaning they look to their past experiences, their own judgment, their conscience, to God's leading as they choose the path to follow. These people often are confident.
___Outer-directed people often are slow to decide. They must consult with family or friends or significant people in their lives on day-to-day decisions. They are marked by fear, sometimes failure and a lack of self-confidence.
___Paul says the spiritual person is confident (v. 14-16). He or she consults with God. Such people have integrity, are moral and have a code of ethics to follow and make decisions based on the Holy Spirit interpreting truth to them.
___The unspiritual person does not pursue the Holy Spirit and therefore does not know divine reality. The unspiritual person follows his own desires and wishes without concern for others.
___As often happens in the life-cycle, we sometimes revert back to our immature pattern of living. A grown man or woman, at times, acts immaturely, depending on the circumstances. We say some people "just never grow up." The decisions they make, the choices they follow show immaturity. There are some youth and children who act more mature and responsible than do some of adult age.
___As Paul addressed the divisions at the church in Corinth (3:1-4), he noted a level of immaturity that must be recognized and accepted.
___Babes in Christ
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___The apostle addressed those immature believers as brothers (3:1), so he was not excluding them from the family of God. Even though they were in Christ, they were not growing up and maturing in him. Thus, they were referred to as babes in Christ.
___The genuinely spiritual person is one who follows and lives by the Spirit of God. Since these followers were babes in Christ, Paul could only feed them milk and not solid food (v. 2). Paul determined their immaturity to be based on the existence of "jealousy and strife" and the presence of group loyalties. They were a people whose lives were controlled by their own drives and not the will of God.
___Their behavior was compared by Paul to "ordinary men" (v. 3). Men and women truly united in Christ are not fractured by strife and jealousy. To be splintered and disjointed is not the work of the Holy Spirit, but the work of the flesh.
___Those who are led by the Spirit of God to spiritual maturity know they belong to Christ and to him alone. They do not claim allegiance to any man, only Christ. That's why we're called servants.
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___Servants
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___In James Michener's novel "Hawaii," an old man contracts leprosy. The year is 1870, and lepers are outcasts in Hawaiian society, forced to live in leper colonies far from their loved ones. When the old man shares his sad news with his family, his wife kneels before him and offers herself as his kokua.
___A kokua is a healthy person who willingly commits to staying with and nursing a leprous patient. Those kokuas, or helpers, move to the leper colony and run the risk of catching the disease too. Before they are allowed on the ship that will take them away from their home, an official stands on deck and asks for the final time, "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" One must be committed to be a kokua.
___To be willing to place God's will and the needs of others ahead of our own is living the spiritual life. It is the example of our Lord and Savior as he went to the cross on our behalf. It is the example we are to follow in the church to allow unity to prevail.
___Paul understood clearly his call of God as a Christian and as an apostle, but he rhetorically asked the question, "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each (3:5)."
___Servanthood still is hard to understand and more difficult to apply to our lives.
___While both of our children were in college, they waited tables at local restaurants in the cities where they attended school. They would tell us how hard they worked, how some people were rude and demanding and others very considerate. Attempting to serve others is not easy; most wait staff understand that.
___Any time we work with people, the demand can be insurmountable. Being servants of God takes love, patience and an understanding of our calling.
___As Paul reminded the readers, "I planted. Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." Servants perform tasks; they do not create change. Servants fulfill the responsibilities of their Master, but they do not manifest growth. God is in control of that task.
___As servants, or stewards, we are asked to be faithful to the vineyard to which we have been assigned.
___Texas Baptists have attempted to be good stewards of our time, talents and tithes. As needs arose, we created and supported children's homes, began hospitals, created colleges and universities and even seminaries, and developed teams to help in emergencies.
___We have attempted to follow the "I planted, Apollos watered" theory of stewardship. Thus, education, support, medical care, disasters of nature and care of senior adults have thrust Baptists in Texas into the forefront of missions and ministries.
___Being a servant brings out the best in us. Being seen brings out the worst in us.
___Remember how some of the apostles squabbled over their being seen in the kingdom Jesus was going to usher in? One wanted to be seen on his right hand; the other, to be seen on his left hand. Even their mother nosed into the middle of the feud (Matthew 20:20-28).
___Our Lord ended the conversation with these words: "Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."
___To serve one another removes any chance of choosing sides. To be a servant of God does not allow us to "lord it over others." That does not mean we become "milk toasts" nor the "door mat" for others.
___It means we seek to serve, not separate; to serve, not stifle; to serve, not silence; to serve, not sever.
___The unspiritual man or woman responds in a crisis, "If you don't play my way, I'll take my ball and go home." The spiritual person sees the ball as our ball to begin with. They make no claim of ownership; for after all, they are servant, not owner.
___In Religion in Daily Life (May 24, 2001), Edward Chinn writes: "In India there is a cemetery where the bodies of American soldiers are buried. Over the entrance to the cemetery are these words: 'Tell Them We Gave Our Todays for Their Tomorrows.'"
___Someone paid a price for our tomorrows. Because Christ died for our tomorrows, we owe him our lives in servanthood.
___We must not be concerned over the results of our labors, only that we labor faithfully and are committed each day. The changes in peoples' lives are not ours to determine, they are up to God. He makes people change. He creates hope in others' lives.
___But he uses our lives to touch the lives of others. We are to be his servants and remember we are not Lord. A good steward makes no claims on possessions of the Master. We are called to care for his possessions as though they were our own, never forgetting whose we are.
___Servanthood is about maturing and growing. We all pass through stages in the pilgrimage of faith. We must learn how to master the skills of each stage so we can move to the next level of maturity.
___Remember that all people begin at different levels and advance at various speeds. We don't all have to be on the same page. That is why some are leaders and some are learning to grow. With compassion and patience, we all discover the best in each other, and then we can encourage one another to a new level of maturity.
Questions for thought and discussion
___What are some basic guidelines for determining a Christian's maturity level? How do they apply to your life?
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