1 Corinthians 2:1-16; Fifth Sunday
after the Epiphany; February 9, 2020;
Life in Christ Lutheran Church,
Grand Marais, MN;
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not
come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I
decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I
was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my
message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in
the power of God. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not
a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.
But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the
ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they
had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God
has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us
through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in
him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from
God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart
this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting
spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able
to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person
judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has
understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of
Christ. ” (1 Corinthians 2:1–16, ESV)
Grace and peace to you from our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ.
It is difficult for a pastor to talk
about Christian maturity. The problem,
for a pastor, is this: many of you will think you are spiritually mature. Your first thoughts on this topic are to
think that you’ve obtained some spiritual level higher than your brothers and
sisters in Christ. You’ll think you’ve
put away certain sins evidenced by the fact that you no longer struggle with
them. You joyfully participate in the
activities of the church, give your fair share to the budget, say good things
about your pastor, and pray through the whole prayer list in the bulletin. You’ve weathered the storms of church
politics, pastors with problems, and a long vacancy. You look at the blessings of your church, life,
family, work, security as proof that you’ve been blessed by God because you are spiritual, because you
have stood firm, because you have run the race and won. Obviously those who struggle to give anything
to the church with joy haven’t reached that level of maturity. Obviously those who struggle with sexual temptation
haven’t reached that level of spiritual maturity. Obviously, those who… how does the saying go?
“I don’t smoke, drink or chew and I don’t
date girls who do.” If I’ve heard it
once I’ve heard it a million times. “Before I came to the Lord, I insert your
favorite sin here, but now I don’t even have the desire to insert your
favorite sin.” It just all
sounds vaguely familiar.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray,
one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by
himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ” (Luke
18:10–11, ESV)
You see, the Pharisee thought he was
spiritually mature. He’d conquered all
those sins. The tax collector
hadn’t. Obviously, he was spiritually
lacking, immature. Maybe if he just
worked a little bit harder, attended church on a more regular basis, dropped
just a bit more in the collection plate, sat closer to the front of the church,
worked on the youth board, maybe then God would clear all those sins out of his
life.
You see, that’s the problem with
talking about spiritual maturity.
Whenever we, sinful human beings, begin to think about growing up in the
faith we naturally turn to ourselves. We
look to what we must do to make it
all happen. And then we boast in our
accomplishments and congratulate ourselves on our spiritual maturity.
Paul calls this the “spirit of the
world.” And it had invaded the church at
Corinth. There were divisions in the
church. Some claimed to be more mature
because they followed Paul or Apollos. Some
thought that they were spiritually mature so they could do whatever they wanted
(one man even married his father’s wife!).
Paul’s letter to them points out these errors in thinking. He doesn’t go easy on them either, calling
for excommunication for open unrepentant sin.
It is chilling, “Hand this one over to Satan.” (5:5) he says. For a Christian to live according to the
“spirit of the world” is a very dangerous place to be. For a Christian to live in unrepentant sin is
to be on the path to denying Jesus Christ.
Our own confessions say, But those
who walk according to the flesh [Galatians 5:19–21] retain neither faith nor
righteousness. [1]
Paul’s warning comes from a firm
hand, as does my pastoral warning to you.
Beware of your sin, beware of your pride, and beware of your natural
tendency to put others in their place while ignoring the log in your own
eye. There is only one thing that can be
done with a sinner. He must die. Shall I say it even stronger? There is only one thing that can be done with
a sinner. He must suffer hell’s
punishment. So beware of your sin,
Christian. It can only lead you to one
place, eternal separation from the Holy God.
Now, dear Christian, I would be
neglecting my job as your pastor, if on the heels of that strong law I would
direct you to yourself as a solution.
“Try harder!” “Do these ten biblical
principal and you’ll remove temptation to sin.” “Read your bible every day and God will make
you strong enough to overcome.” “You can
be victorious if you pray everyday.” “Of
all the things Jesus talked about he talked most about money. The bible tells you more about managing your
money than anything else!” These are
actually more of the same. These are
reflections of the wisdom of the world creeping to the church. In fact, if I preached these kinds of sermons
you’d soon be nodding your head in agreement.
“Yea, that’s what I need some practical stuff to make a difference in my
life.” But that’s not Paul’s solution to
the problems of spiritual immaturity in the Corinthian church. What does he say?
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not
come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I
decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (2:1)
In fact, this is exactly what St.
Paul calls spiritual maturity. It is
seeing the foolishness of the cross of Jesus as the solution over and against
the wisdom of the world. Not our doing
anything. Not our working out our own
way out of sin. But clinging to the
cross, to Jesus and Jesus Christ crucified as our solution for sin. Spiritual maturity is here at the font, here
at the altar, here in the pew when Jesus’ forgiveness from the cross is poured
out on you and spoken into your ears. The
two most important words you will ever hear in this church are “for you.” This is the Spirit of God at work against the
spirit of the world.
Now we have received not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things
freely given us by God. (2:12)
So what are the things freely
given? The forgiveness of sins won by
Jesus on the cross, life and salvation. For
as the Catechism says, For
where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.[2]
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
” (Galatians 2:20, ESV)
But far be it from me to boast except in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me,
and I to the world. ” (Galatians 6:14, ESV)
So there it is spiritual maturity as
defined by God’s Word. It is not my
victory over sin; my improving life.
It’s not my best life now or my pursuing the purpose God give me in my heart. It is not thinking that there is something I
can do to deal with my own sin. It is
seeing that my sin is over my head. It
is seeing the absolute danger of my sin and fearing the eternal consequences of
it. It is also seeing that God has done
what it necessary to remove it. It is
seeing Jesus Christ bleeding and dying on the cross as the only answer. It is clinging, in faith, to Jesus as my
savior and boasting in Jesus Christ crucified for me. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Concordia : The Lutheran Confessions. 2005 (Edited by Paul Timothy
McCain) (135). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.
[2] Concordia : The Lutheran Confessions. 2005 (Edited by Paul Timothy
McCain) (343). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.
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