True Spirituality - 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

Jeff Fry — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:53:38 GMT

Themes from Corinthians – True Spirituality

By Jeff Fry, Darwin Park Community Church

^NIV1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ³²Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God-- ³³even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

Thesis: We must cultivate true spirituality.

I. Intro

A. Review

B. Thesis : We must cultivate true spirituality

1. if we don’t know what we are aiming at we will miss it everytime

2. if we want to become spiritually mature then how will we know that we are moving toward that goal unless we know what it looks like?

a) Frodo and Sam on their way to Mordor in the beginning before they meet up with Gollam stop and one of them says, “This place looks all to familiar”. The other responds, “That’s because we’ve been here before. We’re walking in circles, Sam!”. We’re lost!”

b) It can be like that in our spiritual life – we lost sight of the destination, we get on the wrong path thinking that it will lead to spiritual power or just because we think that is what we are supposed to be doing.

c) The Corinthians were like that. They got off on speaking in tongues thinking that this was the way to spiritual maturity and we will see in the coming weeks that Paul has to bring them back to a true spirituality.

3. We must begin to paint a picture of spiritual maturity with this new theme from Corinthians – esp. we will look at 1 Corinthians 11 -14.

II. We must cultivate true spirituality

A. State

1. Background

a) Paul is responding to issues in a letter written by the Corinthians to him (see 1 Cor 12:1 “now about ..”)

b) Three Sections on worship in the Corinthian church in Chapters 11-14

(1) 11:1-16 How to come together in worship as men and women

(2) 11:17-34 How to come together in worship as partakers in the Lord’s Table

(3) 12 – 14 How to come together in worship as ones wielding spiritual gifts

2. The undergirding principle in all three of these is in 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

3. Read 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

4. 1Corinthians 10:31 in light of the upcoming chapters

a) “so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all the for the glory of God”

(1) context is food sacrificed to idols

(2) they were free to eat unless it violated the conscience of another brother or sister in Christ who believed that it was wrong to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

(3) We are to do what makes God great, not what makes us great

(a) This is so hard for us.

(b) Our natural sin nature wants to exalt ourselves

(i) “I can do it Dad”(ii) “Look what I did, Mom”

(4) Our initial reaction is not to think “Now what shall I do or say in order to make God great”

b) “for I am not seeking my own good but the good of many”

(1) Principle : think of others first.

(2) In Chapter 14 we will see that they thought that those who were most spiritual were those who had the gifts of tongues

(a) There apparently was a very vocal contingent in Corinth that spoke in tongues

(b) They were saying – you should all do it our way if you want to be spiritual.

(c) They were probably well-meaning, but what they were proposing was very dangerous.

(d) Paul corrects this spirituality for a number of reasons:

(i) because he will show that this attitude doesn’t take into account the other people at the worship service who may worship via different faculties (e.g. through the mind, reading, thought)(ii) spiritual worship cannot be compartmentalized(a) it is not just when I speak in tongues(b) Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”(i) Bodies = “yourself” since here Paul is using OT “sacrifice” language when they used to offer the bodies of animals up to sacrifice.(ii) Practice true spirituality by becoming who God called you to be in everyday life – e.g.(iii) Husbands, wives, children, employees, employers, father, mother all have callings from God to fulfill – start there and bring God’s order to these things first. Then move on from there helping to build up the body of Christ to maturity. (Eph 4:12-13)

(e) Paul shows them that the greatest spirituality is to have love

(i) Love for God(ii) Love for close ones(iii) Love for your neighbour(a) Our neighbour is everyone – Jesus teaches that in the parable of the Good Samaritan (even our enemies)(iv) Love means to consider others before yourself.(v) 1 Corinthians 13:1 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs …”(vi) Love is a decision to be this way.

c) There is a diversity that we must recognize and not think that we should do everything “my way” because it blesses me

(1) Humanity

(a) Adults

(b) Children

(2) Adults

(a) Men

(b) Women

(3) Children

(a) Girls

(b) Boys

(4) These groups are all different and have different abilities and tendencies.

B. Illustrate

1. Performance Spirituality

a) We measure spirituality of a person by how much they are DOING in the church

(1) I’ve seen plenty of miserable people who do a lot of jobs in the church but they lack love toward others (they are judgmental).

(2) This is pharisaical – ie. do this and you will be a part of the in-crowd

(3) Do enough service and you will have earned a spot in the in-crowd. This is a misunderstanding of grace. WE can’t earn our acceptance before God – He just accepts as we are then we go from there by opening our heart to Him.

2. Sign Gift Spirituality

a) Our spirituality is as great as our ability to do the sign gifts (tongues, prophecy, healing, words of knowledge, etc)

b) Spirituality is much broader than this (Rom. 12:1)

3. Emotional vs Intellectual Spirituality

a) Some engage with God more with their emotions

b) Some engage with God more with their minds

c) Both are acceptable and we shouldn’t despise any one of these

C. Apply

1. We must look beyond ourselves and our own tendencies

a) If you are more the emotional type then try to open yourself to understanding more doctrine

b) If you are more the intellectual type try to open yourself up to engaging with God via the emotions (learn to sing!!).

c)

III. Conclusion

Current Teaching Series: Themes from Corinthians