DEVOTION
THE 1ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS
NO CONFUSION
1 Cor 4:6-7
6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for
your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do
not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man
over against another. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do
you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast
as though you did not?
NIV
In order to get the reason for what Paul is saying here, we would have
to go on for the whole of this chapter. It would seem this church in Corinth
had some real problems. There were misusing the teaching they had received. We
already know the division that was among them regarding following the teaching
of Paul or the teaching of Apollos, and some said that neither should be
followed as Christ is the one to follow. Certainly, great arguments over these
non-theological issues were central in their lives. This is why Paul tells them
to not go beyond what is written. The question is as to what was written at
that time. Were there other letters circulating? Was there a gospel accord that
was already available? Was Paul referring to the Old Testament writings that
pointed to Christ? Yet, the point is still the same today. We have that which was
written and still, it seems that we want to go beyond and develop our own brand
of faith. Maybe we focus too much on the tertiary issues, debating on what we
think are the finer points of Christianity rather than simply trying to follow
Jesus. We certainly are not any different and any other, or better than others,
like they may have thought about Paul and Apollos as one being better than the
other, or that even among themselves they were developing this attitude that
one knew more than the other. We all are in Christ and Christ is in all of us,
if we all have received Christ. The main point of any believers’ life should be
Christ. Yes, we believe that all scripture is God-breathed and all scripture is
profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training us in righteousness.
However, would we not want to say that the teaching of Jesus is central to all
scripture? He never contradicted anything else that was already written,
although he did clarify it. Still, Jesus is the central theme of our lives and
we would be wise to focus our attention on His word, rather than on all the
volumes of man-written texts. It is far better to quote Jesus than what some
man has to say. Although, it is good to read what others think, for it does
give us some insight into the word that we may have missed, or did not consider
in the way they did. However, in the final analysis, it is the Spirit to leads
us into all truth. God reveals His truth into our hearts. We have received his
word, and His Spirit and so we should live as though we have received that
which God has given us. It appears the Corinthian Church was not acting as
though they had received Christ because of the divisions among them over which
man was better. We cannot afford that manner of thinking. We have to see all of
us as fellow believers, co-heirs with Christ, children of God, members of the
body of Christ, each with an important role in the body. In this manner, we
would not think more highly of ourselves than we should, but with sober
judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given us. This way we
would be building each other up until we all reach unity in the faith. We
have not received the spirit of confusion but of peace. Paul will tell them
that later in this letter. It is the same with us, we should not have confusion
among us, but peace, unity, springing out of the love we have for each other.
There should be no confusion whatsoever about Christ.
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