Are You Not Being Merely Human?
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1Corinthians 3:3–5 The Context: Paul is writing to the Christians in Corinth. They were people with a variety of spiritual problems. Writing under the inspiration of God Paul, speaking for God, asks them a number of questions. One of their problems was people worship. They tended to be enamored by certain leaders and took great pride in being distinctive followers of their special leader. The Christians were in fact acting no differently that the non-believers around them. Through Paul God challenges them to think and behave differently.
God Asks Us: 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
jne: If we are honest we must all admit that we tend to be people worshippers. We have our favorite musicians, movie stars, athletes, Christian writers and, yes, even our favorite pastors. These questions from God challenge me to carefully evaluate if I am giving praise, allegiance, attention, credibility, to anyone other that Jesus Christ. For, in reality, it is human nature to be followers of influential people and miss the fact that if there is anything worthy of praise, admiration, or following, God is the Author and Object of it. Also, any influential person who does not point others to Jesus Christ before themselves is not worthy of following and is probably leading astray in some or many ways. Paul says, be different, only follow Jesus and those who follow Him. Who am I following?
1Corinthians 3:3–5 The Context: Paul is writing to the Christians in Corinth. They were people with a variety of spiritual problems. Writing under the inspiration of God Paul, speaking for God, asks them a number of questions. One of their problems was people worship. They tended to be enamored by certain leaders and took great pride in being distinctive followers of their special leader. The Christians were in fact acting no differently that the non-believers around them. Through Paul God challenges them to think and behave differently.
God Asks Us: 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
jne: If we are honest we must all admit that we tend to be people worshippers. We have our favorite musicians, movie stars, athletes, Christian writers and, yes, even our favorite pastors. These questions from God challenge me to carefully evaluate if I am giving praise, allegiance, attention, credibility, to anyone other that Jesus Christ. For, in reality, it is human nature to be followers of influential people and miss the fact that if there is anything worthy of praise, admiration, or following, God is the Author and Object of it. Also, any influential person who does not point others to Jesus Christ before themselves is not worthy of following and is probably leading astray in some or many ways. Paul says, be different, only follow Jesus and those who follow Him. Who am I following?