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Awaking to
Righteousness
In his letters,
Paul dealt with the problems facing the Corinthian church: factional strife,
immorality, idolatry, marriage, spiritual gifts, and disputes regarding the resurrection
of the dead. In reading the letters to the church at Corinth it is evident that Paul
had one idea in mind: instruction. The purpose of this instruction; however, was to
bring unity and discipline into the church.
The church needed
to be shown that their carnality was keeping them in a perpetual state of immaturity, and
Paul was well prepared to do precisely that.
1 Corinthians
1:26-28
Personal Discipline
Foolish Things
God has chosen you
(in your foolish lack of discipline) to confound the wise.
- God is ready to make your biggest weakness your greatest strength.
Cut-Above
Paul demonstrated
that he was a “cut-above” only by exercising discipline in his own life.
Mark of Maturity
Discipline regulates conduct according to principle and judgment, rather
than impulse, desire, or social or religious pressures or customs.
Paul’s central
notion was to motivate the Corinthians to practice personal discipline which is preferable
to being disciplined by others.
The Word of God
& The Power of The Holy Spirit
The Word of God
reveals the areas in which we need to be purged.
The power of the
Holy Spirit activates God’s Word in the lives of those who believe.
- Discipline is achieved by eliminating lesser (selfish) values in
your life and character.
Justifying or
Excusing Sin is Antagonistic to Discipline
Anyone who has
determined that sin and error will not be tolerated in his life can often be found
applying the discipline of God’s Word.
We are to purge
sin from our lives.
1 Corinthians
3:1-4
Verbal Discipline
Second Best
You are not
acknowledging your problems by yourself.
You are not letting
the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit operate in your life.
The Tragedy
Ministers must keep
on speaking to the church “as unto babes.”
- Some actually take pride in their long babyhood when they should
be teachers of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 5:2; Hebrews 5:11-14).
1 Corinthians
15:34
The Methods
And this I say,
lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh,
yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of
your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and
vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after
Christ. Colossians 2:4-8
Any Man Includes You
Do not ruin
yourself by ignoring the Word to follow something else.
That we
henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to
deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and
compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:14-16
To Grow Up
Speak the truth in
love.
Effectual working.
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