Power vs. Pride

“The problems we face today are not new.  The apostle Paul had great concern for the Corinthian church, for they were being enticed by a gospel without power.”

Read 1 Corinthians 4:14-20

“Paul begins by contrasting teachers and fathers.  The teachers mentioned were different from the kind that Jesus intended for the church to have.  Paul concedes they may be believers, saying these instructors are ‘in Christ.’  But note that he later refers to them as being ‘puffed up.’

In this post-denominational era we are seeing an unprecedented movement of believers gathering around spiritual fathers (not gender specific).  In times past we gathered around certain truths, which led to the formation of denominations.  The strength of such a gathering is the obvious agreement in doctrine, and usually practice.  The weakness is it doesn’t allow for much variety or change.  At the turn of the Twentieth Century, the people who received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues were no longer welcome in many churches, because most denominations held statements of faith cast in stone.

But now this gravitational pull toward fathers is happening even within denominations.  Such a gathering of believers allows for differences in nonessential doctrines without causing division.  Many consider this movement  to be a restoration of the apostolic order of God.

Paul’s second concern is about the puffed-up condition of his spiritual children.  He makes his point by contrasting faithfulness and pride, which he defined as being puffed up.  Paul was very concerned that they would be tricked by the theories of good speakers.  Personal charisma is often valued more by the church than either anointing or truth.  People of little character can often have positions of leadership in the church if they have personality.  Paul found this particularly troubling.  He had worked hard to bring the Corinthians into the faith.  He had chosen not to wow them with what he knew.  In fact, he led them to an encounter with the God of all power who would become the anchor of their faith.  But now the sermonizers had come on the scene.  Paul’s answer was to send them someone just like himself – Timothy.  They needed a reminder of what their spiritual father was like.  Thus would help them to recalibrate their value system to imitate people of substance, who are also people of power!

Paul makes a stunning statement clarifying the right choice.  He said, ‘The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power.’  The original language puts it like this – ‘The Kingdom of God is not logos but dunamis.’  Apparently they had a lot of teachers who were good at speaking many words, but displayed little power.  They did not follow the pattern of Jesus set for them.  Dunamis is ‘the power of God displayed and imparted in a Holy Spirit outpouring.’  That is the kingdom!  

Two chapters earlier Paul lays out his ministry priority as bringing the people of Corinth to a place of faith in God’s Power (dunamis).  Here he addresses how they were set up to fail if things didn’t change.  Any time the people of God become preoccupied with concepts and ideologies instead of a Christ-like expression of life and power, they are set up to fail, no matter how good those ideas are.  Christianity is not a philosophy; it is a relationship.  It’s the God encounter that makes the concepts powerful.  We must require this of  ourselves.  How?  We must seek until we find.”

 

Exert from When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson

~ by letlightshine on October 2, 2008.