Hope for the Church (7)
Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love. 1 Corinthians 16.13, 14
A struggling church
Reading through 1 and 2 Corinthians can be a disappointing experience. This church had real problems. They had left off many of the things Paul taught them, and they were going beyond the Scriptures in areas where they had no divine warrant. They were struggling with many issues and looking in all the wrong places for the solutions to their ills.
In consequence, problems abounded in a church full of infants in the Lord. They wouldn’t follow their leaders. They bad-mouthed Paul. They fought with one another and made worship a thing of entertainment more than majesty. They scorned the poor and spiritually weak in their midst. They lorded it over one another in various ways.
Poor Corinthians, we think, upon getting through the last chapter of Paul’s letters to them. I wouldn’t have wanted to be them.
I wonder if we feel the same way about our struggling churches today?
Not beyond the reach of grace
But, because the Corinthians were at no time beyond the reach of God’s grace, there was always hope that things could improve. And, as it happened, by the grace of God they did.
Some years after the death of the apostle Paul, Clement, one of Paul’s traveling companions, became pastor of the church in Rome. This was late in the first century, around 90 AD.
A problem arose in the Corinthian church—no surprise there, we say—and the leaders wrote to Clement for advice. Clement took up his pen to offer guidance for the situation, and, in the process, he gave us a glimpse of what a struggling church, which had taken seriously Paul’s charge, had become.
Clement’s portrait of the Corinthians in his first epistle presents a completely different look at this struggling church than what we find in 1 and 2 Corinthians. For, having taken Paul’s words to heart, the Corinthian church became a model of a healthy, growing church in less than a generation!
Clement extolled their gentleness and love for one another; praised them for their hospitality, which was known around the world; remarked the order and majesty of their worship; honored their holy leaders and elders; and commented on the peace, joy, and love that infused everything they did. They had become a shining witness and glory-filled example to people in Corinth and beyond.
Are we talking about the same people Paul took to the woodshed? We are!
By God’s grace the Corinthians received the apostle’s difficult words and took him seriously. They returned to the Word, and only the Word in all their life together as a community.
They watched carefully over what they were taught and labored to resist every temptation that came their way.
They got back to the Lord and His Word and stood fast in Him against the devil and every detractor.
They became anchored in His strength and abounded in His love.
They ceased being a church that was struggling to stay alive and became a church struggling together for the Kingdom of the Lord.
By every measure with which Paul had upbraided them, the Corinthians had upgraded their walk with the Lord and their life as a community of His people. They took Paul at his Word, and discovered afresh the hope of glory in Jesus Christ.
So there’s hope
Watch. Stand fast. Be courageous. Be strong. Let love abound. With God’s help, we can.
So there’s hope for us, beloved, that the God of grace may yet revive and renew us and make us the “joy of the whole earth” (Ps. 48.1) once again.
We all want our churches to be healthy and fruitful, to be a shining witness for the Lord in our community. And many churches are making progress in this high and holy calling. To the extent that our church needs encouragement or a new vision or new direction, we need to be willing to face up to our needs and, looking to God’s Word, hope in His Spirit to guide and transform us. We must take seriously the apostle’s charge to our struggling churches, each one of us seeking the Lord earnestly, saying as He opens our hearts anew, “Here am I, Lord; send me.” We must not give up on local churches; rather, we must by every means seek to give them hope.
For reflection or discussion
1. All churches need hope. What hope draws your church into the future?
2. What is the role of church members in helping their church have hope?
3. What kinds of things can rob a church of its hope? How should a church prepare for such things?
Next steps—Transformation: Ask the Lord to make you a hopeful person, one who points to the future, encourages others, and gives thanks always to the Lord.
T. M. Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
A good supplement to this ongoing study on the Church is our free PDF book, Pray for Your Church. Download your copy from The Ailbe Bookstore by clicking here. Also, we encourage you to visit our ReThinking Church page, where you’ll see a variety of free resources to help you church.
This week: Our Read Moore podcast continues an extensive look at the Kingdom of God from our book, The Kingdom Turn. In our Crosfigell teaching letter, we are looking at the state of pastors and churches during the period of the Celtic Revival, using contemporary witnesses. And in our Scriptorium column we are studying the Gospel of Matthew. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
And please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe with your prayers and gifts. You can contribute online, via PayPal or Anedot, or by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
