Let Christ-Like Love Prevail!

7th Sunday after Epiphany, 2/23/14
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23


Let Christ-Like Love Prevail!
I. Recall your identity.
II. Recall your foundation.


Hearing the accounts is painful enough. Actually going through them is almost unbearable. I’ve never experienced it personally, but I know some of you have. I’m talking about internal strife in a congregation of Christians.

A congregation of Christians is supposed to be one place in this sinful world in which you find peace and comfort and encouragement. How spiritually devastating when it’s the opposite, when a Christian feels compelled to put their guard up and get ready for some confrontation prior to entering what’s supposed to be their beloved sanctuary.

And it’s not that we aren’t accustomed to strife and confrontation. We deal with it on a daily basis in our lives apart from our church. In fact, we expect our enemies to attack us. That’s what enemies do.

But not from a fellow Christian. Not from a brother or sister in Christ. Not among the body of believers who are united in faith in their Lord Jesus Christ.

Sadly, strife between brothers and sisters had taken root among the members of the young Christian congregation in Corinth. There was strife caused by false teachings, moral issues, the way they were celebrating the Lord’s Supper, the various leaders in the congregation, God-pleasing roles for men and women and the way they were using—or should I say abusing—their spiritual gifts.

I pray to God to guard and keep us from such sinful strife. And he will as we recall the love that Jesus has shown us, a love that is able even to love our enemies. That love moves us to love others. It’s up to every one of us to foster that love in this congregation. Let Christ-like love prevail! Let’s listen to God’s inspired apostle and receive the Lord’s help in letting his love prevail among us.

Part I.

The older you become, the more you realize how your experiences in life have shaped who you are. Perhaps you went through a tragedy and it completely changed the way you look at things and how you approach life. Or perhaps you endured a negative environment and it has caused you to be cautious about even getting close to such a situation again. On the other extreme, you recall the pleasant experiences in your life, the activities that brought you joy and fulfillment and you seek to repeat those as often as possible. Collectively, these are the things that have shaped who you are right now. And your next experience might change that slightly or dramatically.

There’s one experience every one of us has shared, an experience that has changed us completely and has affected who we are to the very center and core of our spiritual being. For me personally, that experience occurred on Nov. 19, 1961. That’s the day that the Holy Spirit brought me to faith through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. I hope you can recall the date when the same thing happened to you. That’s the date that God the Holy Spirit began dwelling within you.

Paul talks about that truth with these words, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” Paul’s question caused the Corinthians to recall what they had been in contrast to what they are now. They had been brought from Satan’s kingdom into God’s kingdom through the saving work of the Holy Spirit. God so deeply wanted to have a relationship with them that he took up residency in them. Through his word and sacrament he nurtured that relationship, caused it to grow, and increased his divine influence in their lives.

God forbid that anything should happen among Christians that would damage that saving indwelling of the Holy Spirit! But it was happening. It was happening all too often among the Corinthian Christians. The strife that was festering among them was damaging their faith. Paul was dismayed and he leveled this warning against them, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” Whether it was promoting a false teaching, or arguing over which leader to follow, or encouraging others to be open-minded towards a life-style that God calls sinful—all these things and more cause harm to the identity that God had given each one of them as his child by faith in Jesus, his temple where he dwelled.

As God’s people we get Paul’s point. We know that we need to avoid anything and any situation which has the potential to damage our own relationship with Jesus. We know our favorite sins—the ones we so easily fall into—and we know we need to avoid them so as not to damage the temple that God has made us by faith in Jesus.

Likewise, we know that we need to avoid doing anything that will bring spiritual harm to our brother or sister in Christ. We’re here in this congregation to build each other up in the faith. That’s the goal of our congregation. We want to move every one of us forward in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Together we form God’s people at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Centerville, OH. That’s who we are. That’s our identity.

Let Christ-like love prevail! Recall who you are.

We know we’re children of God by faith in Jesus. We know that we are the temples of God the Holy Spirit. We know that God has blessed us by bringing us together into a congregation of Lutheran Christians where we support and encourage one another with the word of God in our daily walk with our Savior. We know all that. But at times, we forget. We speak too soon before we’ve had an adequate amount of time to consider the impacts—both positive and negative—of our words. Or we don’t say any words, but we don’t listen either. Instead we assume something to be true about one of our fellow Christians when it’s not true at all. Or we do act, and it’s not helpful. And then there’s the other extreme. We know that all of these things might happen if we do or say anything, so we retreat into a corner of the congregation and try to go as unnoticed as possible. And all the while regarding either extreme we’re damaging a temple of the Holy Spirit. Recall who you are! You are one of those temples of the Holy Spirit by faith in Jesus. St. Paul reminds us in another place that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Our sins have been washed away by the blood of the Lamb of God. He renews and strengthens us to serve him by serving others. That’s Christ-like love. Let that love prevail!

Part II.

This is the time of year when you’re thankful for your home’s solid foundation. In the coming weeks it will be exposed to repeated thawing and freezing. The ground will literally move. And with the warmer weather comes the melting of snow and heavy rains, both causing the threat for flooding. Without a firm foundation, a building can get literally washed away. And then will come the fierce storms with high winds. In fact, tornado season is here as we found out the other night. You’re thankful your house has a firm foundation.

St. Paul speaks about the good foundation of the congregation in Corinth, but he wasn’t referring to one of stone. He was referring to Jesus Christ and his word. Paul writes, “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder.” Paul wasn’t boasting; he was thanking God for using him to bring these people to faith in Jesus as the eternal Son of God and the world’s only Savior from sin. Paul had shared God’s saving truths with these people.

And when he left, others came in to continue that work. Paul mentions Apollos and Cephas as two of the men who had continued building the Corinthians up in the truth of their salvation through Jesus Christ.

Paul wanted them to continue to focus on those truths rather than get caught up in the latest wisdom of the world that so many preachers and teachers of that time were peddling. The people of this time prized worldly wisdom and the newest way of thinking, most of which was directly contrary to the word of God.

Instead, Paul encouraged them to focus on the foolishness of God. That’s Paul’s term for trusting in a Savior who was crucified for the sins of the world. The world of Paul’s day wanted nothing to do with that teaching and it still doesn’t today.

But that’s God’s saving foundation and that’s the teaching we hold to. By God’s grace he has shared that saving truth of Jesus with us and he has preserved that saving truth among us. We’ve been blessed with a unity of faith that expresses itself as we worship and work together.
Let Christ-like love prevail! Recall your foundation!

This congregation is not a civic organization which draws people from diverse backgrounds and unites them in a common purpose. What draws us together as a congregation is much deeper than that. It’s the solid Rock known as Jesus Christ. We’re based upon his teaching which will endure forever. We share a common confession of faith in all the truths of God’s holy word. So, on the basis of that foundation, let Christ-like love prevail among us. May we never be so unconcerned about another member who is straying from the truth of God’s word, that we fail to serve them in Christ-like love by doing what we can to draw them closer to the Lord and to us! May we never be so unconcerned about our brothers and sisters in the faith, that we take the position that our involvement doesn’t matter so we won’t even try. Recall your foundation! It’s the saving truths that we share. May we serve each other in Christ-like love by encouraging and building each other up! Amen.