1 Corinthians - I urge...the same mind

Today we'll be taking our first steps, and those first steps will be looking into the meat of the passage after Paul's introduction in 1 Corinthians. They had come to Paul with these oral accounts and written questions for him. And so what he does is he brings these together as he alternates between them. This is a slide that we included in last week's handout. And so what he's beginning here is here's kind of the first things that have been passed along to him in oral form. And he's going to address those first and then go three times alternating between what was written and what is oral before he finishes the letter here. He starts off, as Courtney read for us, I exhort you. Now this is something where it's important to understand what he's trying to do.

Exhorting, urging, or even imperatives that you find in scripture, even if it comes across as you must or you must not or you ought to or any of those things, they are an appeal for the believer to live in daily condition as they already are in their eternal position.

Each one of us, as a believer, has a place in Christ and Christ indwelling us that's fixed and unchangeable. That's not going to go back and forth and alter or vary between us. These exhortings and urgings and imperatives and these appeals are appealing for the believer to live according to the position, what is true of them, eternally. What's fixed. So it's not asking you to try to do something that you are not. It is, in fact, urging you to step into what God has made you to be.

Paul here would come alongside, and that's the key thing where he says, I exhort, or I urge. This is a word that particularly has the idea of coming alongside. It's not us sitting there looking at you, shaking the finger. It's coming alongside, as one comes alongside an equal, even a friend, to call for something that is needed.

He calls his brothers and sisters in the Lord, and he starts it off that way. Those who are with him, not to try to be forceful and use, oh, he's got authority, he's an apostle. He could use that, but he doesn't do that. He comes across to them graciously, appealing graciously to them, essentially as an equal in the Lord.

I urge you, I encourage you, I exhort you as your brother in the Lord. This is what I'm calling for. Brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul doesn't dive abruptly into the letter. He doesn't say, I urge you, do this. He says instead, brethren by the name of the Lord. He prefaces his appeal with two things. One, brethren. It places him alongside them. He's already used a word like that. This word for urging and exhorting means to call alongside, to come alongside.

So he comes alongside them as a fellow part of the family of God, as one of their brothers. By the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, that's to register how important this is. That's to register this has a personal importance. What does the Lord Jesus Christ mean to you? That's the basis on which I appeal. I'm not here to just beat you over the head, but do you know the Lord Jesus? What significance does He have to you? That's the basis of his appeal here. He's about to appeal to these fellow believers. And he says, by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul had done this with other churches. He did it particularly with the church in Rome. We had an elective here not too long ago in which we studied through the book of Romans. And they walked through these very same passages. Here's Romans 12.1, I urge you, brethren, just very similar, by the mercies of God.

He similarly does later on in that same book, Romans 15.30, Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit.

So he's used this before. It's a frequent pattern and there's good reason for it too. I have to warn you. I'm glad you're all sitting down. I have to warn you. We have four supplements today. They're on the cabinet to the right. This is the first one I'm going to announce.

This one is about six pages and it goes along with kind of the start of what Paul said, her, I urge or I exhort, this coming alongside. It's the basis for biblical counseling. Anyway, feel free to take a copy of that. It was included in the biblical counseling elective. And so if we run out of that, please let me know. Or you can let Nancy know as an alternate. Sometimes we're hard to find together.

Then he says that you all agree. What does he mean by all agree? Ever seen a room full of people where they all agree? Wow. What does he mean by that? Is it just sort of a big group hug? Is that what he has in mind? Or maybe it's this, you let one person speak and everybody keeps their mouth zipped. No, that's not what he has in mind. So what does he mean? Well, let's look at what he means.

The New King James actually expresses, and that's what you've got in most of your PRACs there, the New King James actually expresses, I think most literally, that you all speak the same thing. Or as some have put it, that you all say the same thing. It's not just that you all agree and sort of passively say we all agree with this and let it be, but that you actually express that agreement. Paul wasn't urging them to just agree in some sort of hypothetical and passive sense, but to agree and express that agreement, that you say and speak and express the same thing.

This is something where Christians need to get some things clear. He wasn't urging them to agree to disagree. Ever heard that? A word's going to agree to disagree. And you may hear that. In fact, I doubt there's any of you who haven't heard that term before. But the reality is that's not what he's calling for. And that's not what he calls for Christians to do either. He doesn't ask them to say, look, we've got a choice here.

You can choose between loving one another or you can choose between that and truth. And between the two, always pick love. What he says is, I urge both. I urge both. Don't set aside doctrine for the sake of love, as if we were to choose one or the other. Instead, they were to say, express the same thing. Not to choose between love and doctrine, but choose both. Here in Romans 15 again, Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another.

Similar kind of expression is what you see here. according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the Lord." Now when he says, with one accord, he's not talking about this thing. I doubt that very much. No, he means with one voice, literally with one mouth, glorify the Lord.

Isn't that interesting? That you're glorifying the Lord is so unified that it sounds like it's coming from one mouth. Wow, that's unity. That's amazing unity. As a matter of fact, that's, I think, the key point. This is a unity which is astounding. It is a unity that the world doesn't know. It's a unity that a great many churches don't know. But I think that's what he intends. This conveys a unity of expression. It's such that one can't tell the difference between what a believer says and another believer says. Let me give you an illustration. of what that might look like.

There have been numerous times over the years, because it's been almost eight years ago that we started having multiple electives. It's been numerous times where someone will tell me, you know, what was said in our elective is almost the same thing you said in this message. That's been told to me numerous times. And probably it's true times when it's not been said to me.

But there's a good reason for that, and that is we are to express that unity. What you hear in the electives and what's taught there ought to be like what's taught in here too. Why? Because there is a unity of expression. You ought not to walk away puzzled by saying which one is true. The unity of expression is to be like speaking with one mouth. even though we're in different electives and different places. It's as if we're speaking with one mouth. That there be no divisions among you.

How many is that? Zero. None. I'm wondering what that is. What this is, there's a slide where I got a graphic off. I'm going to go to this one. In the First week, two weeks ago, you may remember we had this slide. I gave you four keys to understanding 1 Corinthians.

And one of them was the social ladder key. One of the things that was going on in the city of Corinth and also in the church was that many people were trying to climb a social ladder and they did it by carrying that out in different ways. One person would climb the social ladder by trying to be sort of the reservoir of human wisdom.

Another person would have public displays of generosity and everybody would say, hey, that's a great, I'm going to follow that guy. He gave money to this great cause. That's wonderful. Great oratory. Boy, this guy speaks well. He has a silver tongue.

And then there was even one we'll find out we're going to be addressing in the first part of chapter 6, and that's they would actually use lawsuits. I'm going to get on top of this social ladder by suing this other guy over here and doing a better job in my lawsuit. And so I end up suing other believers in order to climb the social ladder. Or putting down the poor would be another way of saying, see, they're really poor and I'm not, and so I'm really great, so follow me. And so you'd have people who would be following different ones based on how they decided to climb the social ladder.

And it was very unstable. And unfortunately, the whole church was being drawn into it, and the people in the church weren't knowing the difference between the worlds climbing the social ladder and what was to go on inside the church. They were getting confused by it.

So what does he say? That there be no divisions among you. The singular biblical standard of unity is not minimal divisions, as few as possible. Just a couple of them, keep it down to a dull roar. The biblical standard, the only one, is no divisions among you. None. Zip. Nada. Zero. None.

God's design and intent is that believers say the same thing. That what we say agrees with God, because we're expressing His truth, as He's revealed in this word, and that we be undivided in our expression and as God Himself is undivided in His own expression. Yes, we have the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but we don't read about them arguing amongst themselves as to what's true, right? Complete agreement between them.

And this is a little slide that I sometimes have as a supplement about the Trinity. I'm not going to give that to you today because I'm already giving you four. So some other day. Okay. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11. We'll get there. This is a passage that we look at when we have the Lord's Table, typically on the first Sunday of each month.

This is, but in giving this instruction I do not praise you because you come together not for better but for worse. Sounds like a scrambled marriage ceremony, doesn't it? For in the first place when you come together as a church I hear that divisions exist among you and in part I believe it. He returns to the exact same theme he has touched on here in this first chapter. He says, I hear it and it's at least partially true of you guys. For there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you.

So this coming together is to be for better and not for worse, to somewhat unscramble the marriage ceremony vows. There must sadly be differences among believers is that some are not approved. Do they have a different position in Christ? Are they blessed any less? But it can be, and it was certainly true among these believers, there were some who were climbing the social ladder.

Later on, chapter 3, he's going to tell them, boy he's blunt. He says, you as a body and as a generalization are fleshly. He's going to tell them that. He's going to actually tell them outright. You are fleshly. You are blessed just like everyone. But you're not living in a way that is approved. And you're not walking according to a dependence upon the Lord that will make you approved. Not in your position. That's not in question. But in your daily walk with me.

Here's a passage out of Galatians 5 that spells out the kinds of things that were going on in the church And boy, it's amazing how long the list is, and all these things that seem to be describing what's going on in the church in Corinth take up most of the list. And those are, these are the deeds of the flesh that are evident, which are, and I'll skip ahead to it, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, and envy. Okay? These are the things that were taking place within the church.

Where did it come from? Paul's going to tell them in chapter 3. The flesh, that is the sin nature, is lived out in this human body. It's clear about where this kind of behavior comes from, and it's one believer at a time. Where is the dependence? Is it upon the sin nature or upon the Lord?

We have made available in the past, and it's, oh heavens, I have to tell you, available as a supplement, It's also on our church website at this particular location. And that address, you don't need to write it down. It's on the supplement. This is the switch diagram that Hal put together. And I think Sue Anderson cleaned up very nicely. And so anyway, that's available. I won't go into it. But it is very, I think, instructive. It also includes on that same page the expand and explain for today, which is not on your handout just because there wasn't space.

The next part of that verse is that you be made complete. Now this is real interesting. It's important that we get the idea of what does he mean by made complete. The word translated to be made complete meant to restore something, to restore, to mend, to put things so that they can heal.

Let's talk about that. The two contexts in which that occurs are one, and this is even what we see early in the book of Matthew, and that is the disciples mending torn nets. That's the word. Putting this thing, which is now in a state of disrepair, back together again, so that the net works, so that when you throw the net out, you actually catch fish instead of watching them go through the holes. The other one, and certainly Dr. Luke was trained in this, not having done it himself numerous times, setting a broken bone so that it would heal properly. Here's the full picture idea, this mending fishing nets, that Greek word for mending, katartizo.

Matthew 4.21 is the place where Jesus finds the disciples mending the torn fishing nets. Or Dr. Luke pictured here setting, same word, katartizo, the broken bone and so that it would allow it to heal. Those are the two ways that that word is used that helps illustrate what he's talking about. And so setting the broken bone so that it could heal.

That doesn't look like something you'd want to have. So this is not catarctizoda, however. Okay? All right. Just so you know. Nancy endures this wonderfully. Okay. In order for us to best understand what Paul meant by being in the same mind, we have to leap ahead to the next chapter here.

Paul writes there in 1 Corinthians 2.16, we have the mind of Christ. Now, do you think Paul is just referring to himself and a couple other people with him? No. We, we believers, have the mind of Christ. Wow! That's pretty good.

We have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ because we are in Christ. We are identified with him. And in everything, each believer that comes from being in Christ makes us have the mind of Christ. We have Christ indwelling us, do we not? Christ indwells us. We are in him. So living from the mind of Christ is what he's urging here. We have the mind of Christ. From him we have empowerment and enabling and energizing his mind, his life. Paul also in Romans had some similar urgings here. The same mind.

Be of the same mind toward one another, he said in Romans 12.16. And he put that as opposed to do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. as opposed to this looking-down-the-nose fellow here that you see in the picture.

Later on in that same book again, Romans 15.5, Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another. Interesting how important that is. Here's another one as Paul writes to the church in Philippi.

Make my joy complete. And we have a little twist on the popular set of words, go ahead, make my joy complete. And we put a Bible in Clint Eastwood's hands. Okay, make my joy complete by what? By being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

So it's interesting, he isn't just telling this to the church at Corinth and nobody else, this is something he's writing to different Church bodies, as if this is to be a universal situation, an appeal to all these churches, be of the same mind. Do you know what he intends for us here at Holly Hills? To be of the same mind. Yeah. After all, what is that mind? It's the mind of Christ. And in the same judgment. Now there's a confusion of extremes present among many Christians here today. And by here I mean on the planet Earth.

Some avoid making any judgments at all. I don't make any judgments about anything. And sometimes I've heard this used as if someone is being approached for something they ought not to be doing, judge not lest you be judged. You hear that? They're doing something they shouldn't do and so they bring up this like, if you want to listen to Jesus, judge not lest you be judged. How dare you catch me stealing or whatever it is. Then you find people on the other end, they seem to enjoy judging everyone all the time. It's habitual. It's, where's the next person I can judge?

Well, somewhere is the biblical intent. There is a place for believers actually to judge biblically. We're going to encounter this topic several times as we go through 1 Corinthians, And I mean several, I don't mean a couple. We're going to continue to encounter this idea of judging and what's biblical, so it's important.

Now, you're not going to believe this, but there's a supplement for that. Go ahead and take your supplements. There's a supplement for that on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. Please, no stampedes or anything of that sort, but if you run out, let me know. So anyway, feel free to take advantage of that.

In the next verses, 11-13, he says, I am of Paul, and he goes on, I am of Peter, I am of Apollos, even I am of Christ. And he says you've got different people coming up with that. Apparently, it says Chloe's people, that's possibly, not certainly, possibly those believers meeting at her house, have passed along, here's kind of the oral report that Paul has gotten, that there were quarrels among the believers at Corinth. Oh, they were arguing, you know, Oh, I'm going to sue you and beat you on that, one believer against another. Another one would say, oh, no, I'm sorry, I gave more money than you did at this last opportunity and made more noise about it, so I have a following.

And they went on like that, climbing the social ladder. They were pursuing these various followings. Following one person rather than another and dividing the body according to these followings is not biblical but fleshly. Not biblical but fleshly. What's interesting is that we will even institutionalize these followings by having groups of Christians named after people.

Christ is not divided and only Christ was crucified for us and we are baptized that is placed into Him. Now, Paul goes on in verses 14 through 16 with a brief detour about baptism. As he goes through these few verses talking about baptism, he's got a point to make, but he doesn't allow himself to get completely diverted. Nonetheless, we want to hear what he has to say. Baptism is for every believer, and what's interesting is In the examples that we have biblically, baptism was pursued soon after the time when a person became a believer.

That's the pattern that we see in Scripture. Paul makes the point that baptism is secondary to salvation, being, as we'll see later, a picture of salvation. We have a supplement for that too. It's on the cabinet to the right. It's a one-pager. It's kind of a believer's baptism basics. And feel free to take advantage of that. Again, if we run out, let me know or let Nancy know.

So who does the water baptism? And that was Paul's point here. Who does it is not the critical issue. You don't have a different following in the church because this person baptized these people and these people baptized this other guy and start having different groups within the church depending on who baptized who. He says, that's not the point. He says, I baptized this group and that one, I think this other one, but that's not the point. Who got baptized by who is not the issue.

And certainly not to start some following after it. It's not a point for pride. It's not something to divide up the body of Christ. It's not something to determine rank among believers. Certainly not. So we get to verse 17 here, Paul's point and counterpoint. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.

Not in cleverness of speech, because after all, some of them were climbing the social ladder with that cleverness of speech. So that the cross of Christ would not be made void. Notice, some of them were using cleverness of speech to climb the social ladder, Do you know what the hazard is? He just pointed it out.

If I try to capture people by clever speech, if I use my oratory, flowery oratory, even if I pray saying, God, you know, whatever it takes, none of that is going to help. As a matter of fact, it can get in the way. I can end up getting the flowery speech ahead of the cross of Christ. I can end up having what I say and how I say it distract from the gospel.

He says, oh no, we don't want that happening. But he also makes it very clear. He is an apostle, a sent one. He was appointed to teach the gospel. And one of the things we covered in Galatians, the Lord actually took him aside and personally discipled him, trained him for some period of time, probably in and around the city of Petra. And you may have seen that, pictures of it. Probably in and around the city of Petra. And the Lord taught him over a period of months and years. and the Lord sent him. Okay, I have taught you, Paul.

Now I am appointing you and sending you to preach the gospel. The gospel at the core is the gospel of salvation. He learned that from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In the bigger picture, the gospel is all the truths of Scripture, or as Acts 20.27 puts it, the whole counsel of God.

He didn't do any of that by pursuing this world's idea of clever speech, flowery oratory, worldly eloquence, none of that. He didn't do it in order to gain a following for himself. He did say, yes, I'm an apostle, but even at that, what do you say, I'm the least of the apostles. glom onto the title and hold it in front of people. So what's his point here?

He says, you believers, I urge you to say the same thing. No divisions. Why? All of you behold Christ. All of you walk by means of the Spirit. And what's the Spirit going to do? Point to Christ. All of you follow Christ. There's no other name by which you're saved. There's no other one who died for you and was crucified for you. There is no other one who should in any way take Christ's place.

And one of the important things he points out here is the speech that we have, the issues that we bring before people. Could they distract from Christ? And one of the things that's interesting is we've thankfully gotten past a period of kind of political rhetoric and advertisements and elections and all that.

Oh, not that it stops, but there was a kind of a maximum there some months back. And, you know, although I am very opinionated politically, I am extremely reluctant to put that out there. And most certainly when I'm teaching. Why? I don't want political ideas to distract from and get in the way of the Gospel. And that's something for each of us to take a look at. What possibly might get in the way of my presenting the Gospel? And I say that's a good question for each of us to ponder. I actually want to stay away from something that might distract, that would get people off track.

A friend of mine sometime back had a job in which he traveled for hours each way every day with the same guy for years. They started in the area around Reno and they drove out into the desert to a particular set of cell phone installations, towers and that sort of thing. And so he and his workmate traveled out there, and the two of them were of different political persuasions. And so the conversations, of course, you know, had a natural fertilizer, so to speak, to get the conversation going. And, you know, he said after some years of talking with this fellow, he said he eventually persuaded him to be of the same political persuasion.

And when it was all done, he thought, what have I done? I've got this guy that agrees with me politically, but is headed to hell. I've let something else get in the way. And when it was all said and done, he quit that job, working for the phone company. This fellow that he'd spent years traveling with was indeed of the same political persuasion that he had. But it was all said and done. He didn't know the Lord. And what's more important? What's more important? What could possibly even come a close second? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Beholding the Lord. Him as first. Singularly united in Him. That's important. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage here, as we look at the message that Paul begins with for these believers, we do just come to you and say, Oh Lord, in what way do you have to shine a light in my own life and in my own heart? Because ultimately, what could be more important than my beholding you and encouraging other believers to do the same. What could be more important than presenting Christ before people and persuading them of their need for you? And Lord, we look at this not as a lawful pressure or squeezing, but we look at it through the eyes of grace. And knowing that you have been infinitely gracious with us, and we are motivated by grace, and by grace we examine this. Motivated out of a thankful heart for all that you've given us and done for us. All that you ever will do for us. In Jesus' name, Amen.