Bishan church

Phil4:2 I plead with Euodia and Syntyche to have the same mind in the Lord..Part 3

February 16th, 2007

1 Corinthians 1:12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

Are you of Ira Rice? Are you of Harding? Are you of School of Memphis? What camp are you from?

Are you of PP? Are you of Moulmein? Klang? Jurong? What camp are you with?

As mentioned in Part 1 and 2, churches of Christ are in a mess. Our dirty linen is catalogued in Wikipedia.

How do we proceed from here? Here is my suggestion for you to fast and pray for. Maybe God will enlighten you to be one of the many sparks to labour towards unity in the brotherhood. It is a long journey. It may take a decade or more before we are truly united as Jesus prayed for before His return.

My suggestions:
1. Fast and pray for yourself to be pure in heart and a peacemaker. Matt.5:8-9

We have in our own way, have deliberately, unwittingly, passively, actively contributed to the division in the brotherhood. Pray for yourself that God may use you to be the light in your own congregation to make peace in His Name.

2. How did Paul deal with the division and sins of the Corinthian church?

He went back to what Jesus did. He reminded them that they were a church of God, sanctified, called to be saints.

1 Corinthians 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

We did not sanctify ourselves. However messy the church in Corinth was, they were still a church of God. This is the benchmark they had to remember and repent towards in order to be united. Paul still addressed them as a church of God even when he knew their sins which he dealt with later.

In his introduction, Paul mentioned something that was important - baptism.

1 Corinthians 1:13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

If it was not important, why would he even mention it? Would it make sense if he said, “Did you carry the kavadi for Cephas? In whose name did you carry the kavadi? It is significant that baptism is part ofthe message of how they became a church of God in the first place.

Baptism is part of the gospel. Without which one’s sins are not washed away yet. Acts 22:16.
If not washed away, are you saved?

3. We worship in spirit and truth. We tend to emphasise a lot on the Truth portion of this AND statement from John 4:23.

We need to be pure in our Spirit as well. I often wonder why Jesus mentioned Spirit first instead of Truth.

Brethren who are divisive as a result of their zeal to “contend for their faith” tend to reason from the Truth portion of the equation in John 4:23.

Yes we must….
1. “Contend for the faith” Jude 3
2. We must show “fruit of repentance” Lk. 3:8
3. We must deal with false teachings and evil behaviours which poison the flock Rev.2-3

Yes we certainly must do so within our own local congregation! BUT….did Jesus scold the churches in Revelaton to sort out other congregations as well?

Let us know consider the Spirit portion as well, after all the equation is an AND statement.

Does our spirit show we are living epistles in our response to these questions below:
1. Is each congregation autonomous?
2. Do we have a headquarters?
3. Is there a separate priesthood?
4. Do elders oversee multiple congregation? Are you an elder?
5. Is the Holy Spirit God?
6. Does the Holy Spirit work through the Word, Logos? Does He convict us through the Word?
7. Is the Holy Spirit able to do immeasurably beyond what you can think or imagine?
8. The Holy Spirit will certainly not contradict the Father and Son. But do you know everything about the HOW and WHEN the Holy Spirit works in a person? Does He need to update you and I?
9. Luke 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.
To whom must you bring forth fruit of repentance? Who decides the timing when a person will repent? Who is the judge who decide whether you have truly done so? Is this person from another congregation?
10. Are you an apostle? Are you endowed miraclulously with infallibility?

What do you do if you suspect there are false teachings elsewhere which may spread to your congregation?

Apart from knowing and teaching the Truth to your flock, know also your place. Have we in our earnest contended for the faith and have made ourselves God’s Grand Inquisitor, His spirtual gestapo of other congregtions?

If we claim we believe the Holy Spiit works through the Word, then teach the Word without name calling; without calling a specific person elsewhere a false teacher. If what you teach is from the Word, the Word will convict the people of that congregation whom you wish to ‘rescue’ from. In this manner if your allegation is false then what you teach is either educational, intellectually entertaining or a load of hot air! If you start name calling by drawing in others in the allegation, you have committed a serious sin of slander if proven to be false. Not forgetting a presumptuous sin of assuming you are a headquarters for others to submit to. If what you teach is true, the Holy Spirit in His time and manner will convict the local congregation to purge themselves. If not they will suffer the same fate as the churches of Asia in Revelation. (Interesting, we are also in Asia)

The Holy Spirit does not need to report to us His timing.
John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

If God does not remove the tares, aren’t we a bit audacious to want to rid of false teachers in other churches by name calling?
How many christians in the churches of Christ have fallen because they were caught in this “axing the root” Mat 3:10 by some self proclaimed Messiah from US and his representative locally?

Matthew 13:29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

Teach the Word in all seasons, every where without witch hunting.

How true what Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

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