There are certain realities that we can struggle to hold together as believers. Perhaps you’ve struggled to hold that God is loving and judges unbelievers in hell, leading Paul to declare in Romans 11:22, “Note then the kindness and the severity of God.” Or maybe you’ve struggled to acknowledge that God exercises meticulous sovereignty over all things and yet that all of us are responsible creatures who make significant choices, always doing what we most want to do. Each of these is an example of truths the Bible affirms but perhaps our minds want to rend apart. But, as is often spoken at weddings, what God has joined together, let no man separate.
When it comes to the nature and working of the church, there are also a number of elements that must characterize it. However, sometimes certain local churches can be prone to gravitate toward one of these characteristics while ignoring another. Again, perhaps it’s because we perceive these characteristics as being in tension, and we simply struggle to hold to both. Think of the churches addressed in Revelation 2-3. The church at Ephesus was commended for the fact they couldn’t stand evil, tested men who claimed to be apostles but weren’t, and endured in their stand for truth. Yet, they’d lost love. The church at Thyatira, on the other hand, was commended for their love and service, yet they were tolerating individuals practicing sexual immorality. Thus, we hold to one and deny the other when the Scripture demands that we hold to both.
When we come to the last verses of 1 Corinthians, Paul takes a number of elements, it seems, and just crams them together. Verses 13-14 are filled with brief, pointed exhortations. Verses 15-18 deal with the household of a particular man, Stephanas, and how the church should respond to him and those like him. Verses 19-20 contain notes of other churches sending their greeting. And, finally, verses 21-24 contain Paul’s own final greeting. That is, most likely to this point, he’d been dictating this letter while a helper actually wrote Paul’s words, but at this point, Paul puts the pen in his own hand and writes his final statement.
It can seem disconnected, and perhaps there is a certain element of disconnectedness as Paul labors to get in all of these final elements as he concludes this letter. But I think we can see running through these verses a thread that points us to what the church must be like and what we must do. And, ironically, each of these elements seems to be side by side another element which would seem disconnected from it so that we have two characteristics of actions of the church that would seem to be in tension but must be held together.
So, as we conclude this sermon series with the concluding section of this letter, I want to highlight some things that must describe us as a church and some things that we must be about and do as a church that may seem at odds with one another but that must be held together. And not surprisingly, I think you’ll note that some of these elements we find in these concluding words were issues that have shaped so much of the letter that we’ve seen in the prior chapters. First, we can note that:
We see this clearly in verses 13-14. Here, Paul gives five brief, pointed exhortations. He writes, “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” Let me start first with verse 13. After all, these four exhortations may seem both random and odd. But I think we should see them as all being linked together with a similar thread. Let me show you why I think that by elaborating on each one.
When Paul says, “Be watchful,” most commentators agree that he means that they need to be watchful against evil that is threatening to creep into the church and into the minds and actions of the church’s members. We’ve seen this earlier in the letter where Paul rebuked them for having accepted the unbelieving culture’s understanding of wisdom and behaviors that should characterize a certain status, as those who had much were letting the poor go without as they gathered to eat the Lord’s Supper. That is, the Corinthians were simply acting in the church in accord with how the unbelieving culture around them was thinking and acting. But those two things didn’t line up. It would be like us saying, “If the culture around us believes that sexual immorality is good, then we need to start thinking similarly.” God forbid, though. Rather, we need to recognize that the thought of the unbelieving culture is at odds with the Scripture, and we must bind our hearts and minds to God’s Word.
The second exhortation is then quite similar. We are to stand firm in the faith. That is, don’t deviate from the teaching of the Scripture but stand firm in it. So, we can see how these align together. And I even think the third and fourth exhortation continue this theme.
Now, at first glance, it is a bit odd. Paul says, “Act like men, be strong.” Clearly Paul doesn’t envision women starting to behave as men. Already in chapter 11 Paul has actually argued for there being no confusion of the genders when he noted that women needed to cover their heads when praying or prophesying in the corporate worship service, while men must leave their heads uncovered. So, this isn’t Paul arguing for the church to try to erase all distinctions between men and women. Rather, I think he says, “Act like men” because he is envisioning individuals standing strong in battle.
That is, when the opponent in battle is coming at you, you don’t give way. You stand firm and are strong. You exercise courage and do not show cowardice. And in that military picture, it would have been made up of men. We might compare this to someone saying, “Be as mothers who nourish their children after giving birth to them.” If men are offended at such an exhortation because he didn’t say, “Be as mothers and fathers,” the appropriate response would be to point out that men don’t give birth and nourish their children with their own bodies; only women do that. So, in the image being utilized, one can only say, “Be as mothers.” So it is here. In the military vision where only men would have served, Paul says, “Act like men, be strong.”
So, all of these exhortations revolve around a similar theme. The unbelieving culture may be bearing down on us and persecuting us, attempting to get us to depart from our confessions and give way to their thinking and acting, but we must be watchful against their attacks, stand firm in the faith, act like men unwilling to give ground on the battlefield, and be strong.
Then, there is a fifth exhortation, “Let all that you do be done in love.” Interestingly, Paul has no problem putting these together. He wants us to do everything we do in love. He wants us to be willing to lay down our rights, if necessary, to love our brothers. He wants us to consider others as more valuable than ourselves, seeking to build up and edify others instead of ourselves as we gather for corporate worship, which is an act of love. He even wants us to be wronged, if necessary, so that we can show love to another, rather than taking up a lawsuit against him. All things must be done in love. Love must dominate our thinking and always be a grid through which we evaluate all of our words and actions. We must do all things in love.
Now, here’s what’s interesting. The prevailing thought of the day is that to be loving means to be accepting. To love someone means to affirm their thoughts and actions. So, for example, in regards to homosexuality, we are told by the unbelieving culture that it is simply unloving of the church to say that living a homosexual lifestyle is sinful and that one must repent of that sin and turn to Christ. Or we are told that we must affirm that the Muslim or Mormon or Buddhist will be okay in eternity, since he attempts to worship sincerely.
If we stand against that thought, then we are told that we are not loving but are bigoted, intolerant, and the like. That pressure of the unbelieving culture around us is mounting stronger and stronger. But the Bible strongly disagrees. Paul says that we should be loving. There is no reason to slander our neighbor. There is no reason to bring harm to anyone. We should weep when a Muslim is persecuted, an abortion doctor murdered, or someone practicing homosexuality is ridiculed. Those are tragic, unloving actions. We must love our neighbors as ourselves. And we must realize that loving them demands that we plead with them to repent. If someone is running on a road where the bridge is out ahead, and if they continue running, they’ll plunge to their death, we are most unloving if we don’t call them to stop what they’re doing and turn around. So it is here. We love by not giving way to the demands of our unbelieving culture. We love by standing firm in the faith. We love by acting like men and being strong, not giving way to falsehood. Because if we as believers all give way to the thoughts and demands of the unbelieving culture, then there will be no more voices lovingly calling them to repent and believe in Jesus who lived, died, and was raised so that they might avoid being thrown into the lake of fire on the day of judgment. We must be watchful and stand firm, and we must do so always in love. Second:
Now, I don’t think that this one is as difficult for us to hold together seemingly contrasting practices, but let me first show you why I’ve noted this point from the text. In verses 15-18 Paul mentions the household of an individual named Stephanas. The household of Stephanas referenced here would have been any of his family members who had believed the gospel (since they’re noted as the first converts in Achaia) as well as any slaves that would have worked with him or been freed but chosen to stay with him and his house. In fact, most tend to think that the individuals mentioned in verse 17 alongside Stephanas, namely, Fortunatus an Achaicus, would have been slaves or former slaves of Stephanas.
So, these three men, Paul notes had devoted themselves to the service of the church. They most likely had been the ones to carry the Corinthians’ earlier letter to Paul, since Paul notes in verse 17 that they’d made up for the Corinthians’ absence, most likely referring to their absence in delivering the letter. These men brought the letter representing the church. Therefore, we know they were servants of the church. In fact, Paul says they devoted themselves to the service of the church. And two of them might have even been slaves or former slaves.
But then note what Paul says of them. He first exhorts the church to be subject to them in verse 16. In fact, he says, “I urge you, brothers, . . . be subject to such as these.” This must mean that these individuals are even leaders in the church. And Paul tells them to recognize such men.
What this means is that the church should be about two things. First, we should all serve. It doesn’t matter if in society we are exalted. We are not too good to serve our brothers and sisters. Even Jesus came to serve and not to be served. And, second, it means that men who lead, are submitted to, and who are recognized and honored in the church may well be looked down on and seen as lowly in society. And that doesn’t matter either. The church is a place where the values of the world are often turned on their head. The church should be a place where the rich and exalted can be found serving the poor and downcast. It’s a place where your boss in the world may well submit to the leadership of his employee in the church.
And in this way, we give testimony to the life-changing power of the gospel. The church must be a place where we submit to and honor leaders and devote ourselves to service. But there are more areas of apparent contrast that we should note. Third:
The church began in Jerusalem, and you can imagine a group of close-knit believers there, feeling united in a way they’d never known. We know, for example, that in Acts 1 there were 120 believers gathered together. But then quickly the Spirit came and the church began to grow. In fact, as Paul sends this letter to the church at Corinth, he speaks of the churches in Asia sending their greetings, Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house sending greetings, all the brothers (whomever that is) sending their greetings. And we know that there are many others. Here, we have an early indication that the church is growing in its early days.
And we know the church grew astoundingly in its early days. Tertullian, an early church theologian wrote to the Roman emperor about believers, “We are a people of yesterday and yet we have filled every place belonging to you—cities, islands, castles, towns assemblies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum. We leave you only your temples. We can count your armies; our numbers in a single province will be greater.”1 That is an astounding statement about the spread of the gospel and growth of the church.
And we are laboring for that same reality in our own day. We must make sure the gospel is on our lips, look for opportunities to evangelize, and pray that the Lord would bring great numbers to know him. This hope is one reason we’re looking at starting a new believer’s class this fall, have started small groups to make sure we can disciple individuals as we continue to grow, and are starting an additional Sunday school class this year. We want to see great numbers come to faith, be baptized, and be discipled. This is what we should pray for.
Yet there can be a thought that as the church grows, love must decrease. But it simply doesn’t seem that Paul carries that same assumption. Here you have churches sending greetings to other churches, individuals having relationships with other believers, and Paul exhorting the church to greet one another with a holy kiss. Now, a handshake or hug I think fulfills this command in our culture, but the point is the same. The church must be a group of warm, loving individuals.
Yes, we may grow. Yes, there may be a number of people here next year whom we didn’t even know last year, but that’s okay. We must be a people ready to welcome, ready to accept, ready to love, and ready to pour our lives into. We must be a people willing to disrupt our community by bringing in individuals who need us to pour our lives into them. We must be laboring to grow and laboring to love.
Finally, in what again might seem like a contrast:
As Paul took up the pen to write the final words of the chapter he wrote perhaps that which we can feel most tension holding to, namely, the need to judge in truth while pouring out grace and love on others. Here’s what Paul wrote, “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord come! The grace of the Lord be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen” (vv. 21-24).
Now, we could easily imagine Paul saying, “Our Lord come. The grace of the Lord be with you,” and even “My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.” That’s a sweet way to end the letter, isn’t it? But he adds, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.” What? And just so we’re clear, by saying, “let him be accursed,” he’s saying, “Let him be damned. Let him face the Lord’s judgment in hell.”
There’s a church in town named Love and Truth. I don’t know much about the church, but the name gets at one element we’ve noted today. The ability to love and the need to stand on truth must both be held to. But I doubt that when they were throwing around church names anyone suggested “Grace and Judgment.”
If there are two realities we struggle with most to hold together, it may well be grace and judgment. But Paul doesn’t. He clearly notes grace. He began the letter saying “grace to you.” He ends the letter saying, “Grace . . . be with you.” He loves them. He is a brother full of grace. He loves showering grace on people.
However, he has no problem saying that if someone refuses to love the Lord he should be damned. Why? I think the answer is that grace and love demand judgment. If a man is consistently harming a child for example, it is not very gracious to the child to ignore the man’s actions is it? No. Rather, we show grace by bringing judgment and justice toward that man.
Paul understands the same thing in the church. He’s written to these Corinthians earlier in the letter when a man was involved in unrepentant gross sexual immorality that they must remove him from the church, noting that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. That is, a refusal to judge in the church is a very ungracious response toward the rest of the church. I would even argue that a refusal to judge in the church is unloving toward the individual you refuse to judge. As we noted earlier, to let a person endanger his soul without grave warning is not loving.
So, we must be a people who love to shower grace on one another. We give our brothers and sisters the benefit of the doubt. We assume the best of them. When we all make decisions different from one another in matters that are secondary, tertiary, or even lower, we don’t judge but show grace. We graciously delight that we make different decisions in how to educate our children, how to spend our money, etc. We are quick to pounce on one another, not with judgment, but with encouragement and grace, being quick and constant in noting areas where we might encourage and praise God for one another. That must characterize us as a church. If we are a people always looking for areas to pounce with disagreement and condemnation, we will destroy the community.
And yet, when someone is walking in unrepentant sin, we must be willing to judge. Paul has said earlier in this letter that we do indeed judge those inside the church. We expect unbelievers to behave like unbelievers, but believers should be marked by repentance. We don’t expect perfect obedience, but we must expect repentance in the face of sin. And if we don’t repent, then it is gracious to hear that you’re walking on a road toward hell. We must be a people of grace with a willingness to gracious judge in truth.
Then, when an individual repents, we should celebrate, lavishing grace on them again and again. In fact, the reason we should be a people quick to lavish grace on those who repent is because we’re all a people who deserve judgment but have been shown grace because Jesus bore our judgment for us by dying for our sins and being raised from the dead. We show grace because we are recipients of much more grace than we’ll ever be asked to pour out on others.
Therefore, we must be a people who are immovable in the faith and do everything in love, who serve and submit to those who lead us, who grow and yet keep fighting to be a warm and loving people, and who judge in truth and yet delight more than all else to lavish grace on one another. That was what Paul wanted the church at Corinth to be, and that’s what the Scripture demands of us as well. Therefore, let us now say in faith that our response to God’s Word is “Yes and amen” as we come to the table. Amen.