To Be One in Christ: We Have Treasure in the Jars of Clay (3)

To Be One in Christ: We Have Treasure in the Jars of Clay -- the Series of Explanation and Analysis of Scripture (3)

The Explanation and Analysis of Some of the Verses in 1 CORINTHIANS

As to the spiritual life, just as the physical life, the growth and maturity of the life will affect one’s hobby, judgment and outlook on life. And will be shown from one’s behavior and conduct.

“worldly” refers to being controlled and driven by the sinful nature, living a life following the way of the world. Being jealousy and quarreling are the symbols of the worldly people, the worldly people like exalting themselves and oppressing others. Whatever hinders people to center attention on Christ and His cross, is worldly thing and will hinder the growth. It’s all because people surrender themselves to the lower lever thing -- body. The worldly people like following the world. Therefore, they are not different from the world, and go the same defiled way of the world. In this letter, used the shortcomings of babies in parable to describe the spiritual scenario of the believers in Corinthians: they are just like the babies in Christ, do not have capability to judge, are easy to be deceived, change their mind easily, could not understand the spiritual things; what they pursued have no much spiritual value. They were still the babies in Christ, and were controlled by the low level things in life; their thoughts were still controlled by the sinful nature, material and worldly things. They acted like the people belong to the world, but not belong to God.

“spiritual” refers to one who has mature spiritual life, whose behavior is managed, controlled, guided and led by Holy Spirit. Getting more of the spiritual gift and being enriched in the knowledge of the truth, are different from the maturity of the spiritual life. Those who have gifts and have knowledge, might still not be spiritual; those who have a mature spiritual life and are more like Christ, are truly spiritual. The spiritual man will not follow this world. In this crooked and depraved generation, they will shine like stars.

We are the temple of Holy Spirit, the dwelling in of the Spirit of God. We should not live according to the sinful nature; we should live in accordance to Holy Spirit and let Him take charge of our life. We should let the Spirit of God be in charge of our life in us. We should not hinder the freedom of Holy Spirit with our prejudice and hobbies from the sinful nature and our worldly ideals and boasts. We are God’s temple. We should be a royal priesthood, a holy priesthood. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances. Give praises and thanks to God always. We are the temple of Holy Spirit’s dwelling in. Therefore, we should not offer the parts of our body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but offer the parts of our body to God as instruments of righteousness. We should not treat Holy Spirit as the guest; but serve Him as our Lord. Let Him be in charge of everything in us -- the small temple of God. Therefore, we should live in accordance to Holy Spirit and do not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

All thanks, praises and glories be to God!

(1 CORINTHIANS 2:16; 3:1,3,16,23; 6:15-17, 19-20; 12:13,27; 15:45)

1 CORINTHIANS 2:16 “ "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. ”

(NOTES)

“But we have the mind of Christ. ”:

“we” refers to the believers. “the mind of Christ” refers to the thoughts and understandings of Christ. Once the believer is reborn, he has the life of Christ. That is, he has the spiritual sense and understanding and can know and understand spiritual things. This capability of understanding spiritual things is the mind or understanding of Christ.

The spiritual things and knowledge of God to the worldly men , is like men’s things to the animals. Due to the different life, they do not have the basis of comprehension at all and therefore, they could not understand. However, since the believers have the spiritual life, regarding to the spiritual things and knowledge of God, there is no disparity in life and they are certainly qualified to understand the spiritual things and understand the mind and will of God.

(LIGHT IN WORDS)

(1) The will of God is objective and from His throne; the mind of Christ is subjective and from our inside. The will of God is outside us; the mind of Christ is in us and continually to let us understand His will.

(2) Although Christians can not completely understand all the will of Christ, at least they already have the instincts to know the will of Christ.

(3) The spiritual man looks at things from the view of Christ, not the view of the world.

(4) A Christian managed by Holy Spirit, will study and examine the Bible and can comprehend and understand the meaning in it.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:1 “ Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. ”

(NOTES)

“I could not address you as spiritual ”:

“spiritual” refers to one who has mature spiritual life (1Co 2:6), whose behavior is managed, controlled, guided and led by Holy Spirit.

“but as worldly”:

“worldly” refers to one who lives according to the sinful nature.

“mere infants in Christ.”:

“infants” refer to those whose spiritual life do not grow up, who behave childishly and ignorantly.

(LIGHT IN WORDS)

(1) The fact here is: he was not writing to those non-Christians who belongs to the world; he was writing to the Christians who has been reborn already, who has the new life. And he said, yes, they were infants and also the brothers. Their problem was they were not spiritual but worldly.

(2) As to the spiritual life, just as the physical life, the growth and maturity of the life will affect one’s hobby, judgment and outlook on life.

(3) The shortcomings of babies are that they are ignorant, are easy to be deceived, do not have the capability to judge, cannot distinguish the right and wrong, change their mind easily, are easy to laugh and cry. They could not understand the mind of the adults. They could not understand the love from the parents and share what their parents plan to do. Besides, the babies take the love from others but not give the love; always want to get help from others, but not help others.

(4) In this letter, used the shortcomings of babies in parable to describe the spiritual scenario of the believers in Corinthians: they are just like the babies in Christ, do not have capability to judge, are easy to be deceived, change their mind easily, could not understand the spiritual things; what they pursued have no much spiritual value.

(5) Getting more of the spiritual gift and being enriched in the knowledge of the truth (1Co 1:5,7), are different from the maturity of the spiritual life. Those who have gifts and have knowledge, might still not be spiritual; those who have a mature spiritual life and are more like Christ, are truly spiritual.

(6) The critical problem is: they received the gift of life and should have the experience to guide others regarding to walking on the right road, obedience to LORD, and relying on God. However, they still didn’t know till then. They were still the babies in Christ, and were controlled by the low level things in life; their thoughts were still controlled by the sinful nature, material and worldly things.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:3 “ You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? ”

(NOTES)

“You are still worldly”:

“worldly” refers to being controlled and driven by the sinful nature, living a life following the way of the world.

“For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you”:

Being jealousy and quarreling are the symbols of the worldly people(Gal 5:20-21), the worldly people like exalting themselves and oppressing others.

“Are you not acting like mere men? ”:

refers to living a life of following the way of the world; gratifying the cravings of their sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.(Eph 2:2-3); completely being like the people belong to the world, but not belong to God.

(LIGHT IN WORDS)

(1) Whatever hinders people to center attention on Christ and His cross, is worldly thing and will hinder the growth. It’s all because people surrender themselves to the lower lever thing -- body.

(2) The believer should also consider other’s needs (Rom 12:10), while people of the jealousy and quarrelling care about only themselves. How is a believer in front of God can be told from his attitude to others. One who truly love God, must love others (1Jo 4:20-21).

(3) The worldly people like following the world. Therefore, they are not different from the world, go the same defiled way of the world, and certainly do not have any testimony; However the spiritual man will not follow this world (Rom 12:2). In this crooked and depraved generation, they will shine like stars. (Phi 2:15)

1 CORINTHIANS 3:16 “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? ”

(LIGHT IN WORDS)

(1) Do we let the Spirit of God be in charge of our life in us? Do we hinder the freedom of Holy Spirit because of our prejudice and hobbies from the sinful nature and our worldly ideals and boasts?

(2) We are the temple of Holy Spirit, the dwelling in of the Spirit of God. We should not live according to the sinful nature; we should live in accordance to Holy Spirit and let Him take charge of our life.

(3) We are God’s temple. Our Christian life should be like in the temple of God. In the outer court, many people are busy with slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep as the offerings. In the Most Holy Place, it is very quiet. In our Christian life, although we are very busy, nothing will disturb us in the spirit at all. We should be a royal priesthood (1Pe 2:9), a holy priesthood(1Pe 2:5).

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances (1Th 5:16-18). Give praises and thanks to God always.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:23 “ and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. ”

(LIGHT IN WORDS)

(1) Here we see a sequence: firstly, God; secondly, Christ; thirdly, the believers; the relationship of the ownership are according to the sequence.

(2) The believers should serve in their life in order to be worthy of the name of Christ; their life should testify about their identity.

1 CORINTHIANS 6:15 “ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!”

(NOTES)

“members” emphasizes the relationship of subordination; “members of Christ” implies that the bodies of the believers belong to Christ and have the function and purpose of serving Christ.

After the believers are reborn, Christ live in our spirit (2Ti 4:22), dwell in our heart (Eph 3:17), are revealed in our mortal body.(2Co 4:11)

1 CORINTHIANS 6:16-17 “ For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. ”

(NOTES)

“But he who unites himself with the Lord ”:

The relationship between the believers and LORD is just like the relationship between wife and husband, that is, two are united to be one. This union relationship, can also be understood through the parable of the vine and the branches (see Joh 15:4-5). We and LORD live in each other, commune with each other in life and produce the fruit of life; therefore, it is about things “in life” .

“is one with him in spirit. ”:

LORD is the Spirit (2Co 3:17); the Spirit of LORD lives in the believers (see Rom 8:9-10; Gal 4:6) and is united with the spirit of the believers to be one. In the Bible, the word of “spirit” is mentioned for many times and sometimes, there is no the word of “Holy”. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether it refers to Holy Spirit or man’s spirit. Actually, it might refer to the spirit that are united to be one.

1 CORINTHIANS 6:19 “ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ”

(NOTES)

Here, it points out that the body of every individual believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit. There is Holy Spirit dwelling in every believer’s spirit.(see Rom 8:9)

“whom(Holy Spirit) you have received from God”:

Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God.

“who is in you,”:

Holy Spirit dwells in the believers. (Joh 20:22)

“You are not your own”:

means that the believers do not belong to themselves.

(LIGHT IN WORDS)

(1) If without the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in, our bodies are just like whitewashed tombs (see Mat 23:27). However, with the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in, how honorable our bodies are.

(2) We should not treat Holy Spirit as the guest; but serve Him as our Lord. Let Him be in charge of everything in us -- the small temple of God. Therefore, we should live in accordance to Holy Spirit and do not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.(Gal 5:16)

1 CORINTHIANS 6:20 “ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. ”

(NOTES)

“you were bought at a price”:

“price” refers to the price of the precious blood of LORD; “bought” refers to bought outright as in the slave market. LORD bought us so that we belong to Him.

“Therefore honor God with your body. ”:

“ honor God with your body.” means that let the Spirit of God take more charge of and seep into our bodies so that to reveal God completely.

(LIGHT IN WORDS)

(1) After we were bought by LORD with a high price of His precious blood, our bodies become members of Christ and are united with Him (1Co 6:13) and the temple for Holy Spirit’s dwelling in (1Co 6:19). Therefore, we should not offer the parts of our body to sin, as instruments of wickedness (see Rom 6:13), but offer the parts of our body to God as instruments of righteousness.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:13 “ For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ”

(NOTES)

It tells that there is no worldly difference in Christ.

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body”:

Holy Spirit immerses all the Christians in Him so that they become one body. Describe this in a parable: every one of our Christians is like a small broken stone; Holy Spirit is like cement and immerses us in Him to be one bulk. That is, if without the work of Holy Spirit, there won’t be the body of Christ. Therefore, we should immerse ourselves in Holy Spirit, be filled with Holy Spirit. Let Holy Spirit immerse all the children of God together to be one body in Christ.

“and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ”:

on one side, the believers are immersed in Holy Spirit; on the other side, we drink in Holy Spirit; thus, from outside to inside, we are filled with Holy Spirit.

(LIGHT IN WORDS)

(1) The body has many parts. The head can control all these parts through the nerve. In the like manner, our head -- Christ bring many parts together to be one through Holy Spirit to form the body. The communication between you and me is based on the body; the body is the basis for our communication. Therefore, any other kind of communication is not the communication between Christians.

(2) Here, it reveals the special relationship between the body and the Spirit. The body is one because the Spirit is One. Please remember, Holy Spirit is One “person”, you can not divide one person. “God has combined the members of the body” (1Co 12:24), because the body will show the Spirit. It is always One in the Spirit. That is the secret to realize being one.

(3) There are two basic principles for the body of Christ: Firstly, without being from Christ, there will not be the body of Christ; Secondly, without the work of Holy Spirit, there will not be the body of Christ. We must immerse ourselves in Holy Spirit, be filled with Holy Spirit, and let Holy Spirit immerse the children of God in Him to be one.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:27 “ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ”

(LIGHT IN WORDS)

(1) “the body of Christ” shows that we believers are one in life and spirit; “each one of you is a part of it.” shows that we believers are different in terms of gifts and functions. In the church, on one side, we make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit (Eph 4:3); on the other side, based on the function of different parts, each part does its work(Eph 4:12,16).

1 CORINTHIANS 15:45 “So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being" ; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. ”

(NOTES)

“So it is written”:

the following verse is cited from Genesis 2:7.

“The first man Adam became a living being”:

the original text is “the man became a living being.”

“the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. ”:

“the last Adam, ” refers to Jesus Christ; “a life-giving spirit” refers to Holy Spirit. Here, it makes it clear that LORD Jesus after resurrection become the life-giving spirit, and are transformed to be another Counselor -- the Spirit of truth, to be with us and remain in us (Joh 14:16-20).

Reference:

1. Jiale Huang: “Christians’ Digest of the Scripture Analysis Series”.