Pauline Ecclesiology and the Wisdom of
God in the Cross of Christ, I Cor 1-6
Material Adapted from “The Exegesis of 1 Corinthians 1-6,” The Master’s Seminary Edited and compiled by Jay Wegter
1:1-26
The power of God is manifested in the make up of the Church (not many wise, mighty, etc. – vv. 27, 28). We are to glory in God’s power and wisdom – not the world’s value system and wisdom. In chapter one, Paul states 10 times in 10 verses that Jesus Christ is in HIS Church. Paul incorporates four major verbs to declare in “divine passives” that God did it—He formed the Church, He owns it in Christ (Acts 20:28).
It is the problem of divisions in the church that has led Paul to expound the meaning of wisdom in the first place. In seeking the wrong kind of wisdom, the Corinthians had split the church into cliques. Until they realize the scandal of the cross has put an end to human boasting, they will remain carnal babes. Only when they embrace the scandal of the cross are they ready for the diet of the mature. It’s an unacceptable diet to those who think in terms of human achievement and glory.
Christ crucified must be realized in the Corinthians’ lives – if not, they will continue to operate by means of “earthly score cards” in which ego driven spiritualism allows self to dominate. The focus is to be upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Corinth had forgotten that focus. How they needed the recovery of Christ’s glory in His Church.
Spiritualist teachers made experience the integration point and badge of the Christian life. Paul refutes that false concept – power comes through bearing Christ’s weakness! God’s power is perfected through human weakness. The cross is the paradigm for this formula. By contrast, spiritualist power is powerful only when it is no longer weak or needy. Paul boasts of his weakness because it preserves the cross paradigm, then God’s power rests upon him. The Corinthian letters constitute a sustained theology of the cross – which is God’s way of working in the world. But God’s way is considered insufficient to men. It is regarded as a way of weakness scorned by human wisdom; but hidden in the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Paul’s call to unity – speak the same thing, no divisions, the same mind. But at Corinth there was speaking different things, divisions, different mind, upsmanship, party spirit, triumphalism. The contrast is clear, Corinth was fraught with divisions and a preoccupation with human leadership because they were infatuated with human wisdom instead of the wisdom of the cross. What the Corinthians were doing detracted from Christ.
The cause of divisions – The problem centered on the focus on man – dependence on human wisdom. By contrast, only the wisdom of God exalts God’s power.
1:17 – This verse marks the transition from the problems in the church to the solution for the church. The Grk. Conj. gar introduces why Paul did not baptize many in Corinth. (v. 12) “I am of . . .” – The challenge for Paul was to dismantle the thinking of the Cephasite party (Peter was also called “Cephas”) without saying anything disparaging against Peter. In order to subdue sin and promote spiritual life – only the cross can do it. Human wisdom with its Jewish elements cannot do the above. (Political strife is a challenge in any church – only God’s wisdom in the cross.)
1:17, 18ff -- Paul is resolute about keeping his entire Gospel away from this sphere of the wisdom of men. Paul’s preaching is in strong contrast with the “wisdom of words.”
1:18 – Begins the emphasis upon the power of God. (v. 18 is in effect the fulfillment of v. 19). God showcases His wisdom and power in the destruction of the wisdom of the world. (Every time Jesus responded to Satan, He used geigraptai (Grk.) – it is written. In 2:5, the concluding thought is that your faith might be in the power of God, not in the wisdom of men.
1:22-23 – The infinite divine wisdom of the cross is spiritually discerned (see 1 Cor 2); therefore by standards of human wisdom the cross fails on all counts to be perceived as wisdom. Both the criterion applied by Jew and Gentile cause them to reject the wisdom of God in the cross of Christ (see Jay’s worldview notes on the cross failing man’s criteria for wisdom).
1:24, 25 – The wisdom of God and the power of God are brought together in one person, our Lord Jesus Christ. To the extent that we promote God’s wisdom, we exalt God’s power in Christ. Unless Christ is preeminent and central, God’s wisdom is not exalted.
Christ is pivotal in God’s wisdom and power. Whenever Christ is not exalted, man’s wisdom rushes in to fill the vacuum.
How has God made foolish the wisdom of the world – He has made it foolish “through the foolishness of the message preached.” How foolish to depend on man’s wisdom – how foolish to exalt it in the church!
The wisdom theme continues at the forefront in chapter 2. Paul’s purpose statement and purpose clause – he did not want the central point of the gospel to be robbed of its power (neutralized). Paul will exalt God’s power and God’s wisdom. He did not want to empty the cross of its effect on the lives of people. It’s a disturbing prospect that by philosophy, eloquence, psychology, tradition, and human wisdom – the power of the cross in peoples’ lives can be emptied or made void. Paul exalts God’s wisdom and power in the cross, lest the effect of the cross be emptied in peoples’ lives. (“After the flesh” is a reference to a wise person – as the world perceives and assesses wisdom.)
1:26 – The power of God is seen in the make-up of the church—God put the people in the Body according to His wisdom. Note in this verse whom God has called and whom He has not called. Application: If you would consider and reflect upon your calling (“consider” as an imperative) you wouldn’t be living the way you are living. (Grk. Blepo – “consider” used metaphorically of a mental vision. Think upon God’s sovereign merciful purposes in your election. Consider the ‘pit’ from which you were ‘dug’. By His doing you are in Christ Jesus.
1:27 – God intends to shame the wise – this is His divine purpose. God is energizing a clash in worldviews! This is not passive. (Christ, gospel, the Word of God, the Word of the Cross are used somewhat synonymously.)
God’s wisdom in salvation is in view: God destroys the world’s wisdom, and He does so with cosmic ramifications. How He destroyed it, the fact that He did destroy it, and He will destroy it – is laid out in 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2.
Now Paul personalizes it—he sets up an antithesis between the two forms of wisdom. The Corinthians are to consider their call. The church at Corinth is commanded to remember their past (their own salvation – that they were foolish, weak, base, poor born). Look at your calling to see the foolishness of human wisdom (this is divine viewpoint).
The Corinthian problem – Corinth was overturning the whole saving purpose of God – namely that no flesh should glory in God’s presence. Spiritual and religious upsmanship (self exaltation in a religious community and context), and its resulting strife, is a byproduct of the assimilation of the world’s wisdom and values in the church.
1:30 -- God’s wisdom –
Christ is the only source of total, final, absolute wisdom that there is. God’s “dualistic wisdom” in Christ: 1.) hypostatic union and incarnation, 2.) the dereliction of the God-man at Calvary. Christ and Him crucified embraces both the mystery of Christ’s person and the wonder of His redemptive work. The whole fulcrum, the whole balance point, the arrow point, the focus of God’s wisdom, the very axis of God’s wisdom is
Christ, and Him crucified.
(God’s dualistic wisdom is not conceivable to the natural human mind. The cross is filled with paradox. It is filled with mystery that towers over the human intellect. To think that the dereliction of the God-man should reconcile the derelict – to think that the God-man’s willingness to be a victim in the face of evil should conquer evil. His abject weakness and ignominy in His passion should overpower the most powerful enemies of man. To think that succumbing to death should conquer death; that being made the curse of God should lift the curse of God; that death and entombment and resurrection should bring the redeemed from defiled dust to glory. This is made understandable to God’s people through the Spirit.) To think that God should operate sub contrario (contrary to the strength of His reasoned attributes—see Zahl and “Total Church” on Luther’s theology of the cross) in order to reveal Himself savingly is baffling to man. The Jewish religious leaders stumbled over the Rock—stating that “if you come down from the cross, we will believe.”
We are to glory in God and His mercies in Christ alone. In God’s wisdom is infinite wisdom – wisdom that baffles natural reason, wisdom that towers over the human intellect, wisdom that is so infinitely far above man’s greatest efforts (Plato etc.). God has as dualism, a dichotomy in His infinite wisdom. Christ and Him crucified is the divine wisdom which invades the realm of human wisdom. Human wisdom is a feeble wisdom – God’s wisdom invades like a massive wedge of carbon steel, piercing the impotent realm of human wisdom and cleaving it to pieces.
2:1 – The power of God is manifested in the message of the church. Paul reflects upon his coming to them and calls the Corinthians to think about his coming to them – the contents of his message, his conduct, were all in agreement with the divine message. Paul’s manner, mode, and appearance (humble, loving, trembling, Word of God-cross only, weak, unimpressive, “cracked clay pot”) were in total synchrony with God’s wisdom in Christ and Him crucified. There is a demeanor which comports with the wisdom of the cross—Paul manifested this demeanor in his conduct before the Corinthians.
The ideal Greek man; was the epitome of human wisdom: strength, rhetoric, philosophy, pride, dynamism, partisanship, asceticism, man cult, athleticism, Greek dualism (in the Corinthian church there was a dimension of Jewish religious elements and party spirit as well).
The cross overturns all of this. God’s value system is encompassed in God’s dualism; Christ (the God-man incarnate and Him crucified). God is doing all through the cross. (Note the ethics of the cross are found in 1 Peter 5 – “to Him be the power forever.” 1 Peter 5 is the summary of the undershepherd’s mindset.)
1 Cor 2
- God’s wisdom and power. How is this wisdom applicable to us?
THE ANTITHESIS:
God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom do not mix! Paul always starts with Christ. He always takes his readers and converts back to Christ. This is how he deals with man-centeredness. Whether the issue is immorality (
the body is for the Lord ), “cup
of demons” (
we don’t share in the cup of demons
- therefore discern the body of Christ – 1 Cor 11), the resurrection etc.
Paul runs everything through Christ and Him crucified.
The citizens of Corinth envied the Athenians. In effect, Paul was saying,” you are trying to be like Athens.” You want a great rhetorical preacher in front of you in whom you may take pride and in whom you may boast. Paul was not trying to win them by his ability to communicate. Paul proclaimed that each local church was solely founded on Christ’s cross (not on being a great communicator, not by adding anything to the cross). Divine wisdom overturns human wisdom. (Note here the manhood of the first and last Adam. Christ’s manhood was absolutely permeated with the mindset of Philippians 2:1-8. Christ had no “will to power.” By contrast, the spirit of Athens had a fallen, Adamic value system of human wisdom characterized by boasting and self-assertion, and by the assumed ability of self-differentiation (see Zahl).
2:7 – To know Christ and Him crucified is the point of beginning in the understanding of God’s whole purpose of creation and redemption. So Paul says this wisdom was foreordained before the ages for our glory. We who behold the glory are being changed from glory into glory (2 Cor 3:18). God’s wisdom leads to our glory. God’s people are destined for glory, not shame – how this contrasts to the rulers of this age who are destined for shame (they will lose every bit of their glory).
2:8 – The sad irony is that the Corinthians in pursuing wisdom are pursuing what belongs to this age and is passing away (this is Paul’s point – the rulers and wisdom of this age is on its way out). A temporal value system is darkened by reason of willful ignorance of the infinite wisdom of God in the cross and the infinite scope of God’s redemptive plan. The rulers were blind; they hated truth, therefore they used human standards of wisdom and evaluation. Christ’s glory, manifested in His obedience unto death, was not recognized by the rulers of this age – they did not recognize Christ as the agent of God’s salvation of man – therefore in their rebellion, they lose their glory.
2:12 – The spirit of the world loves spurious wisdom, but despises the wisdom of God in the cross. The Apostle and his co-laborers apprehend and possess these blessed things of God’s wisdom in order to convey them to others.
2:14 – The natural man’s incapacity is characterized by the fact that he can’t welcome, receive, nor comprehend spiritual things. He cannot – he has no power to do so (Grk. dunatai). Spiritual truth is spiritually discerned. The unregenerate man operates by the empirical, rational, reason – he is not up to the task to discern spiritual truth. Rational apologetics has a far too optimistic view of man’s innate abilities. Yes, we can never shed our created sense of deity; but the noetic effects of sin have darkened the understanding of man. The problem is not the existence of God; but the fact that man does not want a relationship with the God of the Bible (see rational apologetics in “Total Church”).
3:1 – (Grk. hos, hos, hos.) “as, as, as,” – I would like to deal with you as spiritual people, but I cannot says Paul. I have to deal with you as fleshly, as babes (he states this even though they were in Christ!).
Our message
- there is one cross, one wisdom of God – But there are different reactions to God’s message. We have one message; Christ and Him crucified. Our whole lives are to be built upon this one message (the response will vary – even within churches! A Scripture-based, cross-centered ministry is what is called for; if the brethren do not accept this one expression of love – God’s will for them in the Word of His grace from the heart, then they must be dealt with in another expression of love – discipline by the church and/or by God ).
The Corinthian error – This error is what happens when believers imbibe the world’s wisdom and make it the basis for values, relations, identity, church polity, programs, decisions, measurement of ministry effectiveness, etc. The result is strife and jealousy (3:3).
3:6 – When you are planting and watering you often can’t see anything happening, but God is behind the scenes causing, giving the yet to be seen increase.
3:9 – The emphasis is altogether on God (emphatic genitive – “of God” – we are fellow workers “of God.”) Possessive sense – it is God’s church. He holds all of the individuals – He owns them all. We hold them lightly. All individuals; kids, friends, family, relations-- they all belong to God.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together, pp. 33-37, makes the following remarkable observation concerning the difference between natural and spiritual love: “[There] is a human love of one’s neighbor. Such passion is capable of prodigious sacrifices. Often it far surpasses genuine Christian love in fervent devotion and visible results. It speaks the Christian language with overwhelming and stirring eloquence (1 Cor 13:3). [But] human love is directed to the other person for his own sake,
spiritual love loves him for Christ’s sake. [By contrast] human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person but as one whom it binds to itself. It wants to gain, to capture by every means; it uses force. It desires to be irresistible, to rule. Human love has little regard for truth. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and the beloved person. Human love cannot tolerate the dissolution of a fellowship that has become false for the sake of genuine fellowship, and human love cannot love an enemy, that is one who seriously and stubbornly resists it. Right here is the place where spiritual love begins. This is why human love becomes personal hatred when it encounters genuine spiritual love, which does not desire, but serves. Spiritual love comes from Jesus Christ; it serves Him alone; it knows that it has no immediate access to other persons. Jesus Christ stands between the lover and others he loves. Contrary to my own opinions and convictions, Jesus Christ will tell me what love toward the brethren really is. Therefore spiritual love is bound totally to the Word of Jesus Christ. Where Christ bids me to maintain fellowship for the sake of love, I will maintain it. Where his truth enjoins me to dissolve a fellowship for love’s sake, there is where I will dissolve it, despite all the protests of my human love. [Spiritual] love commends itself in that everything it says and does commends Christ. It will not seek to move others by all too personal, direct influence, by impure interference in the life of another. It will rather meet the other person with the clear Word of God and be ready to leave him alone with this Word for a long time, willing to release him again in order that Christ may deal with him. It will respect the line that has been drawn between him and us by Christ, and it will find full fellowship with him in the Christ who alone binds us together.”)
We are to find the place of giftedness – be fulfilled in that place of giftedness. Our delight is to see God’s people in the place of God’s intended giftedness (this is the whole of Paul’s theme in 1 Cor 12).
3:11 – “Careful how you build” – this is not addressed to the general congregation, but to the people building, the leaders. The thrust entails the fact that the clergy-laity split in the area of giftedness was not scriptural.
The evaluation of our work is how built with what materials. The issue is what lasts and what doesn’t. The FOUNDATION for our building is God’s wisdom in the cross; Christ and Him crucified. The leaders are to be ever vigilant in examining the foundation upon which they are building. This is the cornerstone which sets the pattern for the rest of the building. All of the contours and angles and forms take their shape and direction from the foundation. Thus the foundation dictates the nature, shape, content of the structure. It shapes and dictates both the quality and the kind of work. Christ and Him crucified – Paul laid the foundation of Christ for ALL that the church does.
3:16 – The foundation of Christ and Him crucified
produces an incredible tension here. You are
in quality
and
by quality
a temple, the dwelling place of God. You must see
yourself and the local body in this way as the abode of God. The Church is Christ’s abode. This alludes to a huge ecclesiological tension – pertinent to this is, “whose idea will rule the church?” At the outset, the beginning – everyone must park their baggage at the door and abide in Christ (including the pastor). Without gospel saturation keeping us focused upon Christ our foundation; our default mode will be to defer to the ideas and policies of the most influential human personalities in the church.
3:17 – You play around with what is holy and God will deal with you. (Grk. oitineis – holiness is the referent here, not the temple.)
Careful how you build! To most professing Christians, the church is not a holy entity, it is a Christianized YMCA, not a holy of holies. They think they can do whatever they want to churches. To so many people, the church is a Christianized social group or country club. It’s frustrating to preach this section because of the above sentiment. (Men who employ the world’s wisdom attempt to run the church as “Evangelical deists,” that is as if God started the Church, then left it to man to run
in absentia, since “Christ
has departed.” The truth is, according to Paul, we are nothing but stewards – 1 Cor 4 – we carry out Christ’s rules; we don’t make the rules.) (See Wells here on how the church has replaced God.)
Because people are
security driven, they want structure and tradition, and they want to
boast in men instead of being directed by the liberating principles of Scripture. This tendency is in tension with the Word of God – the carnal pull is toward methods and pragmatism.
3:18 -- The Corinthians were quarreling under their leaders under the guise of wisdom. Paul again erects the narrow gate of God’s wisdom. He goes back to the theme of God’s wisdom. Like a security check point, he wants his readers to walk through it like a metal detector that they might drop the world’s wisdom like contraband.
The wisdom of the world cannot be developed into the wisdom of God. Man’s wisdom and the wisdom of the cross are mutually exclusive.
The “foolishness” of God’s wisdom – Paul’s intent is to show the saints their inheritance. The future is no cause for panic – it’s already theirs. This is another way of saying, “release the world’s values and wisdom” in order to esteem the eternal values purchased for you by the cross.
(We could say that 1 Cor 3 reminds us not to exalt pastors too high and that 1 Cor 4 reminds us not to cut down pastors too much. Christ and Him crucified as your wisdom will keep you from both errors. Paul exalts the role of the Corinthian believers in chapter 3 but diminishes their role in chapter 4. Sometimes we are afraid to tell the truth of chapter 3 – we as Christian leaders may fear the loss of power, influence, and respect.
1 Corinthians 4 – It’s remarkable just how eschatologically driven Paul is. The Corinthians’ triumphalism was an overly realized eschatology that produced irresponsible behavior. Triumphal life will have to wait until the final triumph of Christ and the messianic age. The path now is after Christ’s earthly life – it is the path of the cross, self denial, and death to self.
By contrast, the Corinthians thought they had arrived. They lived a “power life” as above others (Grk. power -- dunamis). They lived a relational life of upsmanship, not servanthood through radical identification with Christ. (Note the “over-under” Grk. hupo theology of the Corinthians in 2 Cor. – See Frederick Dale Bruner, A Theology of the Holy Spirit, Eerdmans, 1974, pp. 285-319 – “Huper: The Relevant Spiritual Problems in Corinth.”)
Humility comes when we exalt Christ. As Christ is displayed, the desire to know Him, follow Him, worship Him, and emulate Him increases.
4:3 – It is so liberating to live under the eye of Christ. Paul reveals how he was set free from the fear of man, “Your estimation of me and my life doesn’t really carry much weight compared to the Judge who is the Lord.” It’s not that we don’t care what others say – it is the weight of the Lord’s evaluation that counts. (As Spurgeon said, “Compared to what Christ thinks of me, the opinions of others are like so many chirping sparrows.”) If we had the above central truth straight, we wouldn’t be so prone to strife and jealousy. Strife and jealousy are symptoms of living under the eye of man. (Grk. anakrino – the examination process. Krino – deals more with guilt or innocence.
(On judging the motives of others – we too often judge the motives of men – when we start being overly confident that we can judge the motives of men, we go beyond Scripture. We must not violate the only standard we have.)
4:11 – “Let me tell you how we are living now!!” Note that the Apostles were suffering circumstances characterized by indignities – just the opposite of the grandiose state of the Corinthians.
Consequent counsel to elders and lay and ordained pastors
We take a confident Scripture-based approach to ministry. This must be the norm. This is what ministry needs to be. If the brethren do not accept one expression of love (God’s will in His Word) from the heart, then they must be dealt with in another expression of love (discipline by the church, and/or by God).
How God rules His Church – This is God’s Church – He rules it.
He rules His Church by God’s inspired Word.
He rules His Church by His God-gifted people.
He rules His Church by God-ordained circumstances.
We seek to ascertain what God wants to do by His Word and by the giftedness of the people. We function by the giftedness of, and in the Body. God builds His Church; He sovereignly places gifted people in the Body where He wishes. God, through gifted people, directs the Church through the very people He has gifted.
Application: When you build around programs instead of people and the gifted person moves on, do you have to fill their spot and keep the program going? We try so hard to lead the Church by programs. REMEMBER, the profile of the gifted shapes the profile of a ministry – more than a program on the book.
Application: Elder meetings should be spent in the Word of God and prayer so that we may ascertain what God is trying to say to us. NOT, “What do you think?” Don’t try to lead in absentia as if Christ is absent. We have churches full of “evangelical deists” who say, “Yes, God started the Church, now we run it in absentia of Christ.” NO! We are nothing but stewards (1 Cor 4). We carry out His rules, we don’t make the rules. The Word of God is the only authority of anyone in the body of Christ, including pastors and elders. Determine what God would have us do more than write a book for others.
The congregation’s relation to the pastor – your job is not to keep him in line but to help him be all that he can be – who God wants him to be as a gift to that body. Pastor, don’t apologize for what God made you to be.
On church leadership -- The same Greek word for lead in the home is also used of lead in the church (Grk. – paraistami). When you go into a church, you do all three at once: you are a leader of leaders, you are a leader among leaders, you are a leader under leaders.
Application: If you severely doubt that God can use you and work through you, you might be carting around an Aaron or holding on to Debra’s skirt. REMEMBER: it’s always about God, not you. The answer to self-consciousness and suffocating external expectations – “God laid hold of me to lead you.”
Defining the Church that God rules – In 1 Corinthians it is a church, a garden, a spiritual building, a spiritual temple, the house of God. God alone directs His Church through His inspired Word, His God-gifted people, and through His God-inspired circumstances. NOT ONE BIT OF THIS IS PRAGMATICALLY DRIVEN!
The central role of giftedness – “Stop forbidding prophesying” (1 Thess 5:20) – do not quench or stifle the Spirit. If you stifle God-given giftedness, you quench the Spirit. Don’t quench the Spirit—this same thought positively expressed is as follows: “Release people to giftedness in ministry.” There is effort required to do this and obey God at this juncture. We must come along side in order to confront. Affirmation, interview, release all call for vulnerability. We’d rather control than confront. We are uncomfortable with 1 Cor 14 because we are not in control. We prefer to structure because we are security driven and thus more comfortable with control. The issue is about releasing gifted people.
Application: Pastors and elders are to examine the use of gifts and equip the gifted people in light of God’s Word (equip by example, by instruction, by nurture, by opportunity to use giftedness – we model the expression of giftedness. We help others begin – we open the door for other people to use their gifts.). Build our ministries around the giftedness of the person – don’t fight it. Don’t shove the person into a job description. Because we are security driven, we cram people into a job description and fall back on pragmatism and the world’s methods. When we cram people into a job description, frustrated mediocrity is the result.
You are unique; don’t go somewhere where you have to be someone unlike you. The divinely energized power flows through your authenticity (when you are authentic, you are operating by God’s power through your experience, giftedness, and vision).
Problem: we are used to doing too many things well, cut back so that you do the few things well that nobody else can do. This is where the authenticity is unleashed. Sadly, people want structure (security) instead of these liberating principles of Scripture. How has God built you? (Your training, experience, giftedness, passion, and vision make up your uniqueness.)
On the subject of power -- When you enter a church you are not trying to wrest the power from those who have arrogated power to themselves. You don’t want the power. THE POWER BELONGS TO GOD! You are forever establishing a model before others that it is God’s Church and He has told us how He rules it. Much of our modeling is in our preaching – when you go all over the place in your preaching, the sermon becomes your message. Stay in the context until the weight and burden of what God says fills your mind and heart. This is vital to your example of how God rules His Church – your exegetical integrity will say volumes about what you really believe concerning God ruling by His Word. (Don’t go to a church with a perpetual elder board. It’s a power trip for them. They will be unwilling to lose control.)
Toward a biblical ecclesiology – Most churches have no concept of a biblical ecclesiology. Instead, they just keep polling the people to see what they should do. How God rules His Church:
By His inspired Word.
Pastors and elders examine the use of gifts, equip the people/gifted people in light of God’s Word.
By His God-gifted people.
God’s gifted people are released to ministry.
By His God-ordained circumstances.
God’s gifted people are released in the context of God-ordained circumstances.
The foundation principle – Don’t go beyond what is written (1 Cor 4:6). Jesus gives His followers non-negotiable principles, but lets them figure out structure and the detail of implementation. Application: Build around giftedness, then, when the person leaves, you won’t have to perpetuate their ministry.
FACT: God’s Word is on a collision course with hyper-structural institutional pragmatism. God seeks to impact and transform the lives of the church members by means of His Word. By a Spirit energized confrontation and interface of the soul with the Word, ongoing repentance is the Spirit’s intent. Institutional pragmatism hangs like a sooty veil, blocking the Word’s interface with the soul. Marketing, hyper-structure, programs, rigid agendas, more professionals: all send the message that it is not God’s blood-bought church!
The Word is the supporting principle of how God rules His Church. Therefore as pastors, we must develop an exegetical mindset in order to establish that the Word of God is foundational -- The ENTIRE ministry of God’s Church must be built upon a set foundation of the Word of God. We establish that this is the sole foundation by our sound exegesis and hermeneutics. All ministry must be consistently exegetically driven. WARNING: Don’t change the rules in mid course! Stay with the exegetical mindset.
Don’t go to psychology, pragmatism, or the human business model.
FACT: The Authority of the Word of God is in tension with man’s “power.” The greater submission to God’s Word (through which He is ruling), the more room there is for God’s power to work.
Property
____________
OPTIONAL
Programs
___________________
People BIBLICAL ______________________ Biblical Principles ___________________________ The Word of God
The top two are optional—Jesus built His Church by only using the bottom three. God’s power flows and operates from the bottom up in this pyramid! Man’s attempts at power and control flow from the top of this pyramid down. The top two are too often a showcase for man’s ability as an entrepreneur, and man’s managerial skills.
The foundation is “Do not go on beyond what stands written” (1 Cor 4:6). Application: You want programs established by people committed to Biblical principles. 95% of splits in churches are the result of power struggles, not doctrine, though doctrine may be attached and hide the real cause. If elders are not doing what God wants, then they, most commonly, are running the church like a business. Most commonly, whoever controls the money controls the church.
Application: Candidating is perhaps necessary, but an abominable process. Says McDougall, “There will ultimately be a point in the meeting where I take over – listen, these are the questions you ought to be asking. I help them understand what the concerns are. Don’t be anxious to get the job. Only do the will of God.”
Defining the Church – Ask the following: “Whose Church is it?” “How is the Church to function?” “What are the guidelines?” – We must establish that it is God’ Church, this is the bedrock for everything else. The purpose of our study of Pauline Ecclesiology is to develop an exegetical mindset – to establish contextually driven principles.
This is the only safe ground. NOTE what the cults have done with the Word. In 1 Cor 1, ten times in ten verses; Christ Jesus is IN HIS CHURCH (this is ownership). Application: Let the passage establish its own grid. You must let the passage do it for you. By that is meant that you have not imposed upon the passage, but the passage has imposed upon you. REMEMBER: God’s power moves up from the foundation start point of the Scriptures.
Application: Learn to look for where the power is when you take a church. McDougall found out where the power was – it was a “queen bee!” In another case, a CEO type guy positioned himself on two committees that oversaw all the flow of money in and out. You’ve got nothing to lose when you check out a church. Go ahead and scrutinize them – if it’s God’s will that you are to take the church, you’ll be there.
Everything in the church must be founded upon the principles of God’s Word – Application: WARNING: be incredibly careful of this false division: the pastor handles the spiritual and the trustees handle the money/business. McDougall says of the trustees, “Often they are the ‘smoking deacons” – they are not spiritual enough to be deacons, then WHY should they be permission-givers on money?” Look out for the guy who is the small business owner/entrepreneur, he will run around the church and try to run it the same way.
If possible on your salary, make sure that you get as much income as the average guy on the board – if your income is much lower, they will treat you differently. Dollars always produce an invisible caste system (note the warning of James 2:1-9). Folks will try to control you with the money they give you. Ideally there is nothing better than to do what Paul did – he walked into a body totally supported from without. Money is such a controlling factor and such a debilitating thing (Donald McDougall).
On pastoral and staff salary – we try to see it NOT as pay for the job, but as release for ministry.
Pastoral positions of authority – Many pastors have been offered/given positions of authority. The problem is, they have taken it. Pastoring/shepherding is not about running the church, but shepherding the flock (see Is 40:11) – “gently lead the nursing ewes.”
The foundation of our entire ecclesiology – it is entirely built upon the set foundation of the infallible Word of God. It is established on the solid exegesis of the Word of God. It is consistently exegetically driven:
Exegetical Ministry Outreach
Exegetical Worship
Exegetical Counseling Exegetical Preaching/teaching
Exegetical Church Leadership
Exegetical Theology
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F O U N D A T I O N
The Biblical Text in Context; Exegesis/ The Hermeneutic of the
Grammatical/Historical Method; Biblical Background
Implications of the authority of Scripture – The Positive Implications: 1.) The authoritative Word produces right motives in ministry, worship and service. 2.) The Word defines where the real authority resides (note that elders and deacons minister in such a way as to be role models and examples of the Word as the foundation). 3.) Right motives in worship – it places God as making His abode in the Church so that we may ascribe to Him the glory He is due. This is the opposite of self-centered worship which works at entertainment, mood, and sentiment. 4.) The Word defines the role and responsibility of elders.
The Negative Implications of the Authority of Scripture: In order to uncover the negatives, simply list the opposite of each of the positives above.
Application: People will trust you to the degree that you do not bend the rules of exegesis. Don’t fudge to make the text say what you want it to say. You must let the Scripture control and define. How far do we go with the Bible? Do we really believe it is the sole rule of faith and practice?
The pastor is leader, example and role model in establishing the authority of God’s Word – He must AFFIRM the authority of God’s Word. He makes it his task to FOCUS upon biblical mandates and principles in ministry. As a consequence he will see a RENEWAL of spiritual vigor in the area of the mission and ministry of the local church. Application: Each step helps produce the next:
- By faithful exegesis he establishes the authority of the Word.
- By means of an exegetical pulpit and an exegetical approach to ministry, leadership, boards and committees stay founded upon the authority of Scripture.
- The church and its people are motivated to align themselves with the mandates and principles of God’s Word.
We must come to terms with the fact that it is God’s Church – 1 Cor 1:2.
Acts 20 – guard the flock which God purchased with His own blood. Once you come to terms with the fact that it is God’s Church, it will transform all that you are about and all the Church is about. WHY? Because today’s issue is about power and control. Problem is in building – it is a provincialism in which the outcome is comes with the assumption that what we have built is ours, “We built it, it belongs to us.” It’s contaminated with empire building motives that exist to erect a monument to self.
Application: one exegetical pastor says, “I train men to be leaders at home, then they will be leaders in the church, able to care for the church of God. Home is the church in miniature.” The same principles must function in a smaller setting (the home) as in the church. You must be willing to discipline spiritually in your home in order to do it in the church. Application: When we speak of church government, we don’t necessarily say, elder rule, congregation rule, NO, actually God rules.
Elders – The Greek word for elders ruling and leading is proistami. It means to stand before your house – to stand well before your house (two senses). It is leadership (children in submission) and it is protection (care for, compassionate care). The same Greek word, proistami is used of the Good Samaritan—it is the only other use of the word in the N.T. Application: We must get men to stand at home. The church is God’s household, it is not ours to adjust the regulations in it. It is not ours to run and rule.
Many elders don’t fit where they think they fit BECAUSE they are oblivious to the fact that God rules.