PRACTICAL UNITY AND LOVE
[p. 334] PRACTICAL UNITY AND LOVE
1 Corinthians 2:1 - 16; 1 Corinthians 3:1 - 17
JT It is well known that the epistle (and the second as well, but especially the first) is intended to correct any tendency to division. It is thought therefore that the second chapter being read, will help to practical unity and love, love amongst ourselves. It will look as if there was much amiss in this assembly at Corinth. The subject is taken up again later in regard to the Lord’s supper, and sects being developed in the assembly. “For there must also be sects among you, that the approved may become manifest among you”,1 Corinthians 11:19. It will also be noticed that the apostle is very gracious in opening his letter, and he treats the situation as local, and indicative of the local assembly, “with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours” 1 Corinthians 1:2. So that the local position is pointed out, so that anything that was amiss is adjusted, and in measure this is so in the second epistle. Another thing is seen in paragraphs 1 and 2 of chapter 1, that they are what is called (as in John’s first epistle) ‘abstract’. That will account for the grave charge as to divisions among them opened up in verses 10 to 17 of chapter 1. There are very strong statements as to divisions, and how they are to be met, and in chapter 3 it carries on the thought of division, adding the thought that they were “temple of God”, because the Spirit of God dwells amongst them. These are general remarks to show what is in mind so that we may all be free, as having the Holy Spirit, who is here dwelling amongst us. We were reading yesterday chapter 11, and thought it dealt with the service of God, as having its beginning in the Lord’s supper; so we can continue now in the truth of these chapters.
Ques You spoke of the sects in chapter 11, “there must also be sects among you”. What about them in the light of the portion read?
JT Yesterday it was the Lord’s supper we had in mind, leading up to the worship of God the Father, and now it is thought to extend the matter. Sects may spring up where love is not active, but serve to show those who are going on with God, “the approved”. If any party spirit or sectarianism exists, it should be condemned at once.
Ques Would Sosthenes the brother bring in the brotherly spirit, the Spirit of Christ?
JT Yes, the brotherly spirit, and now we have what is abstract, what is not well understood by the brethren. The apostle begins to speak of them in chapter 1:4 as if they were right, “I thank my God always about you, in respect of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus; that in everything ye have been enriched in him, in all word [of doctrine], and all knowledge (according as the testimony of the Christ has been confirmed in you,) so that ye come short in no gift, awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall also confirm you to the end, unimpeachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. These verses are abstract; God has a right to speak of them abstractly; a perfect right to speak in the abstract. We find it in John’s epistle, too. God is for the brethren, they have no need to be discouraged. In the first paragraph we have, “Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ, by God’s will”, that is God has called him to apostleship, “and Sosthenes the brother, to the assembly of God which is in Corinth”; the assembly of God is thus accredited and set up in the epistle; “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus,
[p. 336] called saints, with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”, 1 Corinthians 1:1,2, meaning that the mutual side is stressed, or hinted at, in the abstract sense; “theirs and ours” however far away, universal fellowship and local fellowship are both there at once.
Rem It is necessary to have this abstract view of the saints if we are to go on together.
JT Yes, peculiarly abstract, in view of what the apostle was going to say in a condemnatory sense, which continues from chapter 1 to chapter 3.
Ques Is it God’s faithfulness over against our unfaithfulness?
JT God can be counted on. It is His love; “God is faithful”.
Rem So Paul is showing God’s concern as to the saints at Corinth.
JT He speaks abstractly here; to the Thessalonians he speaks in terms of endearment. Nevertheless things are, and were, being held in Corinth; it is the same today, wherever they are walking in the truth. Do not be discouraged, go on, go on, go on. The Spirit of God is always ready by our side, to help in our weakness; all things are in our favour.
Rem So he can say commendatory things here.
JT Yes, commendatory things, but then these reports had come to him; but even so things can be mended, as in chapter 5. God is ready to do anything to help us; so the man who sinned was ready to be restored before they expected it.
Ques “With all that in every place”, 1 Corinthians 1:2, how far does that go?
JT Is that not clear? Wherever the brethren are, God is ready to help them.
Ques We meet many Christians; are they in this?
JT Are they walking in the truth? Can they be [p. 337] in fellowship?
Ques Is it persons in the 2 Timothy 2 position?
JT “Those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”.
Rem I refer to persons who are not breaking bread; are they all in this?
JT If they are calling on the name of the Lord they are qualified to break bread. God is entitled to deal with them in the abstract, so it reads “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”, 1 Corinthians 1:9. Is that what you understand by being in fellowship?
Rem I could not say that; many dear Christians with whom I work in business, are they in this?
JT I do not think so. It is a question of calling “on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”. It is the general idea of the fellowship; we and they are in fellowship.
Rem “Now I exhort you, brethren”; we are to listen to the Pauline appeal.
Ques Are not “all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” the same persons as in 2 Timothy 2:22, “those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”?
JT “Out of a pure heart”, that is the thing. Do you wish to convey that those you speak of are in the position of 2 Timothy 2? What are they?
Rem They are lovers of Jesus.
JT That is not enough. Do they “call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”?
Rem They should be here tonight to answer for themselves!
JT Yes.
Rem While you would be happy to meet lovers of the Lord Jesus, they are tested by the light, and whether they are prepared for that.
JT So it says, “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and [p. 338] the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1:7.
Rem 2 Timothy 2 would encourage us to “walk in the truth”, 2 John 4; 3 John 4.
JT I should assume most here are walking in the truth. So that man, Sosthenes, is a real brother, not a Plymouth brother! He loves the brethren.
Rem “And he made fifty clasps of copper to couple the tent, that it might be one”, Exodus 36:18. Does that help?
JT It does; it is the quality of the material, copper or brass. Judgment can be used by its means.
Rem The clasps would be like having the same mind, “that it might be one”.
JT Just so. The brazen altar is in mind. Judgment is executed by it.
Rem The clasps are to join to one another.
JT Just so, especially the goats’ hair curtains; they would be rough, and resist anything that is against Christ.
Rem Really they represent those walking in separation.
JT Just so.
Ques Does the goats’ hair appear in the elect lady of 2 John? She is to have no parleying with what is evil (verse 10).
JT Just that; no quarter is to be given to it, “do not receive him into the house, and greet him not”,2 John 10.
Rem John speaks roughly of Diotrephes, “I will bring to remembrance his works which he does, babbling against us with wicked words; and not content with these, neither does he himself receive the brethren; and those who would he prevents, and casts [them] out of the assembly”, 3 John 10.
JT He is like the man here who corrupts (or destroys) the temple; 1 Corinthians 3:17.
Rem Paul would be sensitive to these divisions;
[p. 339] in Romans 16:16,17 he says, “All the assemblies of Christ salute you”, and then “But I beseech you, brethren, to consider those who create divisions and occasions of falling”.
JT Now in our chapter we have, “For it has been shewn to me concerning you, my brethren, by those [of the house of] Chloe, that there are strifes among you. But I speak of this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is the Christ divided? has Paul been crucified for you? or have ye been baptised unto the name of Paul? I thank God that I have baptised none of you, unless Crispus and Gaius, that no one may say that I have baptised unto my own name. Yes, I baptised also the house of Stephanas; for the rest I know not if I have baptised any other. For Christ has not sent me to baptise, but to preach glad tidings”, 1 Corinthians 1:11 - 17. He was sent to build up the kingdom and the assembly. Eve is spoken of in Genesis 2:22 as being built; it is an assembly thought.
Ques What is entailed in the word, “I exhort (or beseech) you”? Is it an antidote to these sects?
JT That is plain enough; he beseeches them that they all say the same thing; not haggling about things. That is what happened among certain classes of brethren almost at once. Opinions are brought up so often and set one against the other.
“For it has been shewn to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of the house of Chloe, that there are strifes among you”. How plain he is! He has said all he can for them in verses 1 to 9, and then we have the evil report through Chloe, “But I speak of this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is the Christ divided? has Paul been crucified for you? or have ye been baptised unto the name of Paul?”, 1 Corinthians 1:12,13. How plain all these things are, and thus pointing to a state of division.
[p. 340] Rem One spiritual man is a great help in ending such things by way of personal appeal. In Philippians 4:2 it is two sisters in the same way.
Rem It is the power of spiritual authority; judgment has begun in God’s house; 1 Peter 4:17.
JT Just so. In Hebrews 3:6 the Lord is presented as Son over the house, to contend with anything adverse in the house. Diotrephes intended to divide the saints, and to cast them out.
Rem It was glorifying man and not the Lord.
JT And again, “let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”; Paul speaks of that; 1 Corinthians 14:37.
Rem In the ship Paul says, “Ye ought, O men, to have hearkened to me”, Acts 27:21.
JT And then he says, “For an angel of the God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me this night, saying, Fear not, Paul”, Acts 27:23,24.
Ques Does the thought of being “perfectly united”, which means ‘mending’, show the need for clothing the saints with divine thoughts?
JT We have spoken of that, especially in dealing with Matthew’s gospel; chapter 4:21.
Ques Is the beseeching authoritative, “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”?
JT It would involve the care meeting if they are not right.
Ques Should other brethren be called in if they are in difficulties?
JT There is no need. There is sufficient in the local position. We have each other, and the presence of the Holy Spirit; we thus have the means of dealing with everything.
Rem But in love.
JT We come to that later on, in chapter 13.
Ques Sisters are not to be overlooked? Chloe was a sister.
JT She can help, for she can be used as a witness.
Rem “Wisdom hath built her house” (Proverbs 9:1); we have wisdom here, too.
JT Yes, it reads (verse 18), “For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is God’s power. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and set aside the understanding of the understanding ones. Where [is the] wise? where scribe? where disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom has not known God, God has been pleased by the foolishness of the preaching to save those that believe”, 1 Corinthians 1:18 - 21; so that wisdom has a great place in the instructions of this chapter.
Ques Is wisdom the means by which we “all say the same thing” (verse 10)?
JT Just so. Now in chapter 3 we can see how the apostle was labouring and giving them the instructions; really building, as Eve was built; it is an important word, as it refers to the assembly, and here it refers to the building, “But let each see how he builds upon it” (verse 10), and then, “For other foundation can no man lay besides that which [is] laid, which is Jesus Christ”, the Man; that is the idea of the foundation here. “Now if anyone build upon [this] foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, the work of each shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare [it], because it is revealed in fire; and the fire shall try the work of each what it is. If the work of anyone which he has built upon [the foundation] shall abide, he shall receive a reward” (a comforting and precious thought, that God offers a reward). “If the work of anyone shall be consumed, he shall suffer loss, but he shall be saved” (another beautiful thought, that God has in mind to save, even a man whose works have to be burned up), “but he shall be saved, but so as through the fire”; that is most drastic. In Peter it speaks of eight souls being “saved through water”, 1 Peter 3:20.
Ques Have we to regard our local brethren as material to be built into the structure?
JT Of course, as we love and adorn them; they are all to be built into the structure.
Rem So Paul shows how far God will go.
JT Sosthenes is a standing witness to brotherly love. “And now abide faith, hope, love; these three things; and the greater of these [is] love” (1 Corinthians 13:13); it is the comparative degree as over against the other two; love is the greatest of all, and covers the whole matter.
Rem So there is how he builds, in verse 10; that would involve love as the animating thing.
JT Love is the predominating thought.
Ques What would the gold imply in verse 12?
JT “Now if anyone build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones”. I am not quite sure that the gold should be taken out of the context that it is in. It is corruptible. The heavenly city is gold, but not corruptible.
Rem We are to keep to the foundation.
JT It is a question of what is put upon the foundation. How generous God is in dealing with people!
Rem So He gives us milk first, but His thought is that we should advance.
Ques Would there be a distinction between husbandry and building?
JT They show a dignified idea; husbandry is farming; building involves stones and mortar.
Ques Is husbandry what will follow in a place?
JT I think so. “I have planted; Apollos watered; but God has given the increase”; that is the great general thought, that God gives the increase. “So that neither the planter is anything, nor the waterer; but God the giver of the increase. But the planter and the waterer are one; but each shall [p. 343] receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are God’s fellow-workmen; ye are God’s husbandry, God’s building”.
Rem There is no jealousy.
JT Love predominates; “love never fails”; things that God is doing will go through. “According to the grace of God which has been given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation, but another builds upon it. But let each see how he builds upon it”. Paul has laid the foundation.
Rem You referred earlier to Jesus Christ as the Man, that it is in mind that there is only one Man. Possibly today different men are in view. Paul had only one Man.
JT For the foundation there is only one Man, “a sure foundation”; “on this rock I will build my assembly”, Matthew 16:18.
Rem Paul does not address the overseers here, but the saints as such; and in chapter 3, as “the temple of God” (verse 16), that would be the answer to the sects and rivalries; they would be met by the saints as a whole.
JT “Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8), and the Lord said, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves” (John 13:35); and it is to be among them in Corinth.
Rem There is an irresistible combination of love and authority in Paul; and in Sosthenes, we have one divinely rescued from a state of division.
JT Yes; all that, and Timotheus, too (chapter 4:17), and Chloe here, too; women can be brought into it, and do great work.
Rem We have “the house of Stephanas” in chapter 1 and chapter 16.
JT Yes, and if we went into chapter 12 we should see more. But here we have the shrine, “the temple of God” (verse 16), the Spirit of God dwelling among them.
[p. 344] Rem The temple here is a great added thought to what you have been speaking of in the first nine verses of chapter 1.
JT What is meant by “the temple of God”?
Rem All are indwelt by the Spirit, and that would sober us, so that we would not be seeking a place there.
Ques Would “ye are temple of God”, and in the next verse, “the temple of God is holy, and such are ye”, be abstract thoughts?
JT They are more than that.
Rem They lead up to holding firmly to the fact that “all things are yours” (verse 21).
JT Yes, and see how they are treated, with great liberality; “the Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5); we can use that word even for the Spirit, for He is always near.
Ques What about the quality of holiness (verse 17) in this connection?
JT “... And holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord”, Hebrews 12:14.
Ques Is it the power by which the enemy is excluded?
JT Very good. It is moral power for expelling the devil and all that is against God and Christ and the Spirit.
Rem The gates of the holy city in Revelation 21 are never closed (verse 25).
JT “Hades’ gates shall not prevail” (Matthew 16:18); they cannot prevail. The position of the assembly is invulnerable, and underlies all here.
Ques Are we to walk now in temple light?
JT That is a beautiful phrase.
Rem If temple light is to prevail, practical unity should be there first.
JT That is the whole thing, unity. You cannot have the local assembly functioning without unity.
Rem So it says, “If anyone corrupt the temple of God”.
JT That is the word, and then “him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye”; emphatic again. They were actually that, the temple of God in Corinth in the local sense.
Ques “Let no one deceive himself”; why is the thought of self-deception brought in here? If the saints are “temple of God”, would they be deceived? We may deceive ourselves, but not the saints going on in temple light.
JT So it says, “Be ye holy, for I am holy”, 1 Peter 1:16.
Rem He defends His own sphere.
JT “Him shall God destroy”; it is “destroy”, not ‘help’ but destroy; it refers to the devil; he is destroyed.
Ques What about the Holy Spirit in the temple of God; that means the Holy Spirit is there, and yet the thought of ‘destroyed’ is used in that connection? What about Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5?
JT They were not destroyed; they were buried as Christians.
Rem It says, they “swathed him up for burial”, Acts 5:6. They were treated with respect.
Rem God is jealous for His people.
JT Yes; He is spoken of as “a jealous God”, Exodus 20:5.