Yesterday we (I mean I) discussed the downturn in the new church in Corinth…One can just visualize Paul, realizing the seriousness of the situation, sitting down to write a response few pastors would want to write.

These problems were not new in the daily life of Corinthians, however, in the Christian church, just a babe, it was just awful. Even today, as we look at some of our own local churches/parishes. we find the same problems. It isn’t out-and-out fighting, it is done in a quieter form……that being ‘sitting in judgement’ fighting.

So Paul begins…..’You are all picking sides’, he writes….all jockeying for a position that really doesn’t exist. Splitting into factions doesn’t help anyone, in 57AD or now….It is not for us to judge and philosophy…..Jesus wasn’t a ‘show off’.

In the Message Bible….I love what it says….”Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women(my goodness “women”) that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “some bodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have a saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.” (very cool)

Boy, oh boy, Paul is making it clear…..he was right then and he is right today….Do you see similar signs in your church? Do you see and hear those who tout a philosophy that always seems to make the other guy/congregation look inferior? Sorry to say I do…

The problem we all have in facing this tension in the church, is that we don’t want to come off as one of those ‘know-it-alls’ Paul mentions. We are not the judge and jury…..we leave that to God, however, there are ‘living laws’ that we must learn to abide by if we are to continue the Christian path.

Maybe as we continue to read this wonderful example of daily life in the early church, we can also contemplate how we solve the same kind of problems now occurring in some of our congregations today.

Do we go to the pastor, do we plead in front of the church board, do we have a pastor/parish committee, do we come together in Christian discussions, hoping not to hurt, but to help? Do we stay…..or do we go? It’s tough….very tough…If it wasn’t, congregations would be addressing and solving, instead of moving on, in hopes of finding a quiet, stable, loving atmosphere, at a new address down the street.

Paul is doing pretty well so far….actually his letters proved to be real winners…..cause we are still here, this evening, discussing the early church.